Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blistered the Republican establishment in his Saturday address at CPAC, saying the "dominant wing" of the Republican party has learned nothing and is as "stupid" as it was in 1976.

He said there has been a 50-year struggle for the heart and soul of the conservative movement, and "the Republican establishment is just plain wrong about how it approaches politics" and so is the consulting class. 

He cited Pat Caddell, Craig Shirley, and David Bossie as people who were asking the right questions and raising the right issues about the corrupt consultant class and how they contribute to electoral defeat for Republicans at the ballot box by caring only about raising money instead of ideas. 

Gingrich said while the country stands on the edge of a "bright future," both parties in Washignton are "blind to it" because they are "prisoners of the past."

He echoed a similar sentiment on Friday as well. 

"I do think the old guard of the party sometimes gets a little too crusty and a little too anti-ideas, and I think that's unfortunate," Gingrich told CNN Friday.