Republican Newt Gingrich stopped in Miami on Thursday night to raise money, bash opponent Mitt Romney as a “Massachusetts moderate” and to position himself as the harshest critic of Cuba’s Castro regime.

Trailing in the presidential polls, Gingrich also swiped at Mitt Romney for “pandering to hardliners” over immigration and for touting potentially bogus job-creation figures.

Gingrich admitted he was “surprised” by the criticisms and outrage of fellow conservatives who faulted him for attacking Romney’s time at Bain Capital, a venture-capital firm that had profited on occasion from acquiring companies and laying people off.

To Fox’s Sean Hannity, Republican Sen. Jim DeMint and even comedian John Stewart, Gingrich sounded more like a Democrat than a Republican in leveling the charge.

“This is an absurdity,” Gingrich responded during an interview at the Biltmore Hotel where he had a fundraiser. “The over-reaction of people to questioning a presidential candidate’s record as though I was now engaged in an assault on free enterprise is one of the most absurd things I have ever seen.”

In a nod to the prevailing political sentiment of Miami-Dade’s Republican electorate — which is overwhelmingly Cuban-American — Gingrich also issued a series of specific promises and goals to crack down on the Castro dictatorship.

In a written statement, Gingrich pledged to fully implement the Helms-Burton Act that he helped pass in 1996 to allow people to sue “foreign entities that traffic in U.S. property.” And he said the United States should lift no sanctions until Cuba transitions to a democracy.He also wants to require the U.S. Justice Department to “reassess” the possibility of indicted Fidel and Raul Castro for the 1996 shoot down and “murder” of the Brothers to the Rescue activists.

Lastly, Gingrich said he wanted to re-establish the 2004 Bush Administration travel restrictions and that he wanted to review the decisions of the Obama and Clinton administrations executive orders related to Cuba travel and trade.

That last promise seems to conflict with his answer to Yahoo News in November, when he was asked: “President Obama has opened more air travel to the island. Would you shut down those flights?”

Said Gingrich: “No, but I would very aggressively move towards maximizing dissent inside Cuba. Mostly covert, and also just subsidies. Go back and look what we did in Poland for example when we aggressively supported Solidarity."

Gingrich’s comments led the influential exile blog, Capitol Hill Cubans, to declare that Gingrich was one of the “Weakest Candidates on Cuba Policy.”

Gingrich quickly replied: “I think I’m a long way from being weak on Cuba.”

He noted that he helped pass Helms-Burton and took credit for helping “develop the whole Radio Marti program.”

Some critics have questioned the special immigration rights of Cubans, but Gingrich said they should be allowed to stay.

Unlike some of his fellow Republicans, Gingrich has adopted a more moderate position on immigration. He said the border needs to be secured and the visa process “modernized.”

But he believes some longtime, generally law-abiding immigrants who aren’t here legally and have families should be given a path to permanent residency, but not citizenship.