On a conference call with bloggers and reporters from conservative media outlets today, Newt Gingrich continued to do damage control in the wake of his comments on Meet the Press, in which he used the terms “radical change” and “right-wing social engineering” when discussing the House Republicans’ plan to reform Medicare.

Gingrich said during his opening remarks today: “I was asked a very narrowly focused question, which was, ‘Given a very large reform, if the country was opposed to it, should we push it through anyway?’ I said, ‘No.’ I used language that was too strong. Although the underlying principle, I think, is right.”