A former House speaker who helped engineer a sweeping Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, Newt Gingrich, yesterday criticized two of his party’s 2008 presidential candidates for internecine squabbling this week.

“The idea that these campaigns have to be this utterly stupid and destructive,” Mr. Gingrich told an audience at the Women’s National Republican Club in Midtown. “I saw something the other day where Brownback is attacking Romney. I mean, what a dumb way to spend your life.”

Mr. Gingrich was referring to a series of press release barbs traded by Senator Brownback of Kansas and Governor Romney of Massachusetts questioning each other’s anti-abortion bona fides — a credential long considered essential to clinching the Republican nomination.

Mr. Gingrich also said candidates shouldn’t spend two years running for president. For his part, the former congressman said he would decide by September whether to launch his own White House bid and join the crowded field.

As Mr. Gingrich glad-handed, posed for photos, and autographed books yesterday before his speech, dozens of members of the audience urged him to seek the nation’s highest office.

“The first five or six didn’t get to me, but by no. 60, it is very humbling to have a lot of different people walk up and say, ‘You ought to run for president,’ and say it with a passion,” he said.

In a Gallup survey this week of likely GOP voters, Mr. Gingrich polled ahead of Mr. Romney.

If Mr. Gingrich does decide to join the crowded Republican field, which includes Senator McCain of Arizona and Mayor Giuliani, as well as Messrs. Romney and Brownback, he said he will almost certainly face Senator Clinton, a Democrat he said could be beaten by a Republican with “better ideas and better solutions.”

“Nobody’s made money betting against the Clintons since 1980,” he said after his speech. “She will be very formidable. Her husband will be totally engaged. They will have a unified party and it will be a very, very difficult campaign. We can win it, but it will take an extraordinary effort.”

Although Mr. Gingrich said he believes Republicans can win over the hearts — and votes — of a majority of Americans, he conceded that some will vote Democrat.

“I don’t want to disappoint you, but I think our ability to compete with the Clintons for the hedonist vote is zero,” he said.