Other speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., Friday entered the big hall through the concealed stage door.

Not Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich — who led a resurgent Republican Party to a House majority in 1994 and then served as Speaker for four years — entered at ground level to the song “Eye of The Tiger,” shaking hands along the aisle en route to the podium where he made his speech. Photographers frantically angled for a close-up shot and a standing-room only audience of more than 2,000 was on its feet.

“My only regret was that he was not a candidate for president last year,” said David Bossie of the conservative group Citizens United as he introduced Gingrich, who represented a Georgia district in Congress from 1979 to 1999.

Gingrich took hard lines against Republican moderates, the city of Detroit and so-called “cap and trade” emission reduction policies, as well as Democrats in general and Attorney General Eric Holder in particular.

“I welcome the opportunity to have a dialogue with you about cowardice,” he said in reference to Holder’s recent statement that Americans are a “nation of cowards” that fails to fully confront racial issues. Gingrich went on to say he hoped Holder, the nation’s first black Attorney General, had the courage to talk about the failure of the schools and the political system in Detroit, a city with a struggling economy that also has been plagued with corruption scandals.

Gingrich suggested the nation’s economy could be improved by implementing a zero capital gains tax rate and by matching Ireland’s relatively low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent.

And Gingrich promoted the election of conservative candidates. He urged those in the audience (and watching on a live video stream) to donate to the campaign of Jim Tedisco, the Republican nominee in the March 31 special election in New York’s 20th Congressional District.. That seat was vacated by Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand in January after she was appointed to the Senate seat held by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton until her confirmation as secretary of State.

“He’s kind of an icon,” William Fessenden of Newmarket, N.H., said of Gingrich after watching the speech in an overflow room. “It’s like some of the better teachers you’ve had in school where you walk out of that classroom and say, ‘Yeah. I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.’”

Megan Daughan, a 17-year-old freshman at Providence College in Rhode Island, said she was excited to see the author of books in her home library.

“He captivated everyone,” Daughan said. “He had great energy and presence . . .  I was so honored to be there.”

Later in the day, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney echoed Gingrich’s criticism of Holder, telling the group, “To those who question the character of our country, including the new attorney general, let us remind them that America has never been, is not now, and will never be a nation of cowards.”

Romney was rewarded with chants of “U.S.A., U.S.A.”