John McCain just couldn’t resist.

“I think we ought to send Newt Gingrich to the moon and Mitt Romney to the White House,” the 2008 GOP presidential nominee is quoted as saying by ABC News and CBS News.

McCain’s remarks came today at a town hall meeting in Lakeland, Fla., ahead of Tuesday’s primary in the Sunshine State. Romney now has a nine-point lead over Gingrich.

The Arizona senator is campaigning for Romney ahead of Tuesday’s primary, and has been playing up Gingrich’s past support for earmarks and his record as House speaker as two reasons why Florida voters should look at the former Massachusetts governor instead.

BLOG:  Gingrich touts moon base

Gingrich pledged to voters along Florida’s Space Coast earlier this week that there would be a permanent base on the moon by the end of his second term if he is elected president. The idea, part of Gingrich’s theme that the Chinese shouldn’t beat the United States in space exploration, has been panned by Romney.

At the GOP presidential debate on Thursday night, Romney said Gingrich’s moon colony idea would be “an enormous expense” and that he’d rather see that money go to housing in the United States.