According to the Associated Press (AP) Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential frontrunner Newton “Stay Puffed” Gingrich says he didn’t need to be a lobbyist after his congressional career because he was paid $6ok a pop to give speeches; in fact Newton has bilked his devoted followers of millions of dollars.
While talking with South Carolina voters at a shopping center Stay Puffed confronted the on-going suggestion he sought to turn his tenure as the House’s top Republican into a role of for-hire powerbroker.
“I did no lobbying of any kind – period,” Gingrich said. “I’m going to be really direct, OK? I was charging $60,000 a speech. And the number of speeches was going up, not down. Normally, celebrities leave and they gradually sell fewer speeches every year. We were selling more.”
Make to remember this line, “I did no lobbying of any kind – period,” because it smacks of, “I did not have sex with the woman,” and now that he’s the alpha male of the campaign the others are going to start digging and seeing if he’s telling the truth, and if he’s not, he’ll plummet from first place the same way Reverend Perry and Pizza Man Cain have so recently done.
The legal definition of lobbying is fairly narrow, encompassing only those who directly contact members of Congress or executive branch officials in an attempt to influence them. Many ex-lawmakers decline to do that kind of work, but instead offer their advice to groups that do lobby, as Gingrich did in the case of Freddie Mac.
Gingrich has been paid huge sums over the past decade by the mortgage giant, an institution roundly criticized by Republican Tea Partistas, and one of which Newton himself criticized President Obama in 2008 for accepting contributions from executives of Freddie Mac and its larger sister institution, Fannie Mae, and said the Democrat should give the money back.
When asked about his “salary” from Freddie and Fannie, Stay Puffed has dismissed any speculations of lobbying saying he gave “strategic advice for a long period of time.” A person familiar with the Freddie Mac consulting contracts said they paid at least $1.6 million from 1999 to early 2008. The person spoke on condition of anonymity in order address a personnel matter.
Newton has claimed over-and-over that he was a “historian” for the organization; a story that doesn’t ring true for most of us. First, exactly why does a mortgage company need a historian; and second, why hire a mediocre one like Gingrich? Things aren’t ringing true on the lobbying issue and Newton Leroy had better hope he’s better at cover-ups than Cain was.