Just when you think you've seen the rankest hypocrisy you'll ever see...up springs Newt Gingrich, with one more shot at being the most hypocritical, egregious and self serving politicians in the business...
It is unbelievable that the right-wingers have been blaming Democrats for the debacle at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae...when clearly, it was Newt Gingrich and his fellow Republicans who were the ones that were on the receiving end of all the payola for helping to deregulate the agencies...
Thank you TMP Muckraker for exposing this story!
When Gingrich starts criticizing and demonizing others for this or that violation or contradiction or not demonstrating "family values" or patriotism, you can bet the farm that he's done the same or worse. Ask any of his ex wives or financial planners.
In 2006, Freddie Mac paid the former House Speaker $300,000 to help fight off potential regulation. "Gingrich talked and wrote about what he saw as the benefits of the Freddie Mac business model,"
Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006. Power brokers such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were recruited with six-figure contracts. Freddie Mac paid the following amounts to the firms of former Republican lawmakers or ex-GOP staffers in 2006:
--Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York, at Park Strategies, $240,000.
--Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota, at Clark & Weinstock, $360,297.
--Rep. Susan Molinari of New York, at Washington Group, $300,062.
--Susan Hirschmann at Williams & Jensen, former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, $240,790.
http://biz.yahoo.com/...
http://hosted.ap.org/...
Remember back in September when Congress was debating the bailout package, Gingrich was all over the media yapping about the iniquitous and corrupt influence wielded in Washington by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
http://www.foxnews.com/...
One of the provisions that I wanted to put into any kind of financial package is that no company that gets money from the Treasury in this process be allowed to hire a lobbyist. I mean, what you have today is that the rich in Wall Street and the powerful at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had so many politicians beholden to them that, in fact, nobody was going to check them. And so they got away with things that were absolute bologna, and it's a tragedy.
Gingrich thought it was a real big deal that Democratic Senator Chris Dodd had some ties to Fannie and Freddie, yet Gingrich never mentioned his own ties:
In Dodd's case, he is the largest single recipient of money from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Barack Obama was No. 2. The fact is that to have Dodd preside over writing this bill, I think, is absolutely disgusting. I am appalled that Harry Reid appointed him to sit in there. But it is the nature of politics up there right now. And I think it's very, very bad for the country.
Newt Gingrinch's ties to Feddie/Fannie go back even further than first thought: A July 1999 story in the American Banker, a banking trade publication (via Nexis), reports that the former House Speaker had recently been hired by Freddie "to provide strategic counsel on a range of issues," according to a company spokesman.The same story adds that Gingrich's former chief of staff, Arne Christenson, was hired that year by Fannie Mae as senior vice president for regulatory policy.
Keep in mind Gingrich's comments in September on right-wing dolt Bill O'Reilly's show:
what you have today is that the rich in Wall Street and the powerful at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had so many politicians beholden to them that, in fact, nobody was going to check them. And so they got away with things that were absolute bologna, and it's a tragedy.
http://www.foxnews.com/...
Where's the Republican so-called "librul media"? Why isn't Newt Gingrich's hypocrisy and double-speak on every front page or the lead story on news programs? This latest example of Gingrich's hypocrisy and sleaze should be blaring on every cable news show, yet it isn't even mentioned. So much for the "librul media"...
Where's Lou Dobbs on this story?
Ya know..I'd love to see a Gingrich/Palin ticket in 2012, so that we can finally embarrass the two lying hypocrites in a national referendum.