(Gingrich photo: Chris Keane/Reuters)
Newt Gingrich's campaign has
released the full text of his $1.6 million contract with Freddie Mac, the gig that has been roundly attacked by his competitors as suspiciously lobbying-like during a time when Freddie Mac was, at least according to his fellow Republicans, the root cause of all pain and sorrow in the world.
Want to see it?
Consultant will provide consulting and related services as requested by Freddie Mac's Director, Public Policy in exchange for which Freddie Mac will pay Consultant $25,000 per each full calendar month during which Consultant provides Services.
There you go. That's the whole thing. When you cut out the 14 other pages of boilerplate terms and conditions, generic stuff that is copy and pasted into every contract, that's the actual meat of it. Wow. A whole sentence—I think I even see a comma in there. You can see how bold Newt is being in releasing this sensitive document to the world.
So, that should answer all the questions as to what services Newt Gingrich was providing to Freddie Mac. Unless it doesn't, in which case you're attacking Newt and being un-American and stuff.
I see several possibilities here.
1. This was a standard politically connected contract, wherein a group hires some famous political figure out of the goodness of their hearts, paying them bucketloads of money in order to do nothing in particular but presuming that said money buckets will be remembered, and rewarded, during the politician's next government gig.
2. Whatever Newt was doing, it was so horrible that it couldn't be put down in words. Maybe he was researching new ink for mortgage contracts based on unicorn blood, or maybe he was just having sex with every member of Freddie Mac management.
3. There's some other detail involved here that Newt, so far, has no interest in disclosing.
Which could it be? I don't know. Still, I can't shake the feeling that Newt's bold release of his one-sentence contract will not be the end of the questions about his role with Freddie Mac. Sure enough, some crackpot in the story is demanding to see more information:
On Twitter, senior Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom questioned why Gingrich had released only the 2006 contract when he had advised them since 1999. "Under Freddie contract, Newt has to provide monthly a 'detailed description of the services provided'. Why not release that?" Fehrnstrom wrote.
... and now, word has come down that Newt might just have discovered more stuff, which he will release during the State of the Union:
So there's that. Oh, and in related news Newt's superPAC just picked up another $5 million donation from the same casino owner (well, his wife, this time around) that has bankrolled Newt's campaign to date. God bless America, where the rich can single-handedly fund presidential runs. No word on whether Newt has a contract with the casino, although I'm sure if he did, it would simply read: For future services rendered.