Newt's adventures in porno-world are an old scam

Media Matters picked up on a peculiar story recently:

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich seems to have gotten into the habit of leading companies in the adult entertainment industry to believe they won awards, then telling them "no."

One (in a long, interconnected chain) of Newt's PACs, 527s and non-profit organizations, American Solutions for Winning the Future, has not once but twice "accidentally" invited sex industry mavens to receive his oh-so-selective "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards.

The two selections were indeed "accidents" in the sense that Gingrich likely had no idea the two businesses, "Pink Visual" and "The Lodge" were a porn film production company and a strip club. In hindsight it seems kind of obvious, but the thing is, there was no kind of "sight" at all, fore or hind.

That's because what Gingrich is running here is a scam from top to bottom, and an old and hackneyed one at that. Take a look at something I wrote up back in April of 2005:

Congratulations! You may already be a winner!

by Kagro X

ABC News's Brian Ross reports on the National Republican Congressional Committee's "Physician of the Year" fundraising scam:

The good news reached the Jamestown, N.Y., office of Dr. Rudolph Mueller in a fax from a congressman in Washington. Mueller had been named 2004 Physician of the Year.

"My secretary came running in and said, 'Dr. Rudy, look at what you've won, you're Physician of the Year,' " said Mueller, an internist.

But to receive the award in person at a special two-day workshop in Washington last month, Mueller found out that he would have to make a $1,250 contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee. It was a disturbing discovery, he said.

[...]

Mueller soon found he was not the only winner. There were hundreds of Physicians of the Year present, many of whom found the criteria for being selected equally as opaque.

Wow. That's cold. Who could've come up with such an idea?

Oh, but there was more. Even then.

Right. But now, everybody knows. Although one might wonder why doctors weren't aware of this a little earlier, like say, July of 2001, as Dr. Julie Isaacson was:

Julie Isaacson, MD, was surprised and flattered when she received a phone call inviting her to join a select panel of doctors who advise congressional Republicans on health care issues.

The "Physician's Advisory Board" counsels GOP leaders on such topics as HMO reform and reducing government interference in medicine, explained the caller, who said he was a representative of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R, Texas).

Sound familiar?

The scam is the same. And at the heart of it? Basically just picking businesses at random and telling them they're "Entrepreneur of the Year." Picking doctors at random and telling them they're "Physician of the Year." And that results in things like, well, picking a bong maker at random and telling him he's the "Businessman of the Year," or hell, picking a random guy who's going to prison for sex crimes involving children and telling him he's the "Republican of the Year."

For a certain gang of Republicans, these scams are as old as the hills. DeLay would never have graduated from "Hot Tub Tom" to "The Hammer" without picking up these skills from the Gingrich ring that operated GOPAC, Earning by Learning, the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, etc. And DeLay in turn passed it on to his progeny.

So you tell me: has the renowned shabu shabu king Newt Gingrich reformed himself since being drummed out of the Speakership for his smarmy non-profit self-dealing and double-dipping? Not in the least. He's even got his old bagman, Joe Gaylord, still making the pick-ups.

It'd be comical if it weren't so sad that Gingrich thinks he's poised for a comeback, though literally nothing about his m.o. -- from packing on the pounds at restaurant tables, to serially cheating with, marrying and then divorcing aides, to running fundraising scams that finance this degenerate lifestyle -- has changed a bit.