Newt Gingrich, emerging from smoke & dust of Tweets & trivia... to skim from the tiller (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Hey, Newt! The '90s called, and they want the scandal that got you booted out of Congress back!
Ha ha! Just kidding. Actually, the '90s quit, just like the rest of your staff.
Check it:
A non-profit charity founded by Newt Gingrich to promote freedom, faith and free enterprise also served as another avenue to promote Gingrich's political views, and came dangerously close, some experts say, to crossing a bright line that is supposed to separate tax-exempt charitable work from both the political process and such profit-making enterprises as books and DVDs.
The charity, Renewing American Leadership, not only featured Gingrich on its website and in fundraising letters, it also paid $220,000 over two years to one of Gingrich's for-profit companies, Gingrich Communications. It purchased cases of Gingrich's books and bought up copies of DVDs produced by another of the former House speaker's entities, Gingrich Productions.
This is the oldest, and possibly only, trick in Gingrich's book. His network of "charities" has always been a conduit for moving supporters' money (including their dollars above and beyond campaign contribution limitations) into "Newt support" and just plain lifestyle enhancement. I mean, you had to know that a guy with a half million dollar tab at Tiffany's and a penchant for shabu shabu and nibbles at L'Auberge Chez Francois with Greta Van Susteren, but had no particular job that anyone on the street could name, was drawing money from some pot. And it had to be a pretty big pot at that.
And it's not like you had to guess, either. We've been talking about Gingrich's questionable fundraising habits for this for a long time.
It's a very basic play, and there have been and still are other politicians who run it, to be sure. Gingrich's privately held, for-profit companies sell copies of his books, videos of his speeches, etc. to his campaigns and/or charities. So the money they collect (and remember, when a big-time donor maxes out to his campaign, they can send money—often tax-deductible money—to the charities) just gets converted directly into profits for the private companies Gingrich owns and pays himself from. That means the money becomes available for lifestyle support. Chartering private jets, dining at the finest restaurants. Cruising the Aegean. Whatever.
And remember, converting bulk book sales into private profit was the hook Gingrich used to take down Speaker Jim Wright in the 80s.
But the really big point worth making here is that this is the same behavior that got Newt bounced out of Congress under an ethics cloud in the first place, and it's clearly a habit he's unable to break. Like marrying staffers.
The New Newt is the Old Newt. And people—including the Republicans who had to live with and constantly clean up after him—increasingly hate both Newts.