Gingrich says he received Freddie Mac compensation
gimmesometruth27
St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,303
uh oh....i can see a few heads exploding over this one...
Gingrich says he received Freddie Mac compensation
http://news.yahoo.com/gingrich-says-rec ... 09459.html
..URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — Rising in national polls, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich found himself on the defensive Wednesday over huge payments he received over the past decade from the federally backed housing agency Freddie Mac.
Gingrich said he didn't remember exactly how much he was paid, but a former Freddie Mac official said it was at least $1.5 million for consulting contracts stretching from 1999 to 2007. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.
Speaking with reporters in Iowa, Gingrich said he provided "strategic advice for a long period of time" after he resigned as House speaker following his party's losses in the 1998 elections. He defended Freddie Mac's role and said, "every American should be interested in expanding housing opportunities." Long unpopular among Republicans, the federally backed mortgage lender has become a focal point of anti-government sentiment because of the housing crisis.
On Tuesday, a House committee voted to strip top executives of Freddie and its larger competitor, Fannie Mae, of huge salaries and bonuses and put them on the same pay scale as federal employees.
In 2008, Gingrich suggested in a Fox News interview that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama should have to return campaign contributions he had received from executives of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He said that in a debate with Obama, GOP presidential nominee John McCain "should have turned and said, 'Senator Obama, are you prepared to give back all the money that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae gave you?'"
Gingrich sought Wednesday to portray his role as a sign of valuable experience.
"It reminds people that I know a great deal about Washington," Gingrich said Wednesday. "We just tried four years of amateur ignorance and it didn't work very well. So, having someone who actually knows Washington might be a really good thing."
Gingrich's history at Freddie Mac began in 1999, when he was hired by the company's top lobbyist, Mitchell Delk. He was brought in for strategic consulting, primarily on legislative and regulatory issues, the company said at the time. That job, which paid about $25,000 to $30,000 a month, lasted until sometime in 2002.
In 2006, Gingrich was hired again on a two-year contract that paid him $300,000 annually, again to provide strategic advice while the company fended off attacks from the right wing of the Republican Party.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for years had been under scrutiny from Republicans on Capitol Hill who opposed government involvement in the mortgage business and wanted to scale back the companies' size and impose tough regulation.
In last Wednesday's Republican presidential debate, Gingrich sought to explain his role at Freddie Mac as that of an "historian" sounding dire warnings about the company's future. He said Freddie Mac officials told him "we are now making loans to people that have no credit history and have no record of paying back anything, but that's what the government wants us to do." He said his advice was to tell them, "this is insane."
"I said at the time, this is a bubble ... this is impossible. It turned out unfortunately I was right," Gingrich said.
Former Freddie Mac executives dispute Gingrich's description of his role.
Four people close to Freddie Mac say he was hired to strategize with his employer about identifying political friends on Capitol Hill who would help the company through a very difficult legislative environment. All four people spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss the personnel matter freely.
Freddie Mac executives hoped that would speak positively about the company and its business model as he circulated among conservative groups and help to build intellectual support within his party.
Freddie Mac executives were looking to Gingrich to offer up new, inventive ways to think about old problems, the officials said, but that didn't materialize.
Gingrich's hiring was a small — but because of his name, important — piece of a much larger initiative by the company. Freddie Mac and its larger competitor, Fannie Mae, are government-sponsored enterprises, created by Congress to buy up mortgages so that the housing industry has a ready flow of funds.
The two companies had long been the darlings of Democratic politicians in Washington, hailed as the champions of affordable housing, but they had few supporters on the political right.
Freddie Mac executive Hollis McLoughlin sought to remedy that by hiring a stable of conservative consultants, including Gingrich.
Before Gingrich was hired, Freddie Mac paid $2 million to a Republican consulting firm to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed both companies.
The $2 million was money well spent. The legislation died without ever coming to a vote on the Senate floor. But the danger of regulation wasn't dead, so Freddie Mac hired more consultants, Gingrich among them.
Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006, all of them former Republican lawmakers and ex-GOP staffers. Besides Gingrich, the hires included former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York, former Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota and Susan Hirschmann, the former chief of staff to ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
By September 2008, amid the collapse of the housing industry, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were in disastrous financial condition, were both taken over by the government and remain in conservatorship.
..
Gingrich says he received Freddie Mac compensation
http://news.yahoo.com/gingrich-says-rec ... 09459.html
..URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — Rising in national polls, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich found himself on the defensive Wednesday over huge payments he received over the past decade from the federally backed housing agency Freddie Mac.
Gingrich said he didn't remember exactly how much he was paid, but a former Freddie Mac official said it was at least $1.5 million for consulting contracts stretching from 1999 to 2007. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.
Speaking with reporters in Iowa, Gingrich said he provided "strategic advice for a long period of time" after he resigned as House speaker following his party's losses in the 1998 elections. He defended Freddie Mac's role and said, "every American should be interested in expanding housing opportunities." Long unpopular among Republicans, the federally backed mortgage lender has become a focal point of anti-government sentiment because of the housing crisis.
On Tuesday, a House committee voted to strip top executives of Freddie and its larger competitor, Fannie Mae, of huge salaries and bonuses and put them on the same pay scale as federal employees.
In 2008, Gingrich suggested in a Fox News interview that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama should have to return campaign contributions he had received from executives of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He said that in a debate with Obama, GOP presidential nominee John McCain "should have turned and said, 'Senator Obama, are you prepared to give back all the money that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae gave you?'"
Gingrich sought Wednesday to portray his role as a sign of valuable experience.
"It reminds people that I know a great deal about Washington," Gingrich said Wednesday. "We just tried four years of amateur ignorance and it didn't work very well. So, having someone who actually knows Washington might be a really good thing."
Gingrich's history at Freddie Mac began in 1999, when he was hired by the company's top lobbyist, Mitchell Delk. He was brought in for strategic consulting, primarily on legislative and regulatory issues, the company said at the time. That job, which paid about $25,000 to $30,000 a month, lasted until sometime in 2002.
In 2006, Gingrich was hired again on a two-year contract that paid him $300,000 annually, again to provide strategic advice while the company fended off attacks from the right wing of the Republican Party.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for years had been under scrutiny from Republicans on Capitol Hill who opposed government involvement in the mortgage business and wanted to scale back the companies' size and impose tough regulation.
In last Wednesday's Republican presidential debate, Gingrich sought to explain his role at Freddie Mac as that of an "historian" sounding dire warnings about the company's future. He said Freddie Mac officials told him "we are now making loans to people that have no credit history and have no record of paying back anything, but that's what the government wants us to do." He said his advice was to tell them, "this is insane."
"I said at the time, this is a bubble ... this is impossible. It turned out unfortunately I was right," Gingrich said.
Former Freddie Mac executives dispute Gingrich's description of his role.
Four people close to Freddie Mac say he was hired to strategize with his employer about identifying political friends on Capitol Hill who would help the company through a very difficult legislative environment. All four people spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss the personnel matter freely.
Freddie Mac executives hoped that would speak positively about the company and its business model as he circulated among conservative groups and help to build intellectual support within his party.
Freddie Mac executives were looking to Gingrich to offer up new, inventive ways to think about old problems, the officials said, but that didn't materialize.
Gingrich's hiring was a small — but because of his name, important — piece of a much larger initiative by the company. Freddie Mac and its larger competitor, Fannie Mae, are government-sponsored enterprises, created by Congress to buy up mortgages so that the housing industry has a ready flow of funds.
The two companies had long been the darlings of Democratic politicians in Washington, hailed as the champions of affordable housing, but they had few supporters on the political right.
Freddie Mac executive Hollis McLoughlin sought to remedy that by hiring a stable of conservative consultants, including Gingrich.
Before Gingrich was hired, Freddie Mac paid $2 million to a Republican consulting firm to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed both companies.
The $2 million was money well spent. The legislation died without ever coming to a vote on the Senate floor. But the danger of regulation wasn't dead, so Freddie Mac hired more consultants, Gingrich among them.
Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006, all of them former Republican lawmakers and ex-GOP staffers. Besides Gingrich, the hires included former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York, former Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota and Susan Hirschmann, the former chief of staff to ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
By September 2008, amid the collapse of the housing industry, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were in disastrous financial condition, were both taken over by the government and remain in conservatorship.
..
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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Whew!!! My head is still intact.
wonder what rush said about this today?
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
WOOT. Making a living around here seems like it's against the rules.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
He was paid to advise, he said its crazy to do ninja loans, they didn't listen.
Now we are where we are as a country. Screwed because the democrats wanted everyone to own a home, even if they were occupy wall street types (people who want the government to take care of them for nothing in return).
Typical AMT thread.
Never learn.
thanks for taking another one of my threads off topic....
by the way, since you have made a thread about every other gop candidate that was ahead in the polls, aside from romney of course, where is your thread dedicated to newt "winning" since he is surging in the polls?? i have been waiting for that one for over a week now...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
kick backs seem to be the name of the game in politics and every level , they should all be fired.
Godfather.
http://presspass.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... k-abramoff
Former “super” lobbyist Jack Abramoff thinks Newt Gingrich’s campaign has suffered a brutal blow after reports surfaced that he received “consulting fees” from mortgage giant Freddie Mac that totaled between $1.6 million and $1.8 million, an amount much larger than previously disclosed.
“I don’t know if he’ll survive this,” Abramoff surmised. “This is a very big thing.”
“The very things that anger the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement and everybody who is not in a movement and watches Washington and says why are these guys getting all this money, why do they go become so rich, why do they have these advantages? Unfortunately Newt seems to play right into it,” he said.
Gingrich initially responded to criticism of his ties to the troubled firm during a CNBC debate last week by saying he provided advice as a “historian.” Abramoff dismissed Gingrich’s explanation Wednesday, saying, “I'm unaware of any history professor being paid that much money to give someone a history lesson.”
Abramoff, who spent three years in prison on corruption and conspiracy charges, told David in his weekly PRESS Pass conversation that even after new reforms in Washington, “at some level everybody’s participating in something that they shouldn’t be.” He also gave PRESS Pass an insider look at how he was able to buy and sell influence on Capitol Hill for years without being caught, and urged Americans to be “very upset” with the state of Washington today.
Watch the full PRESS Pass above for more on Abramoff’s notorious lobbying practices before he was jailed, how he thinks the system should be reformed, and his Jewish faith including the answer to this question from David: “In the Jewish faith, it’s said that in the Talmud, that one of the first questions God asks you in heaven is, ‘Were you honest in your business dealings?’”
.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Hmmm ... now who is left?
Gingrich lugs loads of personal, political baggage
http://www.bnd.com/2011/11/17/1944910/g ... sonal.html
WASHINGTON -- Newt Gingrich is schlepping some supersized luggage along as his Republican presidential campaign takes off: He's got trunkloads of personal and political baggage.
This week's disclosure that a sweetheart consulting deal with housing giant Freddie Mac earned Gingrich at least $1.6 million over the past decade is only the latest potential liability to surface for the former House speaker.
Negatives that didn't get much attention when Gingrich was an asterisk in the polls are getting a fresh look now that he's risen to the top tier of GOP presidential candidates. Among them: policy flip-flops, inopportune moments of candor, two failed marriages, admissions of adultery, fits of petulance and a tendency to suggest he's the smartest person in the room.
"Everybody will dig up everything they can dig up," Gingrich said Wednesday, resigned to what's ahead.
Businessman Donald Trump allowed of Gingrich on CNN, "Got some baggage, but everybody has some baggage."
True, but sometimes size matters.
When Gingrich went on Fox News this week in his new role as a poll leader, he was asked about fliers distributed by evangelicals in Iowa, the leadoff caucus state, that pointed to adultery in his first two marriages. Gingrich dismissed that as old news.
"I'm very open about the fact that I've had moments in my life that I regret," Gingrich said. He spoke of his current "close marriage" to third wife Callista. He offered himself as an older and wiser 68-year-old grandfather.
A day later, Gingrich's financial dealings were in the spotlight, with reports of the huge sums he'd collected from Freddie Mac for consulting work when the federally backed housing agency was fending off attacks from the right wing of the Republican Party.
Gingrich tried to spin that as a positive, saying: "It reminds people that I know a great deal about Washington. We just tried four years of amateur ignorance and it didn't work very well. So, having someone who actually knows Washington might be a really good thing."
He tried a different tack last summer to explain away a six-figure shopping spree at Tiffany's. When word surfaced that Gingrich and his wife had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at the luxury jeweler, Gingrich said he and his wife were "very frugal" and lived within their budget. But he refused to say what they'd bought, insisting it was "my private life."
Gingrich's favorability rating among Republicans dropped from 61 percent to 43 percent after the Tiffany's news broke. But by October, he was back up to 58 percent.
Gingrich does get credit for his intellectual firepower and that has great appeal to Republican voters looking for a "fighting conservative" who can stand up to Barack Obama, says GOP consultant Greg Mueller. GOP voters cheer when Gingrich puts debate moderators in their place by rejecting the premise of their questions, Mueller noted.
But sometimes Gingrich takes it too far and can come across as arrogant and lecturing.
"There's no question Gingrich is going to have to check himself," says Mueller, "because he's got a quick wit and sometimes like to share it."
So far, at least, Gingrich has surprised even former aides with the way he's reined in his temperament this campaign.
This is, after all, a man whose pique at a perceived slight by President Bill Clinton in 1995 earned him a caricature on the front page of the New York Daily News showing him as a diapered baby with the headline, "Cry Baby. Newt's Tantrum."
"His biggest hurdle is to avoid self-inflicted wounds," says GOP strategist Rich Galen, a former Gingrich aide. "There is a history of the angry Newt, and that hasn't served him terribly well over the past 20 years. So far, he's been far more disciplined than I or other people gave him credit for."
History itself may work against Gingrich. At 68, he's viewed by many as part of the GOP of the past and won't get many points anymore for the Republican revolution he engineered to take control of Congress in 1994. By 1998, he was facing leadership challenges and ethics questions and decided not to seek re-election.
Gingrich has gotten in hot water this campaign for outspoken and sometimes shifting views. Within days of announcing his campaign, Gingrich had irked conservatives by harshly criticizing Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to remake Medicare as "right-wing social engineering." Gingrich apologized but has since sent mixed signals on where he stands on the matter. He's also wavered on Libya, initially criticizing Obama for not intervening and later saying he would not have used American and European forces there.
He's also sent mixed signals on his view of the government's role in ensuring people have health insurance. And that will make it harder for him to confront Republican rival Mitt Romney on an issue where the GOP leader is vulnerable because of his work to push through a requirement that people get health insurance when he was Massachusetts governor.
Trying to exorcise another demon, Gingrich took it on himself last week to bring up a widely circulated 2008 public service announcement in which he sat on a couch with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and called for action to address climate change, an ad that has gotten Gingrich nothing but grief from conservatives. The candidate called the ad "the dumbest thing I've done in the last couple of years."
Gingrich also will have to convince voters he's serious about being president. His campaign almost went under last summer after many of his aides and advisers resigned en masse, complaining that he wasn't seriously campaigning and had taken off on a Greek cruise with his wife not long after announcing.
So far, Gingrich is giving himself good marks for handling the increased scrutiny of his candidacy "in an even-handed way," as he put it at a Politico forum in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday.
He knows what will happen if he doesn't.
"If I blow up and do something stupid," he says, "they'll be able to say, 'Gee, I wonder who the next candidate is.'"
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Going to bat for Newt now? You can't be that desperate.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
certainly does seem that way. too bad really. the media always has their darlings...we are living through their last one and unfortunately for everyone he simply isn't leading us out of the darkness.
This is certainly a black eye. It is funny that he tried to play it off that he advised freddie to not make the loans. Um they paid you 1.6 million over 10 years to say that? I doubt it. and don't you think if he really felt that strongly about it he would have walked away from Freddie when they ignored his plea's?
newt would be a good cabinet member, he needs to be in positions where he can advise, he seems to be the "do what I say, not what I do" type. nothing wrong with that at all. he certainly is a smart guy, but his intelligence has taken a hit with me recently, I thought he was smart enough NOT to run for president.
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
In the 2nd post on your precious thread, you called the man a "Money Whore". I agree w/ USAMAMSAN1, this is a stupid thread. Especially since Freddie did NOT follow Newt's advice. They essentially paid him 1.5 mill, to tell them how not to fuck up, and they fucked up anyway.
And you're so blinded by political ideology, that you ignore the fact that the gov't crashed our housing market w/ its Community Reinvestment Act via freddie and Fannie, and focus your hatred on the "Money Whore" that told them not to do it.
"Typical AMT thread", indeed. Never, ever, learn.
Watch out for the bricks.
typical trollish behavior...
why not contribute to the topic? can gingrich survive this latest debacle??
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Both are smarter than Obama, and have better policies- so I'm open to either.
Romney is a Rhino plant; an Obama-lite. And many powerful establishment Repubs want him ti win it....
I do not.
Gingrich sought Wednesday to portray his history with Freddie Mac as a sign of valuable experience.
"It reminds people that I know a great deal about Washington," he said. "We just tried four years of amateur ignorance,
In last Wednesday's Republican presidential debate, Gingrich sought to explain his role at Freddie Mac as that of a "historian" sounding dire warnings about the company's future. He said company officials told him "we are now making loans to people that have no credit history and have no record of paying back anything, but that's what the government wants us to do."
you're welcome
WOOT
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
But nary a peep was made about him until his popularity started to rise. If anyone starts to come close to Romney in the polls, the media assassination begins. Bachman, Perry, Cain, and now Newt. And as soon as their throats are cut and the bleed out, they are left in the dust. Yet Romney has not been strafed by the media yet. And Paul is hardly mentioned.
Odd.
Wait till Ron P's sex scandal is exposed!
I'm confused, do we want a Washington insider, or an outsider?
The only, and I mean ONLY, advantage to Newt is that most of his dirty laundry is already out in the open. He's already painted as a scumbag so there's not much farther for him to fall. Cain is just a fruit loop and Romney is one of the only GOP'ers running who is able to sustain a coherent message. That's what frightens the Tea Party idiocracy. They know that, unless a house falls on him, Romney is going to be the nominee. And it's going to be John McCain all over again.
Wash me in the blood of Rock & Roll