Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

[don]

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Congressional committees are in no rush to investigate what U.S. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich did for up to $1.8 million in consulting fees from troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Some activities of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, its sister government-backed housing finance company, have been examined - and criticized - by panels of lawmakers, particularly the House of Representatives committees on Financial Services and Oversight.

Earlier this week, the House Oversight committee released a report and held a hearing criticizing Obama administration policy on the awarding of substantial bonuses to executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are now operating under government conservatorships.

But there appears to be little appetite in the House or the Senate for aggressive fresh investigations into Freddie Mac's dealings with Gingrich, a former Speaker of the House.

A Bloomberg News story this week said Gingrich was paid between $1.6 million and $1.8 million in consulting fees from two contracts with Freddie Mac, the second-largest provider of mortgage funds in the United States.

Gingrich said initially he was retained by Freddie Mac as a historian . . .

. . . then acknowledged on Wednesday he received consulting fees for providing "strategic advice."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7AH1S920111118

[doom&gloom]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

Just another member of the kleptocracy stepping up for their "due". No hope, no change -- under either party.

[Raz]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

This guy traded wives like some men trade cars. Who really believes he'll keep a promise to the voters?

[shiny!]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

This guy traded wives like some men trade cars. Who really believes he'll keep a promise to the voters?

I don't. I remember hearing him promise that the Contract With America would simplify the tax code and allow us to prepare our taxes on a postcard. That turned out well, didn't it?

He pushed hard for GATT, NAFTA and the WTO. He's big on wanting to cut off benefits for the unemployed... but has no problem with "welfare" for FIRE.

He does have good ideas about cutting waste and making the way government run more efficiently. I'll give him that. But he is not a man of his word, so I wouldn't vote for him with the hope that he would deliver on anything he promised.

[c1ue]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

Frankly Gingrich's main claim to fame seems to be switching the Republican party onto the crack of TV advertising via bankster money.

[Slimprofits]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

The real story here is that what Gingrich did for the money was to lobby for National Housing Strategy. And now, as the "leading intellect" in the so-called conservative movement, he never misses an opportunity to push the new religion. i.e. blaming the Global Financial Crash entirely on Jimmy Carter and the Community Reinvestment Act.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-1...ddie-mac.html#

His primary contact inside the organization was Mitchell Delk, Freddie Mac’s chief lobbyist, and he was paid a self-renewing, monthly retainer of $25,000 to $30,000 between May 1999 until 2002, according to three people familiar with aspects of the business agreement.

During that period, Gingrich consulted with Freddie Mac executives on a program to expand home ownership, an idea Delk said he pitched to President George W. Bush’s White House.

However, we know for a fact that "independent nonbank lenders, such as mortgage and finance companies and credit unions, originate a substantial share of subprime mortgages, but they are not subject to CRA regulation and, hence, are not directly influenced by CRA obligations."

We know who ultimately benefited from the National Housing Strategy. They are too big too fail.

[lektrode]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

well... there goes another one to the smear machine, guess that leaves us with the FIREman of the moment on the 'pub side and dunno about y'all, but i'm always a bit suspicious of them who calls themselves Republican and gets elected guv in a state like MA...

but all that aside, eye find it only somewhat HILARIOUS that - only NOW, with the pubs in charge - we suddenly have a spotlight on those who pulled consulting contracts out of fan/fred, never mind the fact that they (newt) werent of 'the chosen ones' fave political stripe (kinda funny that, dont ya think, suspicious, even?.. some might think he perhaps could've been hired to 'spread the wealth' and to draw in some cover for the real players... just a thot ;), while the 'employees' sucked out 10s of MILLIONS, whilst cooking the books to pump up the bonus payouts - and nobody seemed to care about that, right?

these 2 little darling tales for instance:

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/200...-disaster.html

http://biggovernment.com/jdunetz/201...t-to-lead-fbi/

but hey - mights well remove the last remaining obstacles to a clean sweep (under the rug) so we can grease the skids for 4 more years, after all, we gotta make up for the 4 that the prev occupant 'stole' from the "rightful winner" the last go-round - just to be fair, right?

guess the inconvenient truth is too complicated to deal with after all....

[Raz]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

Only a couple of people in the media are asking, "Where is John Corzine"?

I don't trust Gingrich, but I'd like to know "Where is Franklin Raines"?

[lektrode]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

Only a couple of people in the media are asking, "Where is John Corzine"?

I don't trust Gingrich, but I'd like to know "Where is Franklin Raines"?

SHHHHHHH!!!!
we dont wanna be diggin up any names that _really_ matter
that would distract em from the mis-direction and obsfuscation strategy and might mean less contributions, i mean they've only got, what 80 or 90 million so far?

and it might scare off the good ones:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...1eN_story.html

[doom&gloom]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

Only a couple of people in the media are asking, "Where is John Corzine"?

I don't trust Gingrich, but I'd like to know "Where is Franklin Raines"?

ol Frankie is probably sippin' mint julips on a Carribean beach somewhere laughing at how he got away with it.

Corzine is planning his getaway...

[don]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

Or the PA DA that was looking into the Penn State child rape charges a few years back that just up and . . . disappeared.

[lektrode]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

and The Truth?... nah, who cares about that when its much better to highlight the outside 'consultants'...
(even if they were hired temps to make sure fan/fred were complying with the 'equal opportunity' laws...)

but... no matter, since We're Not in Kansas anymore, toto:

http://www.kansas.com/2011/10/20/206...m-finance.html

WASHINGTON — Despite frosty relations with the titans of Wall Street, President Obama has still managed to raise far more money this year from the financial and banking sector than Mitt Romney or any other Republican presidential candidate, according to new fundraising data.
Obama's key advantage over the GOP field is the ability to collect bigger checks because he raises money for both his own campaign committee and for the Democratic National Committee, which will aid in his re-election effort.
As a result, Obama has brought in more money from employees of banks, hedge funds and other financial service companies than all the other GOP candidates combined, according to a Washington Post analysis of contribution data.
The numbers show that Obama retains a reservoir of support among Democratic financiers who have backed him since he was an underdog presidential candidate four years ago.
Obama's fundraising advantage is clear in the case of Bain Capital, the Boston-based private equity firm that was co-founded by Romney and where he made his fortune. Not surprisingly, Romney has strong support at the firm, raking in $34,000 from 18 Bain employees, according to the analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
But Obama has outdone Romney on his own turf, collecting $76,600 from Bain Capital employees through September. And he needed only three donors to do it.
The battle for Wall Street cash has become a crucial subtext in the 2012 campaign, which is shaping up to focus heavily on federal banking and markets policies and the struggling economy. Top Republicans have openly courted major U.S. bank executives and financiers, arguing that Obama's policies have hurt them, while Democrats are seeking to turn the erosion of support on Wall Street to their populist advantage.
Obama has fewer donors from the finance sector than Romney but is able to collect more money from each of them.
Obama's ties to Wall Street donors could complicate Democratic plans to paint Republicans as puppets of the financial industry, particularly in light of the Occupy Wall Street protests that have gone global over the past week. In response to the protests, the Obama campaign and other Democrats have stepped up their attacks on Romney and other Republicans for their opposition to Wall Street regulations.
One top banking executive who raises money for Obama and who requested anonymity to discuss fundraising efforts said reports of disaffection with the president "are exaggerated and overblown." He said a strong contingent of financiers in New York, Chicago and California remains supportive of Obama and his economic policies, even as some have turned on him.
But, this donor added, "it probably helps from a political perspective if he's not seen as a Wall Street guy."
Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said Romney's success in the financial sector is evidence of the business community's confidence in him as well as its unhappiness with Obama.
Donors support Romney because of "the state of the economy and the president's failure to create jobs," she said. "President Obama and his campaign will say anything to distract voters from his failed economic record."
Obama's advantage
Unlike the Republican candidates, Obama can raise money for both his own campaign account, which can take donations up to $5,000 for the 2012 cycle, and for his party's national committee, which can accept $30,800 per individual each calendar year. The same donors will be able to give another $30,800 to the DNC next year.
The end result is more money from fewer donors in the finance business. Obama has raised a total of $15.6 million from employees in the industry, according to the Post analysis. Nearly $12 million of that went to the DNC, the analysis shows.
Romney has raised less than half that much from the industry, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry brought in about $2 million. No other Republican candidate has raised more than $402,000 from the finance sector, which also includes insurance and real estate interests.
Even so, Obama clearly has trouble appealing to Wall Street fundraisers, who have emerged in recent years as among the most important sources of campaign cash for major national politicians. Put aside the DNC money, for example, and Obama's numbers look much worse: just $3.9 million from the financial sector, compared with Romney's $7.5 million.
Obama's campaign committee has raised notably less money from major banking firms such as Goldman Sachs, whose employees gave him more than $1 million in the 2008 cycle. So far this year, about two dozen Goldman employees together have given Obama's committee about $45,000, one-sixth of the amount Romney's campaign has taken in.
But six Goldman employees also gave a total of $92,000 to the DNC side of Obama's fundraising effort.
Obama's financial advantage is almost certain to narrow in the months ahead. Once chosen, a GOP nominee will be able to raise money jointly with the Republican National Committee.
Romney is particularly reliant on money from the finance sector, which accounts for about a quarter of his total contributions, the data show. By contrast, about 5 percent of the $90 million raised by Obama's campaign committee this year came from finance and banking interests.
Core supporters
Obama retains a core group of supporters on Wall Street who are central to his fundraising efforts. About a third of Obama's top 40 fundraisers, who have helped bundle together $500,000 or more in contributions, hail from the finance sector, including big names such as former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine of MF Global, hedge fund manager Orin Kramer and UBS executive Robert Wolf.
Obama's chief of staff, William Daley, was also vice chairman at J.P. Morgan Chase before coming to the White House this year.
Obama's support within the financial industry tends to be more diffuse than the top Wall Street firms. One of his top sources of cash, for example, is a small Chicago firm called Chopper Trading, which employs a technique of rapid, computer-assisted trading that some experts blame for high volatility in the stock market.
Employees of the company gave $222,000 to Obama after Vice President Joe Biden held a fundraiser at the home of the company's chief executive, Rajiv Fernando, a campaign bundler. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.
Obama aides regularly point to his $155 million joint fundraising total with the DNC as evidence of the campaign's momentum, but have tended to ignore DNC money when discussing Wall Street. In a memo issued Tuesday, for example, DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse said Romney's campaign "seems quite proud of the fact that they are leading the money race for campaign cash from Wall Street."
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement that contributions from the financial sector show that many corporate leaders agree with Obama on the need for "an economy that's built to last, not on loopholes and outsourcing."
"There are business leaders across industries who agree with the president that steps needed to be taken to ensure that the American people are never again held hostage by risky Wall Street deals that threaten our entire economy," LaBolt said. "Mitt Romney and all the Republican candidates believe the opposite."

yeah right... since the party of the first part (of the biggest fraud of all time) has got away with all their billions, NOW we want to close the gate

[cjppjc]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

Or the PA DA that was looking into the Penn State child rape charges a few years back that just up and . . . disappeared.

That DA had problems unrelated to Penn State.

[Prazak]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

and The Truth?... nah, who cares about that when its much better to highlight the outside 'consultants'...
(even if they were hired temps to make sure fan/fred were complying with the 'equal opportunity' laws...)

but... no matter, since We're Not in Kansas anymore, toto:

yeah right... since the party of the first part (of the biggest fraud of all time) has got away with all their billions, NOW we want to close the gate

Franklin Raines should definitely be under investigation for fraud. But must we conclude that this is a Democratic conspiracy? There are scores of banksters who should be under investigation, and I suspect not all of them, perhaps not even a majority of them, are Democratic. Indeed party affiliation means little to these people.

The big distinction with Gingrich is that he's running for President and his voluble positions on health care and Fannie Mae -- both reasonably central issues in the upcoming election -- are now shown up as hypocritical, indeed brazenly so.

Hypocrites abound, of course, in politics as in finance as in life. But with Newt loudly pushing into the spotlight we should not be shocked, or presume a liberal conspiracy, to see the spotlight turning up unpleasant facts about the man and his politics.

[Raz]

Re: Gingrich: Nice work if you can get it

... must we conclude that this is a Democratic conspiracy? There are scores of banksters who should be under investigation, and I suspect not all of them, perhaps not even a majority of them, are Democratic. Indeed party affiliation means little to these people. ....

It's a conspiracy of the Imperial Congress Party (ICP), better known as the RepubliCrats.



This place needs to be flushed like an industrial toilet.