Newt Gingrich was Paid $1.6 Million by Freddie Mac for His "Counsel"

Yesterday, I posted a story about the outrage sparked in the Imperial Capital about the nearly $100 million in compensation being paid out to the top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Notable from that article was that much of the outrage was coming from Congressional Republicans. And now, incredibly, less than 24 hours later comes a report from Talking Points Memo that the now-rising Republican presidential hopeful, Newt Gingrich, took $1.6 million in bribes consulting fees from Freddie Mac over a four year period:

Self-proclaimed housing historian Newt Gingrich had two contracts with mortgage company Freddie Mac and was paid between $1.6 million and $1.8 million in consulting fees, two sources familiar with the agreements have told Bloomberg.

Mitchell Delk, Freddie Mac’s chief lobbyist, was Gingrich’s key contact. But Delk told Bloomberg that Gingrich — who was paid a monthly retainer of $25,000 to $30,000 between May 1999 until 2002 — “did not do any lobbying” and was instead provided counsel on public policy issues.

That's an awful lot of coin just for some consulting work. So what did the old Newtster do for that money, anyway?

“I spent about three hours with him talking about the substance of the issues and the politics of the issues, and he really got it,” Delk told Bloomberg, adding that they discussed “what the benefits are to communities, what the benefits could be for Republicans and particularly their relationship with Hispanics.”

One of Gingrich’s ideas, according to Bloomberg, was for Freddie Mac to start a program with the Boy Scouts of America that would teach them the importance of saving money and maintaining good credit so they could buy a house down the line. Freddie Mac didn’t pursue it.

Wow--it sure sounds to me like the taxpayers really got their money's worth, all right. And this is the same guy who is riding high in the Republican presidential polls right now having spent his whole career bashing federal gvernment spending. The official corruption runs so deep these days that it has all become accepted standard practice, and BOTH parties are up to their necks in it.

You just can't make this stuff up.


Update:

Now Gingrich says he doesn't even know HOW he got the Freddie Mac money. In-fucking-credible.

Responding to reports that housing giant Freddie Mac paid him $1.6 million, GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich said he didn’t know exactly how the transaction came to be.

“I have no idea about the details… It was paid to Gingrich Group. Gingrich Group has many clients,” said Gingrich.