Gingrich received $1.6 million from Freddie Mac, the politically connected mortgage firm that’s collapsing at great taxpayer expense.
This drastically undercuts his credentials as a small-government conservative.
Gingrich tries to dig himself out. But listen: (emphasis added)
"I just want to set the record straight," Gingrich said. "We had a company. The company had three different offices. We were paid annually for six years, so the numbers you see are six years of work. Most of that money went to pay for overhead, for staff, for other things that didn't go directly to me." http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-rt-us-usa-campaign-gingrichtre7bg0ho-20111217,0,804746.story
It went to a company I owned, so it didn’t really go DIRECTLY to me. Great defense. So much better that it went INDIRECTLY to him. Maybe next time they could leave the money in a bus station locker.
We had a company. Sure, but it was your company.
Six years of work. So much better that this shows Gingrich was in bed with these guys for six years, not just a short affair.
Money went to pay for overhead. Once money gets inside a company, its fungible – it could go anywhere and it doesn’t matter if this dollar A goes to pay Peter and dollar A goes to pay for Paul, or vice-versa. This makes no more sense than the contention of the state of Illinois that lottery proceeds go to fund education – nominally, they do, but that has just meant other state funding was cut so that the amount provided to education didn’t increase.
It seems like this “explanation” just digs himself in deeper. But then this is a man who, despite a miserable marital record of his own, tried to crucify Clinton for his dalliance with Monica.
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