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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Nice work if you can get it

Nice work if you can get it

by DougJ|  August 2, 20099:39 pm| 36 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Newt’s got a nice gig:

Newt Gingrich’s political group quietly pulled in an impressive $8.1 million in the first half of the year, a cash haul that enabled the former speaker of the House to finance a robust political operation that includes at least 17 employees.

[…..]

The operation, which includes a pollster and fundraisers, promotes Gingrich’s books, sends out direct mail, airs ads touting his causes and funds his travel across the country via charter and first-class airfare.

Last year, it spent $2.6 million on first-class or charter air travel for Gingrich and his staff, according to its 2008 tax returns. This year, it has spent about $670,000 on charter flights alone, according to Friday’s report.

[…]

For instance, the group accepted $250,00 from Peabody Energy, which also gave that much last year, and $100,000 each from American Electric Power and Plains Exploration and Production Company.

I suspect this isn’t unusual. But sometimes I find myself surprised that intellectually honest policy wonks like Newt are bought and sold so openly.

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36Comments

  1. 1.

    Demo Woman

    August 2, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    I’m confused, what happened to family values?

  2. 2.

    Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist

    August 2, 2009 at 9:44 pm

    Last year, it spent $2.6 million on first-class or charter air travel for Gingrich and his staff…

    I wouldn’t want to donate to an outfit that fritters the money away like that. Fiscal responsibility!

  3. 3.

    Comrade Darkness

    August 2, 2009 at 9:48 pm

    Wow. What a gig. Give us your moniez so we can pamper ourselves in luxury on your dime. Awesome.

    … I’m not sayin’ he’s a gold digga …

  4. 4.

    Scott H

    August 2, 2009 at 9:51 pm

    Yeah, so did anybody really think that mouth for hire was some latter-day Gandhi?

  5. 5.

    General Winfield Stuck

    August 2, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    I’m going to form the Stuck Party and threaten to run for office. Liquor and whores ain’t cheap out there on the trail, so how bout you fine BJ citizens pony up for some campaign cash.

    I promise, if I’m elected, I would commence to legalize, gambling, prostitution, public sex, plenty a stimulus, and good relations with the world, especially Argentina, and France.

    No checks, money orders, pay pal, or zombie bank notes. I only take cash on the barrel head, preferably Ben Franklin’s in brown envelopes.

    Gracias Amigo’s

  6. 6.

    PeakVT

    August 2, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    Wingnut welfair: ur doin it rite!

  7. 7.

    Comrade Jake

    August 2, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    This is a guy who, just a few months ago, stated that he thought Obama wakes up every morning looking to hurt Americans.

    Newt is perfectly capable of being honest, when he thinks it’ll get him attention. He’s also capable of bringing out the wingnut, when he thinks it’ll get him attention. He’s like McCain minus the whole War Hero/mavericky schtick.

  8. 8.

    Jim Kakalios

    August 2, 2009 at 10:06 pm

    In 2008 I saw Newt speak at an Aspen Ideas Festival type thing (might not have been exactly part of the Aspen Center – can’t recall).

    anyway, this part of the stroy caught my eye:

    “Last year, it spent $2.6 million on first-class or charter air travel for Gingrich and his staff, according to its 2008 tax returns. ”

    At Aspen, Newt was advocating overhauling and improving health care in the US, by replicating the deregulation and changes in the airline industry. As if the two were remotely similar: I can decide to skip a trip if it is too expensive, but probably should not delay a doctor’s exam waiting fro the price to come down.

    But more to the point, Newt came across as someone who had not flown coach since Caesar was in the second grade. Only someone who only knows first class service would even think to mimic airline travel in the health care field. Sure enough – there’s the proof.

    There’s really no surprise why the GOP have worked so hard to make ’empathy’ a dirty word.

  9. 9.

    jwb

    August 2, 2009 at 10:08 pm

    @General Winfield Stuck

    “I promise, if I’m elected, I would commence to legalize, gambling, prostitution, public sex, plenty a stimulus, and good relations with the world, especially Argentina, and France.”

    You can’t run on that platform; that’s what you run against so that you as a politician can commence to do all of that and charging it to your expense account. You need to add to your platform the legalization of rocket propelled grenades—for hunting moose. Also.

  10. 10.

    Comrade Darkness

    August 2, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    Nice quote from Newt’s buddy Dick Armey from two days ago:

    Armey claimed that in his world view, because God created the heavens and the Earth, it would be “quite pretentious” for people to believe God would permit global warming to even occur.

    And these dipshits were f*cking in charge of the most important decisions of this country. It gives me a panic attack to imagine that, even in hindsight.

  11. 11.

    Steeplejack

    August 2, 2009 at 10:31 pm

    It’s hard out there for a pimp.

    Some quick calculations: $2.6 million in airfare is about $144,000 each for Newt and 17 employees. At a thousand a pop for first-class tickets, that’s 144 trips each for the year. I haven’t flown anywhere first-class in like forever, so maybe I’m underestimating ticket prices, but probably not all 17 employees fly anywhere, much less first-class. But I guess it’s really the charters that add up.

    What is it exactly that Gingrich is selling? Access? If so, to whom? If I’m a sinister corporate fat cat, why wouldn’t I just go ahead and contribute directly to the elected politicians I want to influence? What does Newt bring to the table?

    And please don’t tell me it’s “insight,” because I can’t remember the last time Gingrich was even lucid, much less right, about anything.

    It just seems like some vast, circular, M.C. Escher-like machine. Money gets shoveled in and is used to fuel a vast machine to promote–more money being shoveled in. Fueling the echo chamber. But meanwhile Newt is riding high with his little empire.

    I guess this is what corporate welfare looks like.

  12. 12.

    Punchy

    August 2, 2009 at 10:48 pm

    Armey claimed that in his world view, because God created the heavens and the Earth, it would be “quite pretentious” for people to believe God would permit global warming to even occur.

    I cannot freakin believe how cool this past July was, and August now. It’s clear that global warming is finally over. The polar icecaps have largely melted, making the ocean much colder, and that cold water has made cold air that now dominates the weather. This is how global cooling happens.

  13. 13.

    Bootlegger

    August 2, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    “Bought and sold”? No, no, no my friends, this is simple free speech dontyaknow.

  14. 14.

    inkadu

    August 2, 2009 at 10:58 pm

    @Steeplejack: The disgraced former House Speaker brings AIR TIME to the arguments the corporations want made, arguments the politicians can’t make because they are too busy texting boy pages and are worried about taking a public stand that hurts them in their district.

    “Tonight we have disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich is here promoting his latest cash check from oil companies.”

  15. 15.

    Violet

    August 2, 2009 at 11:04 pm

    @Demo Woman:

    I’m confused, what happened to family values?

    Pffft. Family values are for the little people. And Democrats. Republicans don’t need to worry about such things. They just keep walking…on the Appalachian Trail…to Argentina.

  16. 16.

    ADM

    August 2, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    #11 SteepleJack:

    I think what Newt offers is access to large audiences, as well as helping foster a relationship with those who set the national dialog. He’s a critically acclaimed infomercial.

  17. 17.

    Comrade Darkness

    August 2, 2009 at 11:10 pm

    @Punchy: We’re currently in an El Niño condition and if you look at that red blob in the north pacific on the SST anomalies chart, you can see why Washington, Oregon, and BC have been roasting, and now, in the case of BC, burning uncontrollably. But go back to believing weather and climate are the same, I’m sure it makes life easier.

    Record high temperatures and tinder-dry conditions in the woods have 85 per cent of B.C. under high or extreme risk of fire, a situation Premier Gordon Campbell has called the most critical in recent memory.

    85% of BC is 330,000 square miles of area. That’s a whole lot of matchsticks.

  18. 18.

    Punchy

    August 2, 2009 at 11:24 pm

    @Comrade Darkness: Someone really needs to fix your snark detector.

  19. 19.

    RSA

    August 2, 2009 at 11:26 pm

    I cannot freakin believe how cool this past July was, and August now. It’s clear that global warming is finally over.

    Exactly. Reasoning along similar lines, I overheard a waiter at a restaurant saying that he’d made out pretty well on tips the other night. It’s clear that the recession is finally over.

  20. 20.

    Gozer

    August 2, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    I knew that when Der Newt reared his ginormous head recently it wasn’t due to any kind of renewed political aspirations.

    He is, like most modern republicans, a mercenary. Pure and simple.

  21. 21.

    AnotherBruce

    August 2, 2009 at 11:31 pm

    Jesus, I read that Time article. This is Joe Klein at his Joke Linest stupid. So Joe thinks Newt is a genius because he wonders why government can’t render aid to hurricane victims as easily as you can withdraw money from a bank machine? I’ll tell you why you can’t do that Newt. Because you’re going to be the first one screaming through your asshole when there are cases of fraud because the government did not perform due diligence when passing out checks.

    Joe, I think what you are describing as “genius” is described more accurately as “flatulence”.

  22. 22.

    zoe kentucky

    August 2, 2009 at 11:55 pm

    If anyone has access to HBO and/or “on demand” go watch the new documentary “Yes Men Fix the World” stat. It’s totally amazing– creative, smart, humble yet brilliant. One of the most impressive documentaries I’ve seen in a really long time.

    We watched it once and then after had to watch it again. It’s Michael Moore without all the self-aggrandizing & grandstanding. Can’t recommend it enough. It drives straight at the heart of what is fundametnally wrong with American/Friedman economic theory and corporate greed– profits over people does not make for a society that you want to live in.

  23. 23.

    General Winfield Stuck

    August 3, 2009 at 12:12 am

    Man O man. Don’t be reading the wingnut blogs tonight if you don’t want nightmares. I’ve seen them freek out before, but can’t remember the last time being at this level of pure unadulterated hate, as with the dude in Alaska claiming the Palin’s are breaking up./ All out blogswarm after somehow finding out the guy teaches Kindergarten. Don’t ask why cause I sure don’t know. Apparently we lefty’s are so afraid of Sarah Cuda we’ll go to any length to destroy her. Insanity on steroids.

  24. 24.

    Mike in NC

    August 3, 2009 at 12:14 am

    The Newtster is the ultimate Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex whore, who’s made sure he’ll pull in millions for years as a consultant to said groups. I imagine they’re still building aircraft the USAF doesn’t want/need in his former district to this day.

  25. 25.

    burnspbesq

    August 3, 2009 at 12:35 am

    @Jim Kakalios:

    Make health care more like air transportation? Yeah, that’s the ticket.

    Pricing models so bizarre that not even a room full of Ph.D.’s can make sense of them.

    A business model that seems to make treating customers like shit the highest priority of all.

    Labor relations that make the War of the Roses look like a company picnic.

    An industry whose biggest cost item fluctuates wildly in price, but those price movement can be effectively hedged against, and only one company bothers to hedge.

    If health care starts modeling itself on the airlines, I am transferring to the Paris office in about three seconds.

    Oh, and in case anyone has forgotten … Newt has never been about anything but Newt.

  26. 26.

    Maou

    August 3, 2009 at 12:54 am

    Uh, members of congress are bought and sold so openly. This… is hardly surprising.

  27. 27.

    Mike G

    August 3, 2009 at 1:11 am

    If I’m a sinister corporate fat cat, why wouldn’t I just go ahead and contribute directly to the elected politicians I want to influence? What does Newt bring to the table?

    Becuase of Newt’s inexplicable (well, not really) access to Sunday gasbag shows and other high profile media platforms, where they treat him as something other than the thermonuclear hypocrite and resigned-in-disgrace loser that he is. They’re buying advertising time in Newt’s twinkie-stuffed maw, and his access to influential talk shows makes him the equivalent of prime time.

    He’s a PR mouthpiece with access to loud microphones.
    Why the corporate media find this fat mercenary turd worthy of attention is a whole other issue.

    Washington is hard-wired for corporate rule, and that means lots of attention for the most light-weight and shallowest of Repigs and Blue Dogs. You think Palin or Quayle would ever get out of the starting block in the VP race if they were liberals?

    Corporate whoring, deregulation and tax cuts are considered ‘normal’, and Dems are ‘abnormal’ and must prove themselves in an endless uphill battle for recognition and respect.

  28. 28.

    Anne Laurie

    August 3, 2009 at 1:27 am

    What is it exactly that Gingrich is selling? Access? If so, to whom? If I’m a sinister corporate fat cat, why wouldn’t I just go ahead and contribute directly to the elected politicians I want to influence? What does Newt bring to the table?

    I’ve said this before: Newt Gingrinch, Futurist, looked at Jesse Jackson doing a televised press conference and thought, “Aging straight white male bigots are gonna need their own Outrage Spokesman! Time for me to get a piece of that!”

    Obviously, he’s doing rather nicely at it. Corporations pay Newt as a form of pre-emptive ransom, giving him money as a very public way of indicating that they totally sympathize with the grievances of America’s aging white male bigots. This, the corporate boards hope, will protect them against attacks by the aging white male bigots further down the food chain income pyramid. Sure, MegaSystems MultiVantix — soon to be rebranded as SYNTIP — may have not-white men and even a woman or two among the senior associate vice presidents responsible for shipping factory production from Raleigh and Tupelo to Bangalore, but MSMV has nothing but public respect for the now-unemployed aging white male factory workers who’ve been misled to believe that their plight is the fault of Uppity Minorities, not of the soulless criminals (aging white male bigots every one) at the head of SYNTIP!

  29. 29.

    Uloborus

    August 3, 2009 at 2:57 am

    You guys are so cynical – or maybe not cynical enough. This strikes me more as an example of the way that politicians get eased.into bribery. Granting that a charming and modest gentleman like Newt has probably traveled the whole road a few times.

    People aren’t always ruled by self-interest in their political views. The Repubs RELY on voters screwing themselves over in favor of gut impulses. I doubt corps have to rely on direct bribery much. Not saying they wouldn’t or can’t find eager recipients. But all they have to do is find some dufus who BELIEVES that, say, regulation is hurting the energy industry. Finance him as he shouts your opinions to the hills. And after he’s used to you giving him lots of money, when you want something specific, well, you’re his friends and allies and your argument that not giving cheap leases to drill national parks is a waste seems very convincing. After awhile, you get offended by anyone who expects you to support their cause without paying you, and you’re ready for outright bribes because you no longer believe it’s wrong.

    This is all speculation. The point is, I think there’s enough grey area most of these guys don’t think they’re being bought at all.

  30. 30.

    cosanostradamus

    August 3, 2009 at 6:30 am

    .
    Remember, this is the asshole that got all pissy about a ride on Air Force One, when Clinton was POTUS. Airplane superiority is of supreme importance to him. Imagine if he ever got his hands on the US Air Force.

    I tell ya, it’s enough to drive a guy to drink, with Liberace, Mario Lanza and Monty Python.
    .

  31. 31.

    bago

    August 3, 2009 at 8:24 am

    The free newt ad makes this perfect.

  32. 32.

    Napoleon

    August 3, 2009 at 8:26 am

    @Steeplejack:

    You are assuming he is flying commercial. With those numbers he almost certainly is not.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    August 3, 2009 at 11:40 am

    @Napoleon:

    You are assuming he is flying commercial.

    I just used that as a rough metric for man-in-the-street man-in-coach comparison. As I said, the charters must add up. My point was that’s an astronomical number for such a small organization.

  34. 34.

    scav

    August 3, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    pulling a hansel and gretle test here

  35. 35.

    nussmier

    August 3, 2009 at 4:54 pm

    Text

  36. 36.

    Sly

    August 3, 2009 at 5:38 pm

    Getting millions of dollars for comparing completely unrelated economic sectors, with different operating principles of competition and pricing. Wow. I’m clearly in the wrong business. I can make far more convincing bullshit arguments than Newt Gingrich.

    Anyone have a contact at the Competitive Enterprise Institute? I have an idea about reforming the Federal Housing Administration to make it operate more like a deep sea fishing company, and I’m sure they’d be willing to offer me a few hundred thousand to develop it further.

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