The shit that comes out of this guy’s mouth:
Newt Gingrich said on Wednesday night that his advocacy with state and federal legislators for policies that would help his paying clients was in keeping with his role as a citizen, and was not evidence that he ever acted as a lobbyist.
Speaking in an interview with the Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, Mr. Gingrich appeared to be referring to an article in The New York Times on Wednesday detailing how he has made millions of dollars while helping his corporate clients promote themselves to — and gain access to — state and federal officials.
He referred to a news briefing mentioned in the article in which he joined with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2005 to promote a bill co-sponsored by Representative Patrick J. Kennedy, Democrat of Rhode Island, and Representative Tim Murphy, Republican of Pennsylvania, that would have increased the use of electronic medical health records.
He’ll get away with it, too.
dmsilev
Entirely consistent with his theory that excessive patriotism leads to adultery.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That’s because The Newt doesn’t believe in Big Government you Commie. Pretty black and white, government gives your records to private industry so Big Brother is out of your life.
Comrade Dread
Yes, just like when a person engages in sexual conduct with another person for money it is in keeping with their role as a generous, giving human being, and not evidence that they’re acting like a prostitute.
The Moar You Know
In other news, it looks like Tom Coburn, of all people, has had a come-to-Jesus moment regarding how the rich are treated in this country.
I wonder what his angle is.
scav
It’s simply amazing how many people give up their free time to go door to door, delivering mail or stand over hot stoves, wearing silly uniforms, making free burgers for all. The tips associated with these patriotic pastimes that coincidentally show up in envelopes with windows and federal documentation (for some unknown reason) are slightly smaller however.
Brandon
The fact that Newt is so open and so blatant with his graft is exactly why he’ll get away with it. I remember seeing a History channel thing on military camoflauge (sp?) once and the most surprising thing to me was that if you covered a massive sherman tank in lights during the day, it was impossible to see approaching on the horizon. Newts scandals shine so bright in light of day that they are nearly impossible to see or differentiate anymore.
schrodinger's cat
BTW John, on the Daily Dish, Sullivan has posted an extra long post on IQ and race, which I haven’t read. Just thought you should know. Also how about an update of the great white one (with an orange tail) with photos and a video.
PeakVT
Has an enterprising reporter/blogger investigated how Newt’s “comeback” was engineered? The guy has no natural constituency among voters. At some point the right wing infrastructure started pushing him, and I’d like to see it traced through the media. /assignment desk
ETA: @The Moar You Know: He hasn’t; he’s engaging in PR. Look at the scale of the numbers.
Linda Featheringill
@The Moar You Know:
Coburn:
Hot damn.
trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
You are a very, very naughty person!
Rommie
I’m not so sure he’ll get away with it. The only thing that can enrage Teh Romney even more than an uppity FN interviewer is the idea that he’ll lose to NEWT, of all people. I can’t see him not trying to plant a rusty pitchfork in Mr. Speaker’s back.
Then again, being the Mittster, he’ll probably use the wrong end and fail. And I’m sure he’s too proud to ask the expert BJ rusty-pitchfork wielders for any advice.
The Moar You Know
Gingrich, while as unappealing as a tub of rancid lard, is the one GOP candidate in this race who scares me. He has that Reagan gift of being able to present the most appalling ideas imaginable and make them sound perfectly reasonable.
As to his personal life, he is handling that – so far – with an adroitness which suggests that he studied how Clinton handled his bimbo eruption VERY closely and has learned quite a bit.
He’s also the only guy who would be able to debate Obama with any degree of skill at all, although I’m convinced Obama would still ruin him and even if he didn’t, the medium of television sure would.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@The Moar You Know:
If a yacht (yacht does not always mean luxury – a converted work boat, for example is considered a yacht) is a family’s only residence, I have no problem with a mortgage deduction.
Rihilism
New line for a bank robbery:
I’M A CITIZEN! GIMME ALL YOUR FUCKING MONEY!….
The Moar You Know
@PeakVT: I know. They are trivial. It’s not the numbers, it’s fact that he’s discussing the issue in any way, shape, or form at all that I find very…heartening.
Somehow, the discussion of privilege in this country has been reframed like nothing I’ve seen in my lifetime. The fellators of the wealthy largely have been caught off guard by it. I view Coburn’s editorial there as a victory, not for any substantive proposals but because he’s now talking in the language of class war – from the proper side.
Get enough people talking like that and things will change.
geg6
Well, maybe not completely.
He did turn Catholic, after all. He’ll have to go to confession and repent for his many, many sins of lying. However, since lying is really only a venial sin, he’ll say a couple of Hail Marys and Our Fathers and be right back out on the hustings, lying his big fat ass off all over the place. Just like every day. And just like all Catholics. That’s how it works. Sin all you want, say a few quick prayers and Bob’s your uncle.
Jenny
I was watching Morning Blow today and they’re besides themselves that Mittens is losing to Newt.
It was so delicious.
boss bitch
Why does she make it so easy?
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Having skimmed it, I suspect it’s a camel’s nose under the tent way of introducing SS and Medicare means testing, and perhaps sunsetting the mortgage interest deduction, which primarily benefits the middle class. From the Recommendations:
Emphasis added.
Mark S.
Oh, he was being interviewed by Hannity. If Newt ever deigns to be interviewed by a non-Fox employee, I hope they ask him how in the hell anyone would qualify as a lobbyist under his incredibly stupid definition.
General Stuck
I think the wingnuts have made their choice to run against Obama, and it’s Newt the Slimymander. It’s a choice of last resort, but they already knew the score with him and his, inconsistencies (cough). And Newt himself has been upfront with his many skeletons, and the rest he explains away in tongues, of which he is fluent.
They are all mean and crazy, but Newt has that special quality of diving head long into the rhetorical sewer as a lung fish, and be right at home. He was speaker during the good econ times in the 90’s and far as we know, has been keeping his pecker in line, at least since the last time it wondered/wandered.
Think about it. Newt 2012 Gop candidate. I would have bet the farm, ranch, and country club, that such a thing was not possible.
Jenny
Things are so bad for Mittens that even the liburel Mark Halperin has jumped shipped.
WaterGirl
@The Moar You Know: I read the article at your link. That’s a shocker coming from him.
Rick Massimo
The one thing that’s going to be entertaining about this campaign season will be Our Media Stars trying DESPERATELY to come up with an explanation why a multimillionaire lobbyist/grifter/adulterer is the darling of the supposedly fiscally-prudent, socially-conservative crowd without using the phrase “angry, old, white Americans saying ‘fuck you’ to the rest of the country.”
Well, it would be entertaining if it was some other country, anyway …
Mark S.
@Comrade Dread:
Right. As Professor Gingrich explained, the money part is irrelevant. It’s no different than having sex with your third wife.
schrodinger's cat
@trollhattan: Thanks, I will take that as a compliment. I love how John skewers the bearded one, I think in his new post John should aim for the Moore award.
trollhattan
@General Stuck:
Here’s why I think Newton will fail: he loves himself and the camera, any camera, too much. He’s “too smart” to follow any handlers’ instructions. He will bask in the attention being a frontrunner brings, like Homer basking in a kiddie pool filled with Duff and donuts.
And he will manage to kill off his own campaign by Newt being Newt.
Face
I hear Cain didn’t engage his mistress as an cheating husband, he engaged her as a citizen and a vagina tourist.
eemom
With a shitty attitude like that on “our side”, he will.
trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
I sure hope Moko’s been getting some rest. There’s a 300-post thread a-brewin’.
Cat Lady
Callista will make Cindy McCain look like a flower child hippie chick. If Newt ends up being the last one standing, she’s going to be a punchline. She is not an asset.
eemom
@schrodinger’s cat:
WHY do you hate me? :(
RalfW
Yes, in the sense that he will not withdraw from the nomination fight. But the press is fickle, and they will get bored with Newtie being in first place.
They also don’t tend to like it when a pol too obviously dodges and weaves. The maneuvers Newtie has to go thru to claim he didn’t lobby don’t pass a basic smell test.
kindness
What is so incredible is if any Democrat had come out with the bullshit dog ate my homework replies that almost all the Repubs have they’d be laughed off the interview.
But if it’s a Repub doing the overt lying….not so much. Gee, why is that?
dedc79
I have to admit to being surprised by how blatant this lie was, even coming from a pathological liar like Newt.
He’s deconstructed lobbying in a way such that nobody is actually a lobbyist as long as they buy their own bullshit (or pretend to).
I’m not a lawyer, I’m just a citizen with a law degree who gives out legal advice to people who just happen to pay me.
RalfW
OT, but related to my mentioning smell tests:
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ran the latest GOP bullshit on the Walker recall thru the Truth-O-Meter, and came up pretty stinky.
eemom
@geg6:
uh oh, you said “his big fat ass.” Suzie-Q the PeeCee Fairy will be along any minute now to turn you into a Goon.
trollhattan
@Cat Lady:
Calista reminds me of a certain Terry Gilliam film.
http://www.amazingmonkeys.com/wp-content/plugins/rss-poster/cache/e1d97_brazil-terry-gilliam.jpg
General Stuck
@trollhattan:
I have no idea what is running around the current wingnut brain in their primary. But I do think that Newt is the best bullshitter of the lot, and that goes a long way with voters with poor choices.
For a GE, I am just relieved not being a republican. It must be tiring for them getting through each day feeding so many lies. And that’s just the sane ones.
dollared
@RalfW: Thanks. Check out the list for Walker statements. 15 statements, 15 lies. Oh, and the Journal Sentinel endorsed him, AND opposes the recall.
Nothing like a leading newspaper dedicated to good government for all the citizens of hte state.
Redshift
It depends what the definition of “lobby” is.
This is one of those cases where everyone knows Newt is lying. They may accept his excessively legalistic definition and pretend it’s true, but for a layman’s understanding of lobbying, it’s obvious that’s what Newt was doing.
I think it’s time to reread Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit.” It helped me understand when Bush Administration officials were telling lies that were so transparently obvious, I couldn’t figure out what purpose they served (like “He didn’t cut his vacation short and fly back to sign the Schaivo law; he was always planning to come back then.”) Gingrich does the same thing — not the run-of-the-mill repetition of talking points that have no relation to the truth, but telling whoppers that are probably intended to play the “if you’re objective, you can only report what I say” media like a fiddle.
Jay in Oregon
So let me get this straight:
Gingrich’s claim was that they were paying him for work that was indistinguishable from lobbying, but he wasn’t lobbying because he would have been doing that ANYWAY so he didn’t need to register as a lobbyist?
Has he heard of Occam’s Razor? The simplest explanation that fits the evidence is usually the correct one. Or, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…”
RalfW
@The Moar You Know: Coborn decrying $9 billion in retirement checks is a highly problematic target. Means-testing Social Security checks is most likely what he means.
The brilliance of SSI is that damn near everybody pays in, and gets back. It becomes welfare if that’s not the set-up.
sven
This reminds me of the debate over whether Paul Ryan wants to ‘end Medicare’. Was this lobbying? No, because I didn’t call it lobbying. Am I ending Medicare? No, it will still be called Medicare. I wonder how Politifact would rate this one….
trollhattan
@General Stuck:
I do agree he’s glib and a polished liar, and I think he’ll hang in there for a good while. I just don’t think he has the capacity to behave himself long enough to get the nomination, much last another eleven months to the general. Besides, he’s only been elected in Georgia and there’s no precedent for…oh…nevermind.
Villago Delenda Est
The utter scum that are the Villagers loves them the “intellectual” Newt.
He’ll get away with it.
trollhattan
@General Stuck:
I do agree he’s glib and a polished liar, and I think he’ll hang in there for a good while. I just don’t think he has the capacity to behave himself long enough to get the nomination, much less last another eleven months to the general. Besides, he’s only been elected in Georgia and there’s no precedent for…oh…nevermind.
RalfW
@dollared:
Hardly the only newspaper where the editorial page is insane but the news-gatherers are still slogging along trying to uncover a truth or two.
ETA: It does boggle that a paper in the city that Walker “managed” would endorse him. I’m glad I’m an in-law who visits MKE from Minnesota 6 or 7 days a year.
EETA: out-law. My man and I are choosing not to marry people of the opposite sex as Michele so helpfully suggests…
sven
@Redshift: Yup. The ‘sources’ include: a conversation between Newt and Sean Hannity, a conversation between Newt and Bill O’Reilly, and a comment from one of his clients. The story doesn’t even include a “Democrats disagree…” as a nod to reality. This is no better than stenography.
daveNYC
@trollhattan: Possibly, but with the way the polls are looking if he can hold his shit together for about six weeks, Romney will be in a real tight spot. That’s a big if, but it could happen.
bemused
Randi Rhodes is dishing about Newt today. Randi has gone through his downfall as Speaker era. She said his mother used to call her show all the time and talk about Newt. Mom said Newt didn’t have any friends when he was a kid, that he wanted to own a circus so he’d have friends. Perhaps, in a fashion, he has finally realized his boyhood dream. He’s got his circus and could count his supporters as quasi friends.
I also heard Rep. Jim McDermott on the radio telling his Newt stories from Newt’s Speaker days. Laughing, he said he had written a play about Newt. I think he was serious.
An entertaining day. Now to watch cranky Mitt’s interview with Brett whatshisname and read about Mitt’s throwing a hissy fit at him after.
JPL
@dmsilev: I can’t believe the MSM didn’t attack that explanation for days. haha
John should use it as a tag when discussing Newt.
Rick Massimo
@sven: It’s worse than stenography. As Glenn Greenwald once said, a good stenographer is absolutely indispensible, because they take down EVERYTHING that EVERYBODY says. Calling this crowd stenographers is an insult to stenographers.
Rick Massimo
@Villago Delenda Est: The Villagers think, “He calls people stupid, so he MUST be smart!”
Cat Lady
@Villago Delenda Est:
He’ll get away with it for a while because Mitt is disliked and there’s a horse race to fill Villager air time, but Newt is hated by a LOT of beltway pols and their Village enablers. He made no friends in his time in DC, and has no network to draw on outside of DC. He’s no blank slate for the Kochs, and no empty vessel for the neocons, and no outsider businessman type for the Murdochs. He’s going to get in trouble with his mouth cuz he believes in his own cleverness, and will never realize what hit him. Like someone said, his baggage has baggage.
g
I agree with trollhattan. Newt will overreach. Just like he did with his whining over being made to sit in the back of AF1, his ego will run away with him and he’ll turn a lot of people off. He’s already skirting the line now, bragging he’s the front-runner as though he’s measuring the windows for the drapes.
he will not get womens’ votes.
smintheus
@Mark S.:
Worth pointing out the obvious: you don’t actually qualify as a lobbyist, you register as one. If Newtie ever acknowledges he lobbied, then he’ll be admitting he broke the law.
It will be especially interesting if information turns up that he lobbied for a foreign gov’t or foreign corporation.
smintheus
@sven: Or the debate over whether we torture when we subject prisoners to what used to be called ‘the water torture’.
Somebody should ask Newtie: “So when you were having your various extra-marital affairs, were you acting as a husband engaging in adultery or as a citizen engaging in free speech?”
Menzies
@Jenny:
You realize that, per the Halperin Axiom, that means he’s going to get the nomination.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@PeakVT:
How is this scenrio; The GOP inner circle looks at Mittens and sees him melting down on a interview with Fox News of all things. They think, ZOMG! Mittens will turn to butter against Obama, 2012 will be worse than 2008 for the GOP! Well there is Newt.
Yes Newt is morally corrupt, physically unappealing and offends a lot of people. But the base likes him. At lest the base will come out to vote for him and keep 2012 coming Cal 2010, on a national scale.
There is more to the election than just the president.
Villago Delenda Est
@bemused:
This sounds like the plot of an episode of South Park, where Cartman is desperately trying to get some friends.
Funny, but I can see Newt screaming “Respect my authoritay!” at wayward GOP House members…
Menzies
@Villago Delenda Est:
I can also see him tricking the occasional challenger into eating chili made from his (the challenger’s, not Newt’s) dead parents. But then I’m a darker soul than most.
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
That’s brilliant! I can so see Newton–big or little edition–offering Polly Prissy Pants more tea and her telling him how kewhl he is.
Jenny
@Menzies: Hahahahah. I know. it’s hilarious. Halperin spent the last three years fluffing Mittens as the next president and now Mittens is going down in flames.
gene108
@The Moar You Know:
To turn Social Security into a welfare program, which is the first step right-wingers need to stamp it out.
Also, too he lumps stuff together that middle-class folks benefit from like child care credits, unemployment benefits, farm subsidies, etc., as benefits not due to millionaires, though I’m sure there are some wage scale issues with something like child care credits that make his line of reasoning faulty, as well as the fact unemployment insurance – like Social Security – is a government sponsored insurance, where you get back what you pay into it and therefore it isn’t means tested (as stated above, means testing is the first step to turn it into welfare and thus makes it easier to eliminate).
I almost want to believe Coburn has some principles, but then he opens his mouth or pens something like the inane op-ed you linked to and it erases doubts that he’s nothing more than another foot soldier for the right-wingers.
Menzies
@Jenny:
Maybe it’s like the Madden curse. As soon as Halperin “endorses” someone, that person is doomed.
SenyorDave
At some point Newt will have to defend his absurd tax plan (no tax on capital gains, kills the middle class). If its against Obama, he’ll have more than a little trouble.
Newt’s a full-fledged amoral degenerate. Ads will write themselves.
SiubhanDuinne
@boss bitch:
Dear FSM, I hope you have a link for that. Too delicious!
SiubhanDuinne
@boss bitch:
@SiubhanDuinne:
Never mind the link, I just saw the video clip Anne Laurie posted earlier today. Wow.