UPDATED: Campaign responds – Is Newt Gingrich a conservative sellout?

***UPDATED***

Sure sounds like it to me. Remember when Bloomberg broke the story showing that Gingrich did work for Freddie Mac and made millions? Here’s the important part:

Former Freddie Mac officials familiar with his work in 2006 say Gingrich was asked to build bridges to Capitol Hill Republicans and develop an argument on behalf of the company’s public-private structure that would resonate with conservatives seeking to dismantle it.

He was expected to provide written material that could be circulated among free-market conservatives in Congress and in outside organizations, said two former company executives familiar with Gingrich’s role at the firm. He didn’t produce a white paper or any other document the firm could use on its behalf, they said.

Gingrich claimed he was advising Freddie that their models were wrong and would basically lead to collapse. But our good friends at Verum Serum did some digging recently and found that Newt actually made arguments for Freddie Mac in support of the GSEs (Government Sponsored Entities). Here’s a few quotes from Gingrich that Verum Serum found on Freddie Mac’s website back in 2007/2008:

I like the GSE model because it provides a more efficient, market-based alternative to taxpayer-funded government programs. It marries private enterprise to a public purpose. We obviously don’t want to use GSEs for everything, but there are times when private enterprise alone is not sufficient to achieve a public purpose.

The housing GSEs have made an important contribution to homeownership and the housing finance system. We have a much more liquid and stable housing finance system than we would have without the GSEs. And making homeownership more accessible and affordable is a policy goal I believe conservatives should embrace.

So while we need to improve the regulation of the GSEs, I would be very cautious about fundamentally changing their role or the model. itself

There’s more at Verum Serum so please go there and check it out.

Here are my questions: If Newt is the smartest man in the room and saw the collapse coming, did he do this in spite of the coming collapse just to pad his pockets? And even if he didn’t see the collapse coming, why was he willing to whore out his conservatism to try and keep Republicans from dismantling something that needed dismantling?

I’m sorry folks, but this makes me angry. If all of this is true (and Newt needs to address this) then he’s a sellout. Plain and simple.

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UPDATE: Gingrich campaign responds to this story. Please see new post for update.


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