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DEL.ICIO.USNewt Gingrich and Freddie Mac
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Associated Press has an item just out documenting the way Freddie Mac fended off meaningful regulation with bucketloads of cash — and free tickets to the Nationals:
Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006. Power brokers such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were recruited with six-figure contracts. Freddie Mac paid the following amounts to the firms of former Republican lawmakers or ex-GOP staffers in 2006:
— Sen. Alfonse D’Amato of New York, at Park Strategies, $240,000.
— Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota, at Clark & Weinstock, $360,297.
— Rep. Susan Molinari of New York, at Washington Group, $300,062.
— Susan Hirschmann at Williams & Jensen, former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, $240,790.
Here’s how the AP explained Gingrich’s role:
The Bush administration and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan were sounding the alarm about the potential threat to the nation’s financial health if the fortunes of the two mammoth companies turned sour.
They did eventually, when they took on $1 trillion worth of subprime mortgages and when their traditional guarantee business deteriorated. Commercial banks regarded Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as competitors and were anxious to pick up business that would result from scaling back the two companies.
Pushing back, Freddie Mac enlisted prominent conservatives, including Gingrich and former Justice Department official Viet Dinh, paying each $300,000 in 2006, according to internal records.
Gingrich talked and wrote about what he saw as the benefits of the Freddie Mac business model.
Dinh wrote a legal analysis of private property rights that viewed a hypothetical government-enforced sale of Freddie Mac assets as constitutionally suspect.
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Comments
By Will Jones
December 8, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this
Here’s the key to understanding where America is today:Viet Dihn vs. Paul Craig Roberts by Paul Craig Roberts.
Bush did 9/11 and Roman Catholic immigrant fascists like Viet Dihn - elevated by Rome and its American Fifth Column - presume to tell us what the Patriot Act should be, as though obedience to Our Creed were not enough, and support caesaropapism in Our Land.
Educate the redeemable. Death for Treason.
By dittohead
December 8, 2008 10:34 AM | Link to this
WE NOW HAVE THE FOXes GUARDING THE HENhouse.....Tomorrow...all the HENs will be gone.By The Snark
December 8, 2008 10:56 AM | Link to this
Hey Dittohead:
Glad you’re finally waking up to reality. Yes, we now have the foxes guarding the henhouse … but a lot of those foxes will be gone in six weeks.
By FUBU
December 8, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this
Sir:
Why is yours almost always an anti-Republican blog?
Is your appeal limited to people whom you regard as kindred spirits? “Monotonous” does not begin to describe your life’s work.
There is more to life than appealing to union members, the gay/lesbian/bi-sexual/transgendered, environmentalists, communists, anti-capitalists, peace activists, governmentalists, anti-Christianistas, egghead higher education elitists, Blame America Firsters, government employees, pro-abortionists, pro-marijuana/pro-drug activists, and secularists in general. (Oh, and the lone third column nut job. Sorry to list you last my pope-fixated fellow.)
Dare to expand your market appeal.
Yes, you can. (Maybe you can relate to that one.)
By Flip Wilson
December 8, 2008 12:17 PM | Link to this
Hey, give the guy a break. He needed the dough to wine and dine his mistresses. How else do you expect a fat old gasbag to get laid?
By This is the worst paper, ever.
December 8, 2008 12:35 PM | Link to this
Not a word from the Urinal Constipation on the fact that Barney Frank’s (D-MA) boy friend worked for Fannie. And that Frank opposed all efforts to address the impending mortgage meltdown as recently as last July. In fact, Frank said that everything was fine at Fannie and Freddie. This is the same Frank that was running a gay brothel out of his basement and claimed he did not know.
Not a word that Chirs Dodd (D-CT) got a sweetheart mortgage, to the tune of well over $100,000.00 from Countrywide. You guys at this yellow lib paper are not even trying to hide your bias. I guess hoping that you guys will run a companion story on Democrat law makers that blocked all efforts to reform Fannie and Freddie is a waste of time, right?
By Jones, Will
December 8, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this
Bush did not “do” 9/11. Will Jones is a lunatic. Will, you should ask Flip Wilson for the name of his shrink. I am afraid that our are terminally ignorant. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
By Aaron Burr V. Mexico
December 8, 2008 4:07 PM | Link to this
Ahm sorry Worst….did the paper make you mad by not telling you only what you wanted to hear?
Well there’s always Fox news.
By Aaron Burr V. Mexico, Jr.
December 8, 2008 4:59 PM | Link to this
Only Republicans are bad. Wake up.
By Denise
December 8, 2008 9:51 PM | Link to this
“Ahm sorry Worst….did the paper make you mad by not telling you only what you wanted to hear?”
Aaron Burr V. Mexico, Jr.,
Of course it did! The economy is tanked but it can’t be the fault of those who were in charge when it got that way. What kind of irrational nonsense would THAT be???
By RW
January 9, 2009 3:14 AM | Link to this
Has anyone seen or have a link to the internal budget report showing Newt took the $300K in 2006 from Freddie Mac?
By RW
January 9, 2009 3:18 AM | Link to this
Has anyone seen or have a link to the internal budget report showing that Newt took the $300K in 2006 from Freddie Mac?
By RW
January 9, 2009 3:18 AM | Link to this
Has anyone seen or have a link to the internal budget report showing that Newt took the $300K in 2006 from Freddie Mac?