Mitt Romney may need to pay Newt Gingrich $1.6 million before this is all over.
Tuesday morning, the Romney campaign released an email ripping Gingrich for releasing just one year of his many as a consultant to Freddie Mac — work pretty much everyone other than Gingrich has characterized as lobbying. The slightly tongue-in-cheek email offered a $1.6 million “reward” (the amount of the Freddie contract) for the missing documents. On Laura Ingraham’s radio show Tuesday, Gingrich said he wasn’t aware any contracts were missing and said his firm, the Gingrich Group, will call on Freddie to release them.
“Presumably they do,” Gingrich told Ingraham when she asked if Freddie Mac has copies of the missing documents, “and I’m sure that we’ll ask them if they’ll release them because it’s the exact same contract.”
“I’m sure that they’ll go back and ask them for them,” Gingrich added. “Frankly I didn’t know until you just told me this, so I’ll go back and ask what the deal is.”
The back story on the missing contracts, from Bloomberg:
[Gingrich’s] first contract — spanning 1999 to 2002 and worth between $1 million and $1.2 million, according to two people familiar with the agreement — wasn’t released because officials at the Center for Health Transformation can’t find it, said Susan Meyers, a center spokeswoman who works for the Gingrich campaign. The 2006 contract also applied to 2007, she said, meaning the total value of that contract was $600,000. ‘We’re not even sure we signed anything for 2007,’ said Meyers.
This is the kind of thing gives competing campaigns a field day. And so Romney gleefully fired off his $1.6 million reward email. But if Gingrich follows through on his promised to get Freddie Mac to release their copies of the contracts, he may take some of Romney’s lobbying line of attack off the table.
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
No matter what they release or what it shows the two top GOP contenders are openly admitting that they were involved with Freddie & Fannie which are the right-wings favorite foils for the entire economic downturn/recession.
It's total BS & one hell of a weak attempt to get their bush brigade off the hook but they are fully invested. How can they stick to the, it's the loans to poor people that did it, line & still back two insiders that profitted heavily from the imagined nefarious scheme?
Again, this isn't about family values, moral turpitude, jobs, the economy or fairness. The whole of the republican primary voters would dive happily into a double dip recession if they can just not have a black president that is making them look so bad.
Freddie already said they would release the info. Newt said that it was HIS company that wouldn't agree to the release of info. What a liar!
From Livefyre...
(The liberal) Gingrich In 1968 Led Protests Against Censoring Nude Pictures
Hey, did ya'll see where ol' Newt ain't gunna participate in any mo' of them there debates unless true Amer-e-KKK-cans can cheer after he speaks?
There IS a God.
Is it ironic that Newt endorser Fred Thompson is appearing in commercials for a reverse mortgage company, or just business as usual?
Mickey Bitsko selective socialism.....thy name is GOP
I think republicans are preparing to forse entire US into reverse mortgage.
It's not the contracts we need to see, it's the work product. The contracts tell us nothing.
Hank Right. What we really need to see is the reports, emails, etc.
I had a Newt Gingrich once. It did not respond at all well to antibiotics but Absorbine jr. did the trick.
The contracts are rather beside the point, since they are almost certainly written to vague about what Newt was providing. We can be sure that they weren't to document the history of Freddie Mac, since no one would pay millions for that. Newt says he gave them advice, but he is not an economist nor an expert on housing. His PhD theisis in History was on Belgian colonial policy in the Congo. The connection to the US housing market escapes me. Also, since Freddie went bust, either his advice sucked or they ignored it or both. So that leaves lobbying and general influence peddling, doesn't it?
Don't call us, Newt, we'll call you.
So the south are a bunch of hateful hypocrites. Nothing new here. The thought of 4 years of listening to blowhard Newt is so disgusting I am having a hard time paying attention.
Newt: I’ll Call On Freddie Mac To Release The Rest Of My Contract
Newt (sub rosa): I'll ask my buddies at Freddie Mac to never to 'find' the rest of my contract!
This is why Gingrich is beating Romney now - he's simply better at the politics. Even though the dirt on Gingrich stinks more, he puts it out there and says to the public - nothing new here, nothing to see, but decide for yourself and go read it. Knowing full well that those that want to believe won't . Romney on the other hand covers it all up. He resists, he squirms, he attacks the very idea that someone would ask questions. He calls Newt a socialist.
We know Newt is guilty and the republican base accepts him as such. Romney just makes himself look more guilty and nobody likes that. Even his surrogates (apologists) are confused by his behavior.
Eric Madsen Newt is the new master of sotto voce racial politics, taking over the title formerly held by Jesse Helms.
Seems odd to me that Newt does not himself have copies of his own contracts.
I wonder if Newt & Romney are going to release 10 more years of their Tax Returns? This is the question that needs to be asked and both of them need to answer it. Because neither of them have provided enough tax info to cover their @$$. They have both merely created addidional clouds of suspicions. What are both of them hiding?
Chuckie part 3 in Florida.....and i wont talk about Callister...."i'm not a witch'
Romney shouldn't talk. He only released one year of tax documents and refuses to release more. Also his Cayman Island/ tax baggage is worse than Gingrich and his Freddie Mac stuff.
Also his tax documents showed that he invested heavily in Freddie mac and profited so he shouldn't talk.
should have done this long time ago FLAT FOOT
Wait, Romney is ripping someone for only releasing one year's worth of something? Do Mormon's not do irony?
cracker-jacker What more do you need to know? His prior 10+ years of tax returns are all the same! He made lots of money and paid little in taxes.
Not defending him...just saying.
Captain Crunchcracker-jacker We need to know about what he was doing with those offshore accounts and why is he so afraid to provide more details. Also we need to see the records from his days at Bain.
And on a funny note I want to see his long form Birth Certificate.
Evan,
the contracts take nothing of the table. Gingrich's services -- see Exhibit 2 of the one contract released so far -- were described as "consulting and related services." That pretty much covers the waterfront, and does not exclude lobbying, whether Gingrich saw fit to register or not.
Others have pointed out the person Gingrich reported to at Freddie Mac was its lobbyist. Hm, why might that be? The documents of interest would be not the contracts but the internal Freddie Mac reports, memos, etc., explaining exactly what Gingrich was doing to merit his $1.6 million contract.
Dan
Organizational skills seem to be lacking, as also evidenced by the failure to get on the Virginia and Missouri ballots. That could be a serious problem if he gets the nomination, particularly given the superb organization that will no doubt characterize the Obama campaign.
dwqwerty09 But, but, but.... the Adelsen's will be delivering that structure....er... $$$$s.
I don't think the GOP primary voters care that Newt was/is a lobbyist. He's the anti-Romney. That's what they care about.
bdtex Their hate for Obama overides everything else.
bdtex All they care about is defeating Obama. They care about that to the exclusion of selecting someone who'd actually be a good president. What does that tell you?
Oh, this should be a fun week. More rope!
Newt, don't you keep copies of them all yourself?
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