Definition of a hypocrite
From talkingpointsmemo.com
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Back when Congress was debating the bailout package this fall, Gingrich was bravely sounding the alarm about the nefarious influence wielded in Washington by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Here he is talking to Bill O’Reilly on Fox News in late September:
One of the provisions that I wanted to put into any kind of financial package is that no company that gets money from the Treasury in this process be allowed to hire a lobbyist. I mean, what you have today is that the rich in Wall Street and the powerful at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had so many politicians beholden to them that, in fact, nobody was going to check them. And so they got away with things that were absolute bologna, and it’s a tragedy.
Gingrich was particularly vocal about some Democratic politicians’ ties to Fannie and Freddie:
In Dodd’s case, he is the largest single recipient of money from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Barack Obama was No. 2. The fact is that to have Dodd preside over writing this bill, I think, is absolutely disgusting. I am appalled that Harry Reid appointed him to sit in there. But it is the nature of politics up there right now. And I think it’s very, very bad for the country.
Now, one of the major reasons that Fannie and Freddie had “so many politicians beholden to them”, of course, is that they hired people to work those politicians and to make public arguments that dovetailed with Fannie and Freddie’s interests. And one of the people they hired, it turns out, was Gingrich.
The Associated Press reports today that in 2006, Freddie Mac paid the former House Speaker $300,000 to help fight off potential regulation. “Gingrich talked and wrote about what he saw as the benefits of the Freddie Mac business model,” says the wire service.
So, in Gingrich world: Democratic politicians getting campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie — bad! Republican lobbyists getting paid by Fannie and Freddie to make the case against regulating the mortgage giants: good!
It’s nice to be Newt…
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Did we expect anythig but this
I had written hippocrite! which one of you bastards changed it!? nemski!?
Viva IOKIYAR !
IOKIYAR today, IOKIYAR tomorrow, IOKIYAR forever!
No, that was me, the Goddamn Copy Editor here at Delaware Liberal. Jason, I want a salary.
Newt should do the honorable thing and impale himself with a Hatori Hanso!
Nah, I’d kill if he just left America alone. Retire in the mountains of Georgia with the like minded Eric Randolph and pluck a guitar.
I think that every firm that is getting bailout funds should shut down their lobbying efforts until after they’ve paid back the money.
That said, I can’t say I am surprised that Newt is wrapped up in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac river of money. Half of McCain’s campaign team was too. It is no wonder with their fingers in the pie too that they keep insisting that Fannie and Freddie are the cause of the current meltdown. That is quite wrong, of course, but this is apparently the only way they can try to also implicate Democrats.
Lets face the music. If we check every dem and every repukes campaign contributor list…think we will find they ALL got money! Casandra you cant say that Dodd and Frank werent involved…they were. We have to be fair minded about those who are screwing the workers of this country…both parties are….did, and will continue to do so, until the workers stand up like they are in Chicago and say: nuff is nuff, we are pissed and we are not going to allow corporate america to send our jobs overseas without a fight!
Bill Clinton was just as involved in outsourcing america as were the republicans. Truth is truth, facts are facts, and none of them can be let off the hook.
She didn’t say that. Your reading comprehension is as bad as your spelling. What she was talking about was that there is a demonstrably false idea out there that Fannie and Freddie are the cause of the current crisis. Fannie and Freddie deserve their share of scorn for their business failures, but they do not originate mortages nor regulate mortgage underwriting.
man liz, your disdain for Cassandra is putting words that aren’t there. you need to chill a little and not jump so quickly
(hah! did I just say that?)
Read the fine print on Newt`s contract with America, it says; fuck um.
Was Newt Gingrich in Congress when he received money from Fannie and Freddie? No. He was a lobbyist, and lobbyists, oddly enough, try to get legislators to create laws that help the businesses the lobbyist works for.
Liz, you’re right about Cassandra. I love the whole “I didn’t say Dodd and Frank!” when it was perfectly obvious that she was excluding any Democrats (and Dodd & Frank are) from the cursed class of persons receiving money from Fannie and Freddie. And, as usual, she completely ignores the various Fannie and Freddie people in the Obama campaign. But that’s to be expected.
Can I say that there is a real symmetry in seeing in the Recent Comments box:
Sharon on Definition of a Hypocrite
Noting to any and all who are following this drama that both Sharon and Liz needed to make up something that I never wrote to even have something to criticize. Notwithstanding the Comedy Gold of Sharon actually defending more of the Fannie and Freddie show. That, I think, is enough to get you drummed out of the wingnut brigade. But then, we are talking about hypocrisy — and here you both are!
Thanks for playing, ladies!
sharon’s mental hurdles astound the mind.
newt says lobbyists are to blame
newt was a lobbyist
Sharon completely misses the point and anything delaware liberal posts she defends the republican no matter what without reading the actual article
Newt Gingrich was Tyler Nixon’s former boss and political mentor. What say ye, Tyler?
hehehe I was going to mention that but didn’t…man, am I pulling punches now?
Let me help…”I was blind, but now I see”
For the hippocrites and highbrows over here:
The ‘reactive chorus’ rose, if inartfully, against the sweeping and untrue defensive term “apparently the only way they can try to also implicate Democrats”. Try not to kill the messanger.
There are lots of DEMs being held culpable for abetting the GOP and K Street here.
Plenty of DEMs, elected or not, also ‘made theirs’ out of the collective billions eked out of American/global pockets during this housing bubble manipulation.
This in no way detracts from the sweetness of a Gotcha Gingrich post.
Oh Hi Nancy–good luck tonite with WFH. Keep in mind Appo. school district is in open session tonite,at the same time, and can’t be there. It’s contract renewal time, and we’re looking at schematics for buildings going foward (prior to WFH, already on the books). Spoke with Bill Powers last PM. Our absence isn’t apathy, it’s scheduling, we are working parallel to this separately–just an FYI, to any comments-you know the deal. Thanks.