Gingrich, Freddie Mac, and the Perils of a GOP Front Runner

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By US Daily Review Staff.

Gingrich is facing tough questions about Freddie Mac

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has slowly risen to front runner status in the race for the White House.  Written off as “politically dead” by most pundits just two months age, he has quickly risen as the leading “anti-Romney” candidate in the GOP.  With that good news, comes some serious bad news — the leading “anti-Romney” candidates in the GOP camp are facing an unusual level of scrutiny from the media.  For Gingrich, his troubles rest in his relationship with Freddie Mac in which his relationship with this government funded agency has led to questions; and his campaign has produced the following “fact sheet” to fight respond:

ln response to a Bloomberg News story today about Freddie Mac’s hiring of the consulting firm, The Gingrich Group, over the course of an eight year period, Newt 2012 released the following fact sheet: 

  1. Newt Gingrich welcomes scrutiny of his record in public office and as a small businessman.  Gingrich believes that properly vetting the potential next president is absolutely necessary in a free society and that a properly vetted nominee for the Republican Party will better be able to defeat President Obama and lead our country in rebuilding the America we love.
  2. Gingrich has never lobbied for Freddie Mac, or any client, nor has anyone in any of the organizations he founded after leaving office as part of their work with them. Gingrich made a decision after resigning that he would never be a lobbyist so that nobody would ever question the genuine nature of his advice and perspectives. This prohibition against lobbying was made very clear to all Gingrich Group clients and strict internal protocols were developed to prevent lobbying. Today’s Bloomberg article confirms that Gingrich and his firm did no lobbying for Freddie Mac.
  3. Nor did Gingrich, as part of his contract, advocate against pending legislation affecting Freddie Mac, as Gingrich was accused of doing by the moderator at the CNBC debate in Michigan.  This, too, was confirmed by the Bloomberg News article this morning.
  4. Freddie Mac was a small part of the client and revenue base of The Gingrich Group and Gingrich’s various small businesses.  The Gingrich Group offered strategic advice to a wide variety of clients about a wide variety of issues, including IBM, Microsoft, The US Chamber of Commerce and more. Gingrich Group fees were comparable to that of many consulting firms.
  5. Gingrich is broadly favorable of the concept of Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) but believes the financial crisis shows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be broken up and their smaller successors be moved off of government guarantees and into the free market.
  6. Gingrich also is in favor of efforts to increase home ownership in America but as a conservative believes it has to be within a context of learning how to budget and save in a responsible way, the opposite of the lending practices that led to the financial crisis.
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