The Final Nails in Newt's Political Coffin

Republican's will forgive a great many things when it comes to past activities of their candidates. Whether it be Mitt Romney signing healthcare legislation into law in Massachussetts or John McCain sponsoring his infamous bill with Russ Feingold that trampled free speech, we tend to look at the bigger pictures (we will never forgive one of our members driving off a bridge and leaving a young woman to die while he called his lawyer, for the record).

But Newt Gingrich taking $1.6 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is one thing we will never forgive and forget:

Mr. Gingrich has faced many questions recently about the more than $1.6 million in consulting fees he got from Freddie Mac since leaving Congress in 1999. But part of the relationship started years earlier, as records and interviews show that Mr. Gingrich, as House leader in the 1990s, aligned himself with Freddie and Fannie on a number of key issues — defending them in Congress against political attacks, joining with them on housing projects and seeing top aides go work for them.

While Mr. Gingrich has minimized his past connections to the two closely related companies on the campaign trail, his Congressional record shows that his political and financial ties to the firms run deeper and farther back than he has acknowledged publicly and, in fact, set the stage for the lucrative consulting work that followed.

Mr. Gingrich, whose campaign declined to comment on his ties with Fannie and Freddie while in Congress, has been blistering in his recent criticism of the mortgage finance companies. He has blamed them in part for the 2008 housing collapse, said they should now be “broken up,” and in an October debate he declared that Representative Barney Frank should be “in jail” for associating with lobbyists close to Freddie.

No, we will never give a man who speaks with two tongues a second chance. Hypocrisy is as much a part of Gingrich's psyche as is infidelity. Bad enough Newt took the money from the two firms that share the greatest responsibility in the housing market implosion and worse that he assisted them while Speaker but to take our tax money for "consulting fees" while espousing smaller government and other conservative talking points is the end of the line with regard to supporting him. Freddie sand Fannie have taken %150-billion of our tax dollars and pissed it away on mismanagement and bad bets. Newt got a slice of that and smiled as he cashed the check.

Ask any fiscal conservative the five things they hate the most in government and you'll find Freddie and Fannie in the mix with Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Obamacare.

Gingrich got into bed with the dogs and will just have to deal with the fleas.

Update: In related news, the rats are leaving the sinking USS Newt including the biggest rat of all.

Newt Wins Big

Newt Gingrich crushed the field and has some momentum going into Florida but just how much is debatable. Are Republicans going to shoot themselves in the foot (again) and nominate a guy who's unelectable again the most beatable incumbent in decades? Maybe.

Here's the results:

Santorum had a respectable showing and should have made enough impact to at least be considered for the VP slot...or at least a nice contract with Fox.

Paul is done. The country just hasn't grasped the Paul Revolution and his angry horde of Paulistinians may be realizing that winning Internet polls is not the same as winning over real-life voters.

It's Gingrich and Romney down to the wire.

Update: Is Newt actually electable and have I figured it wrong?

Newt Pulls Away in SC

We're starting to see the problems that always affect moderate candidates in primaries happening to Romney. In all primaries when there's no incumbent running, the centrist candidates have to go far outside their comfort zone to appease the more hard core voters who actually get out and vote in their state's contests. Mitt is a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. When he tries to be anything but he looks like he's pandering and people pick up on that easily. Add to that he's a Mormon in a deeply evangelical state and you have what we are seeing today: a Newt surge.

People don't like Newt because he's Newt and a good candidate but because he's not Romney. The guy is a hypocrite and philanderer but the evangelical bloc thinks of him as one of them in a weird sense. Santorum would be the most likely guy to gravitate to but as a Catholic, he's still not one of them. Herman Cain may have done well there as well.

So we have a little momentum for Gingrich that will last until possibly Florida. It seems that the party has gravitated back to Newt after the interview with his ex-wife aired and people viewed it as a hit piece on him (which it was). He's got the victim card working for him going into a conservative state and he's playing that card with relish.

Hopefully Romney can make up some of the votes he's hemorrhaged over the last week but PPP has Gingrich up by double digits as of last night.

Newt Gingrich Exposes Himself as Complete Douchebag

We all knew Newt was mostly a douchebag but he's now gone full douchebag. From his days in the House to his subsequent lobbying and deals with Fannie and Freddie, he's shown that he is the ultimate Washington animal who will slither to anyone willing to throw him a signed check.

He rose quickly to the top of the GOP primary heap but went to the bottom even quicker once people had a chance to assess him and came away feeling like they just spent a few minutes with a dude who sells used cars in a run-down lot off County Road 27.

Newt has sunk even lower than I thought possible with his latest attacks. Hitting Romney from the left and skewering businessmen and corporations is despicable and to be honest, he has been exposed for the cretin he is because of it. Newt wouldn't understand how businesses are really run if it was explained to him by Sam Walton himself.

Today the WaPo gave him the dreaded four "Pinocchio's" for his 29-minute attack video on Mitt Romney and his affiliation with Bain Capital; a venture capital group.

Now don't for one second believe that the WaPo did this to protect Romney. Anyone with half their wits knows that Gingrich doesn't stand a chance of beating Obama should the unfortunate occurrence of him winning the nomination happen. The WaPo would, in most circumstances, be trumpeting Newt to help Obama. But the blatant attack, the hypocrisy and deception of it was too much even for that particular liberal DC rag.

Go away Newt. Go back to selling your soul and yourself for a paycheck like the dirty crack whore you are.