Odd defenses of Newt's corporate-welfare lobbying

Murray Sabrin
If this doesn't sink Newt, then GOP voters have a death wish. Newt is a big government supporter, because that's where the big bucks are for individuals who want to live off the public ...

Odd defenses of Newt's corporate-welfare lobbying
by Timothy P. Carney Senior Political Columnist

Newt Gingrich leveraged his connections in Congress and his reputation as a firebrand conservative into wealth by selling these connections and reputations to big businesses seeking to get rich off of big government. My column today touches on three such cases -- ethanol subsidies, housing subsidies, and expanding Medicare to include drug subsidies.

Almost none of the critical emails, tweets, or comments today have defended the policies themselves (and there are some non-liberal defenses of these policies). The critiques of my column have mostly taken two forms:

1) Quit picking on a conservative! We all need to stand together!

2) Newt's work as a consultant for subsidy-sucklers was just free enterprise. Don't knock it.


Quit picking on a conservative:

Here's one representative comment: "Mr. Carney is making the Perfect the enemy of the good. I challenge him to name the perfect conservative candidate! This looks like a circular firing squad!"

My colleague Dave Freddoso wrote about this line of argument in his column this week:

Our commentary section's conservative lean apparently gives some conservative readers the impression that we're here primarily to help somebody get elected. That we should be overlooking problems in the GOP field for the greater good.

Dave picks that apart better than I can, but let me just say that I do not think conservative journalists should be "team players," and I think conservatism is harmed when anyone on the Right sacrifices principles for personalities.


Newt's just a businessman

This argument actually upsets me more. Here's a representative comment: "Well, Well, Well, are we to believe that the Speaker did not have a right to earn a living?"

I got much of the same response when I criticized Wal-Mart for lobbying for price-controls on debit-card purchases. It's an odd argument for a free-market type to make. If you believe it's wrong for government to take from taxpayers and give to ADM, Pfizer, and Wells Fargo, why is it fine for a lobbyist -- or whatever Gingrich wants us to call him -- to help pass the law allowing government to take from taxpayers and give to these special interests?

Among some capitalist-minded folks, there's an add amorality to profit -- any legal profit is morally acceptable profit. But that mindset undermines the argument for capitalism in the first place.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/odd-defenses-newts-corporate-welfare-lobbying