Newt Gingrich's ties to Freddie Mac could puncture popularity balloon

Newt Gingrich's ties to Freddie Mac could puncture popularity balloon
Published: Thursday, November 17, 2011, 2:21 PM     Updated: Thursday, November 17, 2011, 2:40 PM
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

Newt Gingrich had become the flavor of the month, thanks to the scandals and foibles that tripped up other front-runners in the GOP race.

But here comes the cane to yank him off-stage, too: Thanks to Freddie Mac, his quick twirl as a favorite in the polls will likely soon be over.

Gingrich earned $1.6 million to $1.8 million from the mortgage giant between 1999 and 2008, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday night.

That's a whole lot more than he'd previously acknowledged, and to voters, it looks sleazy. Freddie Mac, blamed along with Fannie Mae by conservatives for the housing collapse, is a particularly icky bedfellow for a presidential candidate.

Even worse, it stinks of hypocrisy. Gingrich has denounced Freddie Mac for the collapse of the housing market, and in recent months, he said Rep. Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, should be jailed for his association with "a lobbyist who was close to Freddie Mac." In 2008, Gingrich demanded President Obama give back any money his campaign received from Freddie Mac executives.

Yet on and off, from 1999 up to 2008, Gingrich had been collecting money from Freddie Mac himself.

When questioned about his association with the company, Gingrich previously claimed he acted only as a "historian" for Freddie Mac officials. When they asked him for advice, saying they were making loans to people with no credit history, Gingrich maintained he'd issued a stern warning: "As I said to them at the time, this is a bubble. This is insane. This is impossible."

But oddly enough, five officials "with knowledge of the interactions" told the New York Times they never heard him say any such thing.

Gingrich's more recent advice to members of the media, however, was perfectly clear: "Everybody will dig up everything they can dig up," he said, regarding Freddie Mac. "That's fine; they should."

It's a challenge they're sure to take him up on.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2011/11/newt_gingrichs_ties_to_freddie.html