Eye of Newt

The political world is just so fucked up right now. The super committee was an idea doomed to failure. No one has the guts or the will to budge. The Repubs want to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Why wouldn't they? When you look at the enormous transfer of wealth to the upper tier since Reagan, it becomes clear how little enthusiasm a certain constituency would have for "getting off the mountain" of their new financial position. They offered a paltry chunk of new revenue for the much bigger prize of permanent tax cuts.

Republicans counter that dems didn't give enough on entitlements. Now they are trying to carve cuts tot he bloated defense industry out of any new automatic cut.

Of course, the great news is Newt. The evil Newt, bedside divorce notwithstanding. It will be so great to have him as a Republican candidate. Brilliant, corrupt and shameless.

Newt wants to fire a bunch of union members and bring back child labor. Just like Upton Sinclair. We can be like those factories in Pakistan that chain children to their looms.


"It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid," said the former House speaker, according to CNN. "Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they'd begin the process of rising."


"You're going to see from me extraordinarily radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty in America," he added.


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Newt also is the champion of the semantic finesse duofecta with the simultaneous slamming of Freddie Mac while parsing his work for them as a lobbyist, from 1999 to 2007. He says he was merely acting as a historian and providing strategic advice. Hey Newt, you didn't get the million six because of you're being a brilliant historian, you were giving them access to political power.

But for him to monday morning quarterback Fannie and Freddie is a little bit specious. Back then, he defended Freddie Mac's role and said, "every American should be interested in expanding housing opportunities."Historian likes to be on both sides of history.

From HuffPo: In last Wednesday's Republican presidential debate, Gingrich sought to explain his role at Freddie Mac as that of an "historian" sounding dire warnings about the company's future. He said Freddie Mac officials told him "we are now making loans to people that have no credit history and have no record of paying back anything, but that's what the government wants us to do." He said his advice was to tell them, "this is insane."


"I said at the time, this is a bubble ... this is impossible. It turned out unfortunately I was right," Gingrich said.


Former Freddie Mac executives dispute Gingrich's description of his role.


Four people close to Freddie Mac say he was hired to strategize with his employer about identifying political friends on Capitol Hill who would help the company through a very difficult legislative environment. All four people spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss the personnel matter freely.


Freddie Mac executives hoped that would speak positively about the company and its business model as he circulated among conservative groups and help to build intellectual support within his party.


Freddie Mac executives were looking to Gingrich to offer up new, inventive ways to think about old problems, the officials said, but that didn't materialize.