If you’re looking for the truth about the work Newt Gingrich did as a lobbyist, tonight’s Republican presidential debate will not be the best venue. Check out Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington instead.
Today, CREW announced that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records created as part of the investigation of his many violations of ethics rules as Speaker of the House during the 1990s.
Earlier, CREW reported on Newt Gingrich’s work as a lobbyist for a group of pharmaceuticals corporations. Gingrich says that he wasn’t working as a lobbyist. He says that he wasn’t working on behalf of pharmaceuticals corporations.
The facts say something different.
Fact: Shortly after he was kicked out of Congress, Newt Gingrich set up the Center for Health Transformation as a front group for pharmaceuticals companies and other corporations that had a financial interest in influencing Medicare legislation moving through Congress.
Fact: The Center for Health Transformation was financed with money provided by the corporations.
Fact: Newt Gingrich was paid to go and talk in person to members of Congress on behalf of the Center for Health Transformation about the Medicare legislation legislation.
Fact: Newt Gingrich made additional telephone calls to members of Congress on behalf of the corporations that funded the Center for Health Transformation.
Fact: Newt Gingrich brought corporate members of the Center for Health Transformation to the signing ceremony for the legislation at the White House.
Fact: The Center for Health Transformation publicly stated that it had taken action to ensure that Congress passed the legislation.
Newt Gingrich says that he wasn’t being a lobbyist. Nonetheless, what Gingrich was doing is a perfect match for the definition of a lobbyist. A lobbyist is a person who is paid as an advocate to contact members of government to attempt to influence their decisions. That’s what Newt Gingrich did. Newt Gingrich was a lobbyist.
Why won’t Gingrich just admit that he was a lobbyist? If Gingrich acknowledges the truth, he may open himself to criminal prosecution. It’s against the law (the Lobbying Disclosure Act) to lobby the federal government without officially registering as a lobbyist.
Lying and lawbreaking put together… it’s just one more reason not to vote for Newt Gingrich.
Newt lies, Romney lies, Obama lies – this is what politicians do. They promise stuff to get elected that they can’t deliver once in office. So why bother with the sham? It happens EVERY TIME. Even Clinton, who had a relatively glorious run with a surplus at the end of his term got us into NAFTA that completely sank our economy. We better find another way of doing this, because this clearly isn’t working for the majority of citizens and is absolutely devastating the environment.