Monday, January 23, 2012

Gingrich Meets Romney's Challenge And Releases Freddie Mac Contract

By Susan Duclos

[Update] Embeddable contract found HERE in a followup post as well as data on Romney's Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae investments.[End Update]

Reuters reports that Mitt Romney challenged Newt Gingrich to describe the work Gingrich performed for Freddie Mac as well as unleashing television ads attacking Gingrich and claiming he cashed in on the housing crisis.

Via Reuters:

Rival Mitt Romney, who was trounced by Gingrich in Saturday's South Carolina primary, has hit the former speaker of the House of Representatives particularly hard because of his ties to Freddie Mac as part of an effort to paint him as a creature of Washington.

[SNIP]

Republicans blame government-sponsored mortgage finance companies like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for the 2007 housing-market crash that plunged the country into the deepest recession since the 1930s. Outside economists say lax oversight of the financial industry is primarily to blame.

Gingrich has denied he worked as a lobbyist for Freddie Mac and said he would work to release details of his contract.

The Center for Health Transformation, a consulting firm founded by Gingrich in 2003 and sold to his partners in 2011, has previously said that it could not release the contract due to client confidentiality concerns. But spokeswoman Susan Meyers said the firm would make the material public on Monday.

The company says it does not perform lobbying services for clients, which come from the healthcare, education and technology industries.



Challenge met!!!

In the meantime, Romney still has not made his tax returns available. Not that he had to, but when insisting others be totally transparent, it would be helpful if Romney was.

Romney, after refusing to release them, after losing to Gingrich in South Carolina, finally agreed to release them, but not until tomorrow.

Related:

Politisite "Gingrich Releases Freddie Mac Contract."

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