Posted on 11/18/2011 2:51:00 AM PST by Fred
A think tank founded by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former House speaker and other perks, according to records and interviews.
The Center for Health Transformation, which opened in 2003, brought in dues of as much as $200,000 per year from insurers and other health-care firms, offering some of them “access to Newt Gingrich” and “direct Newt interaction,” according to promotional materials. The biggest funders, including firms such as AstraZeneca, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Novo Nordisk, were also eligible to receive discounts on “products and workshops” from other Gingrich groups.
The health center advocated, among other things, requiring that “anyone who earns more than $50,000 a year must purchase health insurance or post a bond,” a type of insurance mandate that has since become anathema to conservatives.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
" Is there really a difference?"
The difference is a lobbyist goes to Congress and tries to pull their leg. Newt said he NEVER went to Congress. He gave advise to those who hired him.
BS!
What about I DON’T CARE who runs against Obama! I am voting for them, period.
ANYONE would be better than the crackpot we have now.
A difference without distinction. The connections Newt had were worth money and he wasnt going to give them up.
-PJ
Anyone who runs for national office has baggage including your Saint Cain...
******
Cain, Now Running as Outsider, Came to Washington as Lobbyist
an ultimate Washington insider: industry lobbyist.
From 1996, when he left the pizza company, until 1999, Mr. Cain ran the National Restaurant Association, a once-sleepy trade group that he transformed into a lobbying powerhouse. He allied himself closely with cigarette makers fighting restaurant smoking bans, spoke out against lowering blood-alcohol limits as a way to prevent drunken driving, fought an increase in the minimum wage and opposed a patients’ bill of rights — all in keeping with the interests of the industry he represented.
It was a role that gave him an intimate view of the way Washington works, putting him in close proximity to Republican leaders at the time, including Newt Gingrich, now one of his presidential rivals, and John A. Boehner, now speaker of the House. And it helped Mr. Cain lay the groundwork for the next chapter in his life, his entry into electoral politics, beginning with a short-lived bid for the White House in 2000.
Those who knew him then could see his ambitions developing. Rob Meyne, an official at the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which contributed handsomely to the restaurant group, wrote in a 1999 e-mail to his colleagues that Mr. Cain’s presidential plans were “not totally unexpected.” In the message, part of an online archive of tobacco industry documents (first noticed by the liberal blog Think Progress), a wry and somewhat skeptical Mr. Meyne assessed Mr. Cain’s chances.
Keep laughing girl, but the facts are not going away.
There is no way that trickster can get a crossover vote.
If Cain can get by the GOP elite, he would be a cinch in the general election. He would permanently demolish the plantation (Democrap party).
The attacks on Cain started in the GOP ranks, and then the rats took over.
The Gingrich Truth File you posted before was very informative. Maybe you can repost with non-copyrighed pictures? Getty Images seems to be pulling for Obama.
An industry rep is not a “Washington” insider.
Lobbyists are beggars, not power brokers.
Its the corrupt power brokers like Newt that are the problem.
This may come as a shock to you, troll, but not all Freepers agree with every word from Jim. He knows it. We respect him and respectfully disagree on occasion. Try something else.
>> “We need a brokered convention to draft our thoroughbred!” <<
.
But will she run?
I wish, but I doubt too.
“If Newt is the barrier between Romney and the nomination”
Last I heard, Cain, Bachmann, Santorum, etc.. were still in the race.
The lesser of two evils is still evil. And he is stealing support from Cain. A vote for Newt is a vote for Obama.
Me too.
I’m tired of all these attacks on our candidates.
>> “This may come as a shock to you, troll, but not all Freepers agree with every word from Jim.” <<
.
But Jim did threaten a purge when the election nears.
Cain filled his Washington Rolodex as a highly effective industry lobbyist in the late 1990s
From 1996, when he left the pizza company, until 1999, Cain ran the National Restaurant Association, a once-sleepy trade group that he transformed into a lobbying powerhouse.
The GOP is dead, and FR just doesn’t know it yet.
I never understand this point.
Is Obummer the great debater or the uh uh uh guy who needs a teleprompter to get the date right?
You can’t have both.
Will do! Apparently the Newt-Sharpton-Bloomberg image was the only one to fail the copyright test. As it is, unmarked Getty stuff is propagated all over the web, so it was ane asy mistake to make. Check your FReepmail!
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