__
Jeff Stein at SpyTalk offers an explanation for the mystery of Newt’s half-million-dollar “revolving credit account” at Tiffanys:
Gingrich wife worked for committee heavily lobbied by Tiffany
At the same time Tiffany & Co. was extending Callista (Bisek) Gingrich a virtual interest-free loan of tens of thousands of dollars, the diamond and silverware firm was spending big bucks to influence mining policy in Congress and in agencies over which the House Agriculture Committee–where she worked–had jurisdiction, official records show.
__
Filings by Tiffany’s lobbyist, Cassidy & Co., and other government records show that the firm’s spending on “mining law and mine permitting-related issues” in Congress, as well as the Forest Service, the Interior Department, and Interior’s Bureau of Land Management shot up sharply during the period when Callista Gingrich was chief clerk at the House Agriculture Committee.
__
The Forest Service, which comes under the committee’s jurisdiction, oversees mining, including silver mining, in federal forests. Silver, of course, is a big part of Tiffany & Co.’s business…
__
According to her filings, Callista Gingrich listed debts to Tiffany of between $250,001 to $500,000 on a “revolving charge account” during 2005-2006. After she left in 2007, she was no longer required to report her finances.
__
The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler wrote that he was “puzzled” by Newt Gingrich’s “claim that he had a ‘standard, no-interest account’ at Tiffany & Co.”…
__
Tiffany’s standard credit card application, Kessler noted, states that customers pay 21 per cent interest on unpaid bills. If Newt and Calista Gingrich paid no interest on a $250,000 balance, it would amount to an interest-free loan of $50,000.
(H/t to a commentor whose name I’ve misplaced — claim credit in the comments & I’ll edit. I was looking for Emmylou Harris’ heartbreaking, deadpan version of ‘Diamonds’, but my YT-fu failed!)
Jenny
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that explains it.
I was wondering why Callista was doing grunt work on the unglamorous and tedious Ag committee when her husband is a millionaire.
Of course, it was a scam.
And this is just icky: Newt is 68 yrs old and Callista is only 45. Yuck. Just yuck.
Nethead Jay
Aaahh, good ol’ fashioned corruption/greed. How unsurprising.
Marcellus Shale public dick.
Newtie; “this booty will pay for itself”
Anne Laurie
@Jenny:
Tradition holds that expensive jewelry was invented so that old men could score with young women. Newt’s jeeenyus refinement is whoring his trophy third wife out to make other old men pay for her diamonds. Since he’s an historian, maybe he just read up on Charles François Paul Le Normant de Tournehem…
M. Bouffant
Emmylou: Myspace, of all places, & no distracting video.
Cut 7.
Nethead Jay
@Jenny: Eh, the real yuck factor would be imagining their “marital relations” ;-)
Unless, of course they have an understanding about that. Which wouldn’t surprise me.
Jenny
Blood Diamond Callista
Jenny
More Yuck: http://imageshack.us/m/864/9974/fatnewt.jpg
Classic IOKIYAR. Can you imagine how the Village would be howling if a Dem presidential candidate was as fat and ugly as Newt. MoDo would be writing one screed after another, about how our national daddy figure has to be james bond, not John Candy.
Dem candidates have to be either charismatic or thin (Obama, Edwards, Biden, Kerry, Dean, Big Dog) in order to run. If a Democrat is merely 10 lbs overweight (Gore/Hillary) they never hear the end of it. Yet disgusting fat slobs and trolls like Giulliani, Haley Barbour, Christie, McCain, and Newt are Beltway beefcakes and toasts of the town.
Catsy
@Jenny:
I don’t know, from where I’m sitting the older you get the less meaningful that kind of gap becomes. 43 and 20? Eww. 68 and 45? Meh, whatever.
What’s really scuzzy about their relationship is the fact that he was having an affair with her long before he and his previous wife split–ironically during the same period that he was bleating the loudest about Clinton’s infidelity.
And I’m struggling to understand how this interest-free revolving credit line doesn’t violate all sorts of ethics laws.
James E. Powell
The last time I looked at federal tax law was when I took the Ohio bar in 1985. But I seem to recall that an interest-free loan was income. That is, if the principal amount was not income or a gift, the IRS would impute income in the amount of the market rate of interest.
Sly
@Jenny:
I think most people, consciously or unconsciously, abide by the “Half Plus Seven” rule for gauging the acceptable lower and upper bounds on age disparity (“acceptable” here means not causing social discomfort). For the lower bound, divide your age in half and add seven years. For the upper bound, subtract seven years from your age and multiply by two. This means that Newt’s socially acceptable range is 41-122, so its not exactly surprising that his wife is closer to the lower bound than the upper bound.
Parse some numbers through the formula and you’ll notice that it pretty much works. Not many object to a 30 year old dating a 22 year old, or an 80 year old dating a 47 year old. But a 30 year old dating a 19 year old, or an 80 year old dating a 40 year old? That’s pretty much universally creepy.
Sly
Also, Happy Towel Day.
Joey Maloney
I don’t buy the half-plus-seven rule; it’s just a way of encoding social norms. I’ve known enough devoted couples with wide age disparities to understand the heart does what it wilt, etc. The longest-married couple I know, they met when she was his babysitter. Now they’re two months away from the first great-grandchild.
If I’m squicked by the idea of Newt and Callista’s marriage it’s not because she’s 23 years younger, it’s because he’s Newt Gingrich.
R-Jud
Yeah, if both parties are at least old enough to rent a car (25 most places), I really don’t have an issue with a wide age gap. Particularly not if the older person abides by Dan Savage’s campsite rule.
Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus)
@Sly:
I don’t give a froofroo about their age difference. At all. He could be 80 and she’s 19, and if their relationship works it’s none of our business. ‘Creepy’ is not ‘wrong’. Homosexuality is ‘creepy’ to a lot of people.
I’m with @Joey Maloney. It’s stomach unsettling because he’s a toad and she turned into a plastic nightmare. It’s morally questionable – and I’m using the word ‘questionable’ to be polite – because of the affairs and his abandoning his wife twice under bad circumstances. That he did so for younger women suggests that he’s incredibly shallow, but doesn’t actually prove it.
Valdivia
She’s only 45?? Talk about not being well preserved. I thought she was much much older. Being married to Newt must age you at twice the normal rate.
harlana
@Valdivia: I have to agree – I thought she was in her mid-50’s.
Lysana
@Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus):
I think handing his first wife divorce papers while she was being treated for cancer proves it pretty well.
harlana
Yikes!
StonyPillow
Back when the Contract on America roamed the earth in 1994 (a conservative estimate of the starting date of that particular adultery), the Newt was 50, and Callista was 26. Baby Jesus not only cried, he wailed and wailed.
Valdivia
@harlana:
Ouch. Yeah I keep thinking she is at least 55. Boy, all that Newt living ain’t good for the soul!
harlana
@Lysana:
You all stop picking on Newt. Hey, it was simply a tactical move on his part. She was in no condition to fight back. This is the republican MO.
PurpleGirl
@Lysana:
Not shallow. This proves that he is a sociopath, possibly a psychopath, but certainly a being without a soul.
harlana
@Valdivia: I’m not seeing a soul behind those eyes, however. Just pure, unadulterated fear. Twenty years of Newt could do that to you.
Alex S.
@harlana:
That collar is really nice.
StonyPillow
Newt’s ego has an oral inflation valve. Callista knows how to use it — heck, she’s got him running for president.
dr. bloor
To his credit, Newt does meet the “half your age plus seven” standard with Callista. Although her scam also proves that you’re never too young to behave like a corrupt, broken-down, nicotine-and-alcohol addled DC grifter.
Also, too, is Monroe v. Kidman a real question?
M-Pop
That was a very enjoyable read and thanks to you (and your as yet unnamed source) for sharing that. Went to SpyTalk thinking it was an hommage to SPY Magazine.
Catsy
@dr. bloor:
Though it’s worth noting that he didn’t when they first met–you know, when he was cheating on his wife with her.
dr. bloor
@Catsy:
Fair enough. Maybe “half your age plus seven” is actually his sell-by date for wives, but he’s keeping her around because another divorce would look bad during an election run.
Cat Lady
Every so often it’s great to be reminded about how amazingly hot Marilyn was, and funny! What a life.
It’s interesting that Bob Schieffer’s interview with Newt where he kept asking about what he needed or did with the account didn’t mention the Callista part of it, as if somehow the garden variety conflict of interest and corruption was another ho hum day in the Village. Our media sucks.
zmulls
Did she actually get up to $500K on that account, or was that just the max value of the account? (Like I have a credit card max limit but never get up to that). Just want to make sure we get the story straight.
But yes, if it was interest-free, it’s worth investigating.
Also, too, if she was able to “buy and then return the next day for no charge,” I think it’s of interest.
If he was spending money he earned through his various self-help and education scammed, well, that’s his business. But if he wants to be President there will be some fair questions about values, bling vs. sensible spending.
Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus)
@zmulls:
In this case, I think there might actually be legal questions. This kind of stuff might qualify as bribery and conflict-of-interest. Also tax evasion, or even fraud. I wouldn’t know the details, but if an interest free loan counts legally as income and he hasn’t been reporting it as such, that’s when criminal questions arise.
vtr
Perhaps I’m the only one who thought when Gingrich was asked about the account by Schieffer, Gingrich twice, maybe three times, referred to it as a “fund.” No one I know refers to their credit card balance as a “fund.”
Jay in Oregon
@StonyPillow:
And thank you for that mental image… *blarg*
4jkb4ia
Clijsters out! Return to your standard Newt bashing.
fronobulax
The Emmylou version is actually a cover of the T-Bone Burnett version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h_FLfUaHIY
Violet
The Today Show had a segment on the Newt/Tiffany’s debacle during their first fifteen minutes or so. They showed plenty of late night comedian clips and talked about how he was “in danger of becoming the bling candidate” but made no mention of a lobbying connection. No surprise there.
beth
Question for someone more schooled on tax laws than myself – when I purchased my car, I got interest free financing. They just took the agreed on purchase price and divided it into 48 monthly payments. Isn’t this kind of the same thing, smelly as it is? I’d be interested to know if Tiffanys offers this deal to other big spenders.
PurpleGirl
One SpyTalk article on Gingrich and the Tiffany’s account links to an article at Time which shows pictures of some of the diamond bling Callista has been photographed wearing. They calculate the total value of the items as $85,000, based on current Tiffany prices. Of course that doesn’t cover the other things beyond diamonds that the Gingriches may have bought — silver items (golf tees), silverware and crystal and those presents for other people.
Oh, and, in financial reporting you don’t have to give exact amounts on the financial forms; you can give ranges of amounts.
But I think the fact that their Tiffany account overlaps when she was working for a Congressional committee involved with issues of interest to Tiffany’s business does present an ethics problem.
But we knew they were ethically challenged, didn’t we.
Deb T
Uh, wasn’t that Madonna and not Kidman???? Are my eyes deceiving me? Look at 1:19.
Church Lady
Eh, I can’t get worked up about it. Just about every major purchase we’ve made for the past five years has been of the “interest free” charge account variety. Computers and TVs at Best Buy, new mattresses at The Mattress Firm, a new washer and dryer, etc. I could have paid cash for each and every purchase, but since they were offering free financing, what the heck! Interest rates on deposits might be low, but I still come out ahead by using their money over time.
If someone offers to finance something for free, and you have the means to pay it off immediately should the need arise, it would be foolish not to take someone up on the offer of free financing.
khead
Leave Newt alooooooooone.
Yutsano
@Deb T: The images are both Marilyn and Madonna. But the music is Kidman from Moulin Rouge. The video itself is…curious.
Carl Nyberg
Is this legal? Do House ethics rules allow this? Was no one cross referencing ethics statements with which companies were lobbying which committees?
BTW, if this woman was buying over a quarter million of jewelry, it seems obvious to ask, was she paying full value? Or was Tiffany’s marking it down? How much?
And did she re-sell the jewelry? If Tiffany’s sold marked-down jewelry and then she flipped it for a profit, isn’t that bribing a member of committee staff?
Tonybrown74
@Valdivia:
Maybe it’s from trying to suck out all the poison …
drkrick
@Church Lady: True ONLY if the deal was available to any customer. According to Kessler, the standard credit line at Tiffany carries a 21% interest rate.
PurpleGirl
@Church Lady: Ah, but you don’t work for a Congressional committee and you don’t deal with lobbyists with business before the committee, do you?
drkrick
Here’s the interesting thing about Newt – he hasn’t had a relationship with a woman that started in aboveboard circumstances since he was a teenager (if then). The first wife was a teacher at his high school who he started dating in secret before graduation, the other two wives were mistresses for months or years before he ended the previous marriages, and by all accounts there were lots of other short-lived infidelities along the way as well. It’s as dysfunctional a pattern as can be imagined and yet somehow he’s still being taken seriously as a potential President within the Village. Caligula was apparently just born too soon.
Paul in KY
@Valdivia: I think she sorta looks like a alien from Star Trek. Give her antenna and she’d make a good Andorran.
I would also assume that any decent Andorran would be repulsed by mating with Newt Gingrich.
Yutsano
@Paul in KY: FWIW and fortunately Andorians (Andorrans are citizens of a tiny European country) cannot reproduce or engage in sexual activity with humans. Something to do with how they reproduce and mate. But yeah, you’d probably get struck dead for that assertion. Andorians were almost as hair-trigger as Klingons when it came to matters of honor.
/Trek geek
Roy G
@Church Lady, no offense, but Tiffany’s ain’t Best Buy or the Mattress Store. They have no need nor inclination to offer free financing to any of their regular customers. This was a special deal, to buy political favor, and it stinks.
PWL
Really, when it comes to Republicans–and Newtie, in particular–this kind of sleazy influence-buying is a “dog bites man” story…
Only other thing is: Callista must give one hell of a blowjob to be worth a $500,000 credit line…
paa
SpyTalk described the transaction incorrectly. If you borrow 250k at 0% interest, while the normal interest rate is 21%, the lender is effectively giving you a gift/bribe of 50k (the interest you would have paid but did not). Not sure how they call it an interest-free loan of 50k when he owed 250k, not 50k, and never had to pay the 50k in interest they charge us normal folks.
It is flat-out incorrect to say that Gingrich got an interest-free loan of 50k if he never had to pay that 50k back. It was a bribe, plain and simple!
brettvk
I think Callista’s appearance results from premature Botoxing; she probably began using it way before she really needed it, given Newt’s known behavior patterns.
As the third wife she has to feel she had a more secure hold on him than the other two, old hags that they were, and no doubt they didn’t understand him like Callista does. But I bet there’s always a low hum of nagging doubt in her mind. She snagged him (helped no doubt by Marianne’s MS diagnosis)and washed the relationship through the Church to get the stink off, but there’s no guarantee of permanence with an amoral manwhore like Newt.
Maybe she pushed him into a Presidential run as the best insurance against him straying. Although, if he actually goes ahead with it, there will be plenty of eager and talented, worshipful shiny blondes littering his path. I wonder if Vegas would give odds.
Paul in KY
@Yutsano: Thank you for correcting my mistake. I certainly was not trying to slur Andorians or Andorrans.
I know both species would be repulsed by Newt.
opie jeanne
@Joey Maloney:
“…. If I’m squicked by the idea of Newt and Callista’s marriage it’s not because she’s 23 years younger, it’s because he’s Newt Gingrich.”
Amen! I don’t find her attractive in that photo, either, but she knew who/what he was when she started up with him, and I don’t just mean “married”. That’s what I find yucky.
opie jeanne
@harlana: Aw heck, my neighbor is in her 70s and looks about like that.