A fitting end to this career
All that needs to be said, really:
Newt Gingrich ends his White House dream today with his political committee facing a mountain of debts — owing about $4 million to scores of businesses and campaign workers around the country who fear they will never get paid.
Campaign watchdogs said the size of Gingrich’s debt is extraordinary — and could have been avoided if the candidate and his team had been more disciplined.
“He was reckless in running up these bills, especially in the last month or so of the campaign when it was quite clear that Mitt Romney would be the nominee,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the watchdog group Citizen Union.
The campaign has been dogged by financial problems since last summer, but its cash crunch accelerated in recent weeks. It finished March with $4.3 million in debts, an alarming increase from $1.5 million at the end of February, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Do you think he’ll stiff the businesses and workers he hasn’t paid yet?
Discuss that or anything else you care to
Do you think he’ll stiff the businesses and workers he hasn’t paid yet?
The answer to this is so clear that we don’t even need a SATSQ.
I hope the Hilton made him pay up front for the meeting room rental.
Stiff ’em? If he has to–it’s not like he’s got another run for anything in him after this pathetic performance, so there’s no reason to make nice. More likely Rmoney will cobble together a billionaires’ bake sale to pick up the bills.
@Xecky Gilchrist:
I thought maybe Romney could retire his debt.
The Magic 8-ball says . . . YES
Why is the banner ad in Greek?
If they are stupid enough to have backed Newt, then I don’t feel sorry for their loss.
Republicans will run America like Newt Gingrich ran his campaign: straight into bankruptcy.
I’m following the liveblog of the Sarkozy/Hollande debate on The Guardian. The Beltway Miss Manners contingent would be breaking out the smelling salts if an American presidential debate were so lacking in civility.
In a just world, Gingrich would be called the Food Stamp Candidate due to his debts.
They are all frauds when it comes to fiscal responsibility. As far as I can see, every damn one of ’em.
@Fax Paladin: Default, and bankruptcy are something that Greece and Newt have in common at the moment.
Newtie, we hardly knew ye.
Permit not the door to strike thine ample ass upon exit unto eternal humiliated obscurity.
(Ahhhhh. I’ve been waiting seventeen fucking years for this day.)
Does the pope shit in the woods?
Not only will he stiff them, he’ll explain to them why they should feel honored to have served him for nothing, and that to seek financial compensation for it would indicate moral turpitude on their part to rival that of Obama and all the Democrats and liberals put together.
@beltane:
And of course, the anchors are calling M le president by his full name, no forelock-tugging and titles. I’m following it on France2: it’s pretty feisty. I do like these debates, even though they only happen once every five years.
Kay @ Top:
I think I read somewhere that Romney and the RNC had promised to help retire Newt’s campaign debt in exchange for his endorsement, so probably not.
.
Well, I’m grateful to Gnewt for every dime of wingnut political contributions he took out of circulation, but I do feel bad for any innocent businesses that end up getting stiffed. What a deadbeat asshole.
@eemom:
I hope there’s detailed expenditure reports that leak out slowly, and disgruntled staffers aplenty. Like with Palin!
If Newt stiffs them, they’ll be the only folks that get anything stiff from that toad.
Too soon?
Newt’s going to have do some historian work to pay off that debt.
Guy’s still a master grifter; in a few years he’ll be back to the high life. Not that he’ll remember to pay back any of the small fry he owes right now, of course.
Romney spends that in a week of pompous circumstance. Maybe Newt can get work at the golf course polishing Mitt’s balls.
My grandfather was a printer back in the 40’s and 50’s. Even then he had a policy that politicians had to pay in full up front.
How big of an idiot do you have to be to lend money to a career criminal like Gingrich?
Every one of his creditors deserves to lose it all.
@BGinCHI:
Always. No matter when it’s said.
Newt and Callista are going to buy an RV and hit the swigers circuit.
Good riddance you mendacious, devious over-bloated shitheel.
@JGabriel:
Now that you mention it, I recall something like that too. LOLOL! He extorts a promise of money out of them, then runs up enormous bills for them. These people all richly deserve each other.
newtie learned it the hard way, you can’t bluff mule drivers.
I don’t think Tiffany has a buy-back scheme.
Which is why every legitimate business that takes campaign work wants cash up front.
@JGabriel: I wonder if running up the debt in March and April was a way of making Romney’s bill bigger.
@GregB: Thanks. You have conjured up an image so vile I don’t know if I’ll be able to eat dinner tonight.
I always get a chuckle hearing Newton intone, “media elite” (easily five times every public utterance) because he wants nothing so much as to become the elitiest of the elite. Interestingly, it’s mister “shucky ducky” who’s probably going to harvest the most riches from his comic candidacy.
Newton’s dream of marrying a rich blonde billionaire is probably fading along with his run. Aww.
I happened upon this today:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/t.....h-re-elect
I found it pretty hilarious. It’s more about how awful it is for Obama to talk about the killing of bin Laden.
But they have a ridiculous spin on it. They say that the left is being hypocritical because they said it was tasteless to use 9/11 images in Bush 2004 campaign ads.
How is that a fair comparison? One is using the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans for political gain. The other is using the death of a guilty non-American for political gain.
One is something which happened in spite of whatever efforts President Bush might have theoretically taken to prevent it. The other is something which happened because President Obama ordered it.
Just a preposterous false equivalence.
Then the piece ends with this zinger:
“Raddatz hailed al-Awlaki’s killing on ABC with the words “Another huge victory in the War on Terror.” These are words she never used in the Bush era.”
Gee, I wonder why she never used those words in the Bush era. Perhaps because of the distinct lack of huge victories in the War on Terror in the Bush era? Ya think?
Of course he’ll stiff them. Of course it won’t be Newt, it’ll be the fault of someone els, somehow. Some small division of NewtCorp will turn out to b the debtor, and they’ll go belly up. A fair amount of money will have stuck to Newt and Callista’s fingers. Can’t imagine why Shelly Adelson didn’t demand some auditing. Sorry about the image of Callista with sticky fingers.
Hah!
Obama campaign just released a new ad using Gingrich video attacking Romney on his swiss bank accounts.
@arguingwithsignposts:
Our statehouse candidate just got printing up front. They did really nice work, too. I was surprised they did the work first. It wasn’t some massive Gingrich-ego-sized order, but still.
I PAID them, so in that sense he’s unlike The Honorable Mr. Gingrich, he knew he had the money before he ordered the work.
@Forum Transmitted Disease: Normally I’d feel sorry for the workers on the campaign, but 1) they knew who they were working for and 2) they knew that when the guy had money problems with his campaign last year, he stopped campaigning and took a trip to Greece. There aren’t many honest people who’d go work for something like that unless they thought they could steal from it themselves.
A true fiscal conservative.
Michele Bachmann got out of the race when she was only one million dollars in debt, but she only had 1/4 the chootz-pa that Gingrich has.
@Kay: That’s rare. At least in the news business, we were always on orders to get cash or check up-front. And even then, we had a couple bounced checks.
@TG Chicago:
This is getting so attenuated I can’t keep up. Now The Left is implicated in hypocrisy? We went from OBL to The Lefts’ hypocrisy? Could they get any further from the actual issue? We’re like 4 miles out now.
One or another noted liberal will apologize for/decry the hypocrisy, because at some point this thing has to eat its own tail.
@arguingwithsignposts:
It was odd, but nice. We had to go 50 miles out (on the phone, we weren’t physically looking) to find a union printer, which is not so nice, but I like the work they did so I’ll talk them up.
I wonder how long his Catholic conversion will last now that his campaign is dead. My guess is that he’ll ditch it with Calista when she gets sick from (hmmm) heavy metal poisoning and he shacks up with some chick from his campaign staff.
As far as I’m concerned, anyone who gets stiffed working for a serial grifter like Newt should have seen it coming.
Caveat Emptor
Newt Gingrich will clean every bathroom of every school in the country if that’s what it takes to pay off his campaign debt. Because this is America, and that’s the way we handle business.
@JWL: And he’ll do it atop a unicorn, while a star spangled rainbow bursts forth from his ass!
America! Fuck Yeah!
@TG Chicago:
the other thing is, the right was fine with bush using 9/11 in his reelection ads. so they’re being just as hypocritical by their own logic.
Party of personal responsibility, folks.
@gaz: Technically, that should be “Caveat Vendor” :)
Party of personal responsibility, folks.
Party of personal responsibility, folks.
@jheartney:
Hell, he was essentially hawking his books during his concession speech. How anyone can listen to his smarmy, condescending, fact-free emissions and consider sending him cash, voting for him or wasting time reading one of his “books” is beyond me.
@gaz: Technically, it should be “Caveat Vendor”. :)
FWYP. At least my duplicate post was short.
@TG Chicago:
Faux News was on at the McD’s where I had lunch today, and they were pushing the same line: People who blasted the Bush campaign’s use of 9/11 imagery are hypocrites for not criticizing Obama’s use of Bin Laden’s death. My reaction was the same as yours: huh? One is the tragic death of thousands of our fellow countrymen, and the other is the not-so-tragic death of the guy who caused those deaths. Killing Bin Laden is an actual accomplishment of Obama’s, while 9/11 is at best something which happened on Bush’s watch. How are the two situations even remotely comparable?
57 comments and no one has mentioned this gem yet?
http://www.kick-stopper.com/
@Jay in Oregon: lol. fun
@Scamp Dog: =) True. However, were I in a mood for pedantry I might correct both of us and say “Caveat venditor”
;)
Since this is an open thread, I would like to mention the big laff I got the other day. My sample ballot arrived and apparently Feinstein’s scariest challenger for her Senate seat will be Ms. Orly Taitz, Doctor/Attorney/Businesswoman.
@chopper: But he will strip for wildflowers. Or a basket of peaches.
Do you think he’ll stiff the businesses and workers he hasn’t paid yet?
FREEMARKET. bitchez. GET SOME.
Do you think he’ll stiff the businesses and workers he hasn’t paid yet?
Well, everything I have heard about him (from him) indicates he is of impeccable character and dignity, and has too much personal integrity to ever do something so reprehensible.
Do I think he will stiff his creditors?
No, no, no. A Thousand Times No. No. Nooo-oooo
Maybe.
Yes.