Gingrich think tank collected millions from health-care industry

Before anyone says it is just the Washington Post going after Newt Gingrich, the Fox News flavor of the week, there is also this article headine on the same page about Obama's lack of any central core set of values.  Coming out of the Washington Post makes you wonder if their editorial staff finally work up and has gotten back to the business of reporting facts not editorials as news stories.  The jury is still out but we have seen the same thing lately out of the LA Times so it makes you wonder if some of the younger writers actually have some ethics and/or if some of the older ones are getting theirs back.  We can only hope!

Barack Obama, the blurry president
Posted by Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake at 06:30 AM ET, 11/17/2011

When Barack Obama swept to the presidency in 2008, he was whatever you wanted him to be. 

Democrats saw him as the next great liberal hero. Independents regarded him as the man who could bring comity back to Washington. And many Republicans saw him a historical figure of major proportions. 

Obama’s twin slogans of “hope” and “change” allowed partisans of varying stripes to convince themselves that he was the person they — and the country — had long been waiting for.
On the verge of his 2012 reelection race, however, Obama’s continued lack of clear definition is hurting his political prospects, according to longtime Democratic pollster Peter Hart. 

“This president does not emerge with a central image or core set of values to the voters,” writes Hart in a memo based off of results from the most recent NBC-Wall Street Journal poll and focus groups he conducted for the Annenberg Center for Public Policy.  

Excerpt:  Read More as Washington Post

The article on Obama showcases what I think his biggest flaw has been -- lack of core values as he drifts along.  He seems to be easily led by whoever talks the loudest and was raised in his formative years with a strong influence from very liberal socialist to communist like Franklin Marshall Davis who introduced him in to the very liberal socialist people like those from the Weather Underground, who were (are) self-proclaimed domestic terrorists, and other communist friends of Davis who the media covered up for the most part by not reporting he was easily influenced by people who wanted to destroy this Country over the years.

Even though the media did a lot of covering for Obama, doesn't mean that it shouldn't be investigating now.  Don't care if they investigate Republican candidates with a fine tooth comb because if you are running for President every aspect of your life should be an open book.  If you have been a lobbyist like Hermain Cain who wants to be the outsider, I want to know because no lobbyist is a DC outsider.  Want to know if members of Romney's team for RomneyCare went to work for the Obama staff on Obamacare which they did and used it for a model for ObamaCare.  Want to know if candidates are telling the truth or are they inflating their records since most have little records for us to review which is one reason I am very hesitant to vote for anyone for President who was not been an elected executive of a state or large city.  Vice President is different but even then I want them to have some Government experience mixed with private business experience.

Now we are going to hear conservative pundits that the MSM is after another Republican candidate and it is not fair.  Are they saying it is not fair to report the truth about a candidate for President?  This 'blame the media' is getting old fast when it covers up the truth as pundits attack the messenger.  As anyone who knows me, I have not been a fan of Newt Gingrich for a long time.  Anyone who had an affair while going after Clinton on Monicagate and had to step down as Speaker, doesn't need to ask me for my vote because they are not getting it under any circumstance.  He thought he was above everyone and it bit him with having to resign as Speaker of the House.  Takes a lot of Chutzpah to go after Clinton when you are having an affair.

Then there is this little gem which makes me wonder about the ethics of Gingrich:

A financial disclosure form filed by the candidate in July said his net worth was at least $6.7 million, with income of at least $2.7 million in 2010. The form listed a “convertible promissory note” — a kind of loan that can be paid back or converted into stock — worth $5 million to $25 million from Gingrich Group to Gingrich Productions, a media company run by his wife, Callista. 

We already found out he made $1.6M+ working for Fannie Mac as an 'historian' which made most of us shake our heads since he worked for their lobbyist.  Then there were his comments about what he told them and turned out he didn't.  Yet, he wants to be President?  This latest revelation brings back the memory of him and Hillary working on national health care -- now we why he was so into healthcare with Hillary -- money.  Then there is another gem worth highlighting:

The Gingrich health center’s support for such a mandate was part of an “Insure All Americans” plan that appears to have disappeared from the center’s Web site Thursday.

Does that mean the Gingrich people are scrubbing websites of anything controversial?  Would not shock me even a little as anyone associated with Fox News seems to have a credibility problem.  Now this comes out and you find out how much his think tank has collected from the health-care industry and you are left speechless that this man is running for President:

Gingrich think tank collected millions from health-care industry 

By Dan Eggen 

Published: November 17 

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. 

The group also pushed proposals to build centralized electronic medical records and use such data to research treatment effectiveness, both central features of President Obama’s health-care reforms.
Gingrich, who has been under fire recently for his lucrative consulting business, left the health-care think tank earlier this year to run for president. But his time there exemplifies the former Georgia congressman’s post-legislative career as a well-paid consultant and policy guru, a role that earned him and his companies tens of millions of dollars over the past decade. 

His experience at the think tank also illustrates Gingrich’s past flirtations with moderate policies — on health care, the environment and other hot-button issues — that have become the subject of controversy and criticism in the presidential race. 

The Gingrich campaign referred questions about the center to the think tank. Susan Meyers, a center spokeswoman, declined to comment on the think tank’s income or staffing levels because it is a private-sector organization. She said that neither the center nor Gingrich has engaged in formal lobbying. 

Meyers called Gingrich “a health-care visionary” who was advocating far-reaching reforms “before many of these concepts in health care became mainstream.” She said the think tank’s members don’t always agree on specific issues but are working “toward a common vision of saving lives and money.” 

Gingrich has been criticized in recent days after Bloomberg News reported that he earned as much as $1.8 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac, a quasi-public corporation that many conservatives blame for the housing crisis. After first suggesting he was hired for a short time as a “historian,” Gingrich has since acknowledged acting as a consultant for the mortgage giant “over a long period of time.” 

“I was approached to offer strategic advice; I was glad to offer strategic advice,” Gingrich told reporters in Iowa this week. “We did it for a number of companies, and Gingrich Group was very successful.” 

Excerpt:  Read More at Washington Post

Then there is the question still hanging of how much money did the Gingrich group make off of global warming in addition to healthcare when he was traveling around with Nancy Pelosi saying it was man made and buying into the environmentalist liberal agenda?  Is this all about money for Gingrich?

This is sickening that he even chose to run for President.  Does he also have a book like Cain or did he just want the attention?  Either way both men should not be running.  Since they both worked for Fox News it makes you wonder if Fox News was behind their running for President.