As the New York Times points out, Newt Gingrich -- who claims to be an anti-establishment candidate -- is about "establishment" as you can get. He's on the take at, say, Jack Abramoff's level.
After he was drummed out of the House speaker’s office in 1998, Mr. Gingrich set about creating a lucrative living, by trading on his political connections. In 2010, he reported a total income of $3.16 million (including a tidy $76,200 Congressional pension).
Most of Mr. Gingrich’s income has come from helping corporate clients gain access and solicitous treatment from Washington’s power elite. One of his consulting groups, the Center for Health Transformation, gave clients advice in reaching what it called “top transformational leadership across industry and government.”
His services, according to news accounts, included helping his clients formulate arguments to get lawmakers to incorporate their interests in legislation. Over the years, that included up to $1.8 million in “consulting fees” to him and his firm from Freddie Mac, the lending company that Mr. Gingrich has accused of helping to cause the housing crisis.
Mr. Gingrich insists that none of this highly paid work is lobbying. “I was never a lobbyist,” he said on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “I never did any lobbying.” ...NYT editorial
He's only not a lobbyist because he didn't actually register as a lobbyist.
So Mr. Gingrich can claim he was never a lobbyist, but there is no way he can claim that he is anything but a Washington insider who has made millions by trading on his political connections for more than a decade. He’s a shrewd broker of Washington influence, and about as “establishment” — and cynical — as you can get. ...NYT editorial
It's that bad.
Meanwhile, over there in Romney-land that candidate's take over the past two years was $45 million on which he paid 14% having used all the most common tax dodges.
“I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more,” Mr. Romney said during Monday night’s debate. “I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.” ...NYT
Given a choice, Mr. Romney, I'd tend to opt for a candidate who lives on the same planet. Just sayin'. Quite apart from your own money, Mr. R., it becomes a serious matter when you are allowed to fly in from your planet and let your party buy your presidency for you.
The Gingriches also took home a nice chunk of change, but nothing like the Romneys, and paid taxes at 31.7%.
How about the Obamas? Raking it in?
Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, released their tax returns in April, showing an adjusted gross income of $1,728,096 for 2010 – much of it from sales of his books “Dreams From My Father” and ”The Audacity of Hope.” The Obamas paid $453,770 in federal taxes, for an effective tax rate of 26.3 percent. ...NYT
