by Jim Hightower & r & & r & NEWT THE REFORMER & r & How can you tell that your political party has become hopelessly lost in the swamp of corporate money corruption? You know the party has lost its way when it has to turn to Newt Gingrich to serve as its ethical compass.
Holy Fat Cat -- The Newt as ethics reformer? Yes, the former House Speaker who was disgraced and eventually booted from office. The same guy who had to pay a $300,000 fine for violating house ethics rules! He's now striding around Washington making non-stop media appearances to denounce super-sleaze lobbyist Jack Abramoff and to offer his reform plan for cleaning up the GOP's corrupt ties to K Street lobbyists.
Newt is the one who designed and built the infamous "K Street Project" with Tom DeLay, unabashedly telling corporate executives that they must hire Republican lobbyists and give the bulk of their campaign dollars to GOP candidates -- in exchange for which Newt & amp; Gang would ram the corporate agenda through Congress.
Moreover, Gingrich was the creator of Jack Abramoff as a lobbying power. The very guy who Newt now excoriates as a nasty influence peddler was deliberately put into a top lobbying firm as the designated liaison between K Street and the House leadership. When Abramoff was hired, the firm even issued a press release to stress to their corporate clients that their new man "maintains strong ties to Speaker Newt Gingrich."
Now The Newt is strutting around dressed up as the caped crusader against corporate lobbying corruption, declaring to the media: "We need to clean this mess up." We? This so-called "reformer" is still carrying water for corporate interests -- he's on the payroll of a corporate front group pushing legislation for even more corporatization of America's health-care system.
& lt;i & For more nuggets of wisdom from America's No. 1 populist, check out & lt;a href="http://www.jimhightower.com" & his website & lt;/a & & lt;/i & .
Holy Fat Cat -- The Newt as ethics reformer? Yes, the former House Speaker who was disgraced and eventually booted from office. The same guy who had to pay a $300,000 fine for violating house ethics rules! He's now striding around Washington making non-stop media appearances to denounce super-sleaze lobbyist Jack Abramoff and to offer his reform plan for cleaning up the GOP's corrupt ties to K Street lobbyists.
Newt is the one who designed and built the infamous "K Street Project" with Tom DeLay, unabashedly telling corporate executives that they must hire Republican lobbyists and give the bulk of their campaign dollars to GOP candidates -- in exchange for which Newt & amp; Gang would ram the corporate agenda through Congress.
Moreover, Gingrich was the creator of Jack Abramoff as a lobbying power. The very guy who Newt now excoriates as a nasty influence peddler was deliberately put into a top lobbying firm as the designated liaison between K Street and the House leadership. When Abramoff was hired, the firm even issued a press release to stress to their corporate clients that their new man "maintains strong ties to Speaker Newt Gingrich."
Now The Newt is strutting around dressed up as the caped crusader against corporate lobbying corruption, declaring to the media: "We need to clean this mess up." We? This so-called "reformer" is still carrying water for corporate interests -- he's on the payroll of a corporate front group pushing legislation for even more corporatization of America's health-care system.
& lt;i & For more nuggets of wisdom from America's No. 1 populist, check out & lt;a href="http://www.jimhightower.com" & his website & lt;/a & & lt;/i & .
