A Perfect Pair
by digby
I really hope Trump picks Gingrich for his VP but at this point he seems to have slipped down the list. It’s too bad. According to this piece at the Huffington Post they have so much in common:
While his skills as a showboater and a debater are well known, there’s another side of Gingrich that has rarely been explored. In the spring of 2012, as Gingrich burned through campaign funds in his ill-fated bid for the presidency, The Huffington Postinvestigated his management record, through interviews and thousands of pages of public records.
The resemblances between Gingrich and Trump are striking. Both have presided over a web of corporate entities, many of which they saddled with debts that were never paid. Both devised legally questionable ventures to disseminate their “secrets” to others in ways that conveniently benefitted themselves. People who’ve worked for them describe Gingrich and Trump in similar terms: as self-absorbed, hot-tempered bosses who view themselves as geniuses who needn’t bother with details.
Below are some relevant passages from our 2012 article. Read the whole story here
Since 1984, Gingrich has launched 12 politically oriented organizations and initiatives based in Washington. Of those, five have been investigated by the Internal Revenue Service and the House Ethics Committee, another five closed down with debts totaling more than $500,000, and two were subject to legal action.
According to former colleagues and subordinates, Gingrich burns through money by repeatedly expanding his plans and ignoring warnings from staff about the finances of his projects. Now, the same pattern is threatening his presidential campaign.
“The best way to say it is that Newt has no brakes and no rear view mirror,” observed one former adviser who still speaks highly of Gingrich, but who requested anonymity because he is forbidden from speaking to the media in his current job. “So he never pulls back, and he never learns from the past.”
Read on. Gingrich knows Trump can’t win. But he also knows that there’s some money in this grift and he’d like to get in on it. That’s what he does.
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