Good government types are getting a kick out of Newt Gingrich’s claim at Wednesday’s debate that he wasn’t a lobbyist for Freddie Mac but was rather hired for his skills as an historian.“I have never done any lobbying,” Gingrich said, adding that he only offered “advice as an historian.”
For some context, a full-time professor of history made an average of $63,119 per year around 2006. Newt racked up $300,000, or about 4.75 times as much.
But to get at a larger point, lobbying watchdogs say Gingrich’s justification shows just how weak lobbying disclosures are and how easy it is to avoid registering.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a historian, CEO or pastry chef. If you’re advising a group and representing their interests before policymakers, you’re lobbying on their behalf — plain and simple,” the Sunlight Foundation’s Gabriela Schneider told TPM in an email.
Public Citizen’s Craig Holman said this was the first time he’d heard the “ambiguous term ‘strategic consultant’ replaced with an academic term ‘historian,’” but that regardless of the terminology, Gingrich “was hired as a lobbyist for his rolodex built while being a public servant.”
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 10 November 2011 20:18 (twelve years ago) link