Newt Rips Romney for Millions in Goldman Sachs Investments

Newt Gingrich.<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/6265574103/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Gage Skidmore</a>/Flickr

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Is Newt Gingrich a Mother Jones reader? You’d be forgiven for thinking so after hearing Gingrich’s new line of attack on GOP front-runner Mitt Romney. On the campaign trail in Florida Thursday, Gingrich singled out Romney’s dozens of investments Goldman Sachs-run funds for criticism. “Let’s be clear: you’re watching ads paid for with the money taken from the people of Florida by companies like Goldman Sachs, recycled back into ads to try to stop you from having a choice in this election,” Gingrich said in Florida Thursday, according to Politico. “That’s what this is all about.”

Newt went on:

“The question you have to ask yourself is, what level of gall does it take to think that we collectively are so stupid that somebody who owns lots of stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, somebody who owns lots of stock in a part of Goldman Sachs that was explicitly foreclosing on Floridians, somebody who is surrounded by lobbyists who made a living protecting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, can then build his entire negative campaign in Florida around a series of ads that are just plain false.”

Last week, Mother Jones reported that Romney and his wife, Ann, profit off of almost three-dozen investments in funds run by Goldman Sachs in the couple’s blind trusts and individual retirement accounts. Though Romney filed his latest personal financial disclosure last August, we were one of the first news outlets to report on his extensive Goldman holdings. The investments are worth between $17.7 million and $50.5 million.

You can read the full story here.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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