‘obama derangement syndrome’

the jewel in the gop crown

Washington Post: Employees of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich grew increasingly concerned in recent years about their boss’s purchases from luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co., worried that if he followed through on plans to run for president it could become a political liability.

The purchases included jewelry items valued as much as $300,000 for his wife’s Christmas gifts, selected each year during a fall Potomac River cruise sponsored by the jeweler. On a smaller scale, Gingrich spent about $40,000 over four years buying Tiffany trinkets as Christmas gifts for up to 100 employees…

… Gingrich and his wife maintained a $250,000 to $500,000 personal credit line at Tiffany in 2005 and 2006 … The Gingrich campaign recently confirmed to The Post that Gingrich maintained a second Tiffany credit line for $1 million…

… Gingrich campaign communication director Joe DeSantis declined to address the details offered by the employees, and dismissed their accounts as trivial. “Class warfare does not create jobs,” he said in a written statement. “Newt’s Jobs and Prosperity Plan will.”

… The employees said the Tiffany cruises became an annual outing for the couple to choose Callista’s Christmas presents.

… Sixteen Gingrich campaign staffers resigned on June 9 , claiming that Gingrich was allowing his wife to dictate the terms of his campaign schedule. The disagreement between staff and the candidate came to a head when Gingrich insisted he would go on a Greek cruise that Callista Gingrich had been planning for the couple.

Full article here

😆

Thank you Loriah!

hey big spender….

GOPolitico: Newt Gingrich, a fiscal conservative? Not when it comes to Tiffany’s. In 2005 and 2006, the former House speaker carried as much as $500,000 in debt to the premier jewelry company…

Gingrich, who represented Georgia in Congress for two decades, retired in 1999. But his wife, Callista Gingrich, was employed by the House Agriculture Committee until 2007, according to public records. She listed a “revolving charge account” at Tiffany and Company in the liability section of her personal financial disclosure form for two consecutive years and indicated that it was her spouse’s debt. The liability was reported in the range of $250,001 to $500,000.

When asked by POLITICO whether Gingrich has settled this debt, and why he owed between a quarter-million and a half-million dollars to a jeweler, Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s spokesman, declined to comment.

Full article here

special gifts. hundreds of them.

President Obama waves goodbye from the steps of Air Force One as he departs Saudi Arabia on his way to Egypt, June, 2009

AP: ..Foreign leaders showered President Obama and his family with hundreds of thousands of dollars in art, jewelry, rare books and other presents during their first year in the White House.

Saudi Arabia’s king was the most generous gift-giver, according to documents released by the State Department on Tuesday. Saudi King Abdullah gave Obama, his wife and daughters nearly $190,000 in luxury baubles in 2009, including the single most valuable gift reported to have been given to U.S. officials that year: a ruby and diamond jewelry set, including earrings, a ring, a bracelet and necklace, for the first lady worth $132,000.

…By law, most gifts to U.S. officials must be turned over to the government and the jewelry has already been sent to the National Archives.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was a distant runner up to King Abdullah, with gifts for the first family worth a little under $33,000. The Italian haul included silk ties, a gold watch, a crystal table and candlesticks…….the Saudi monarch also presented Michelle Obama with a $14,200 pearl necklace. He gave the president a marble clock adorned with miniature gold palm trees and camels valued at $34,500. He sent first daughters Sasha and Malia Obama diamond earrings and necklaces worth more than $7,000.

Chinese President Hu Jintao gave Obama a $20,000 silk embroidery of the first family….French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife sent perfume and a $4,500 black Christian Dior handbag …Some leaders chose more modest gifts. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth presented Obama with framed portraits of herself and her husband, Prince Philip, worth $775….Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered the U.S. leader $521 in gifts, including the least expensive item listed by the State Department: a $75 bottle of olive oil.

Full article here

The only gift in that list that I’d have liked is the olive oil 😐