Gingrich worked for Freddie Mac's lobby shop

Newt Gingrich says he wasn’t a lobbyist for housing-bubble-inflator Freddie Mac, and he certainly never registered as one, but — as with his consulting for drug companies — Newt’s Freddie Mac work gives off a whiff of lobbying, according to the contract he just released.

Specifically, the Freddie Mac executive who hired Gingrich was not the CEO, nor the VP for operations, nor the VP for communications, but Craig Thomas, the VP for Public Policy — that is, the head of Freddie Mac’s lobbying operations. Thomas was a registered lobbyist at the time.