The Donald to endorse Gingrich? UPDATE: Or will he endorse Romney?

One thing you can say for Gingrich – he has created an odd coalition of endorsers.

According to the Atlanta Constitution-Journal report, Donald Trump is set to endorse Gingrich in Las Vegas today. He will join the AFA’s Don Wildmon, Liberty Council’s Mat Staver, gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, and actor Chuck Norris as endorsers.

UPDATE: Now the New York Times is reporting that Trump will endorse Mitt Romney.

 

Gingrich says he worries about poor spending money on gambling while supported by gambling magnate

Really?

According to the Miami Herald:

“At the risk of offending some of my friends who’ve been very helpful,” Gingrich said, “I worry about the degree to which the poor are the most likely to spend a large percentage of their income gambling.”

According to the report, Gingrich did not spell out his views on gambling which is a hot topic in Florida now since at least two companies, including Gingrich’s benefactor – Sheldon Adelson – want to put casinos there.
I wish someone in the press covering his campaign would ask him about the two times when Gingrich supported policies favorable to the gambling industry, but did not give Indians a break on policy involving their casinos.

Gingrich says his relationship with Adelson is about Israel and I believe that is partly true. However, Gingrich has conducted at least one fundraiser in one of Adelson’s casinos and supported at least two causes of importance to the gambling industry.

If Gingrich is worried about the poor and the dollars they spend, then why did he show favor to the gambling industry while Speaker of the House? Is this a new worry?

Related:

Media widens coverage of Gingrich ties to gambling magnate

Some reporting is now examining the ties between Newt Gingrich and gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson. I have looked at various angles of the connection, including Gingrich’s favorable treatment of the industry by thwarting an oversight committee and backing a tax break sought by casino owners.

Yesterday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported some uneasiness among evangelicals about the significant ties between Gingrich and Adelson. One Gingrich backer, Matt Towery, said Gingrich wouldn’t do any favors for Adelson. However, as I noted earlier in the week, he already has.

Today’s Toronto Star examines the relationship and quotes Fred Wertheimer as saying that Gingrich has opened himself up to questions regarding his policies on gambling and Israel by being so dependent on one donor.

Just an hour ago, ABC News Brian Ross looked at the investigation of Adelson’s gambling empire by the Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission.

Finally, The Nation’s Ben Adler reports on a conversation he had with Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist convicted of bribing Congress while Gingrich was speaker. In this conversation and in his new book, Abramoff describes Gingrich’s response to a request from Abramoff that Indian casino gambling profits go untaxed. Gingrich reportedly said that the Indian tribes had a good deal and didn’t need special treatment.

If this story is true, then in effect, Gingrich favored special tax treatment for the gambling industry but not for Indian tribes.

Related:

Apostle Dutch Sheets endorses Newt Gingrich for President

And Sheets also joined Gingrich’s Faith Leaders Coalition.

Here is the press release:

Pastor Dutch Sheets Endorses Newt Gingrich

Atlanta, GA– Dutch Sheets has endorsed Newt Gingrich for president, and will be joining the Gingrich Faith Leaders Coalition.

Dutch Sheets is the author of 18 books, including the best seller Intercessory Prayer. Throughout his 34 years of ministry he has pastored, taught in several colleges and seminaries, served on the board of directors of numerous organizations and has become recognized as an international leader on the subject of prayer.

In a statement, Pastor Sheets explained that his endorsement is for the “most important election of our lifetimes”

“Newt Gingrich is only one that I can confidently say has the heart, experience, backbone, Constitutional brilliance, and intellectual strength to defeat Obama and lead America back to greatness” said Sheets.

“The America we know and love—indeed, the America God and our founding fathers dreamed of and birthed—cannot survive another 4 years of the current leadership in Washington.”

Sheets will join the coalition led by Christian market researcher, George Barna. It also includes, Pastor Tim LaHaye, Beverly LaHaye, Dr. Jim Garlow, the California pastor behind the Proposition 8 Battle, Congressman J.C. Watts, Don Wildmon of the American Family Association, Dr.Michael Youssef, Pastor Richard Lee, and Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel.

The coalition is currently setting up a leadership committee in Florida, and will be setting up leadership in other states in the coming weeks.

Sheets is securely within the New Apostolic Reformation and believes that we are supposed to try to infiltrate the government and raise up Kingdom warriors to “do whatever it takes to bring about Kingdom rule.” Right Wing Watch has some of Sheet’s teaching from a recent political event called “A Gathering of Eagles.”

 

Sheets prophesied about an event that was supposed to take place near Branson, MO called the Wilderness Outcry. He said God told him the event might start another great awakening. Eventually, the event was cancelled due to lack of funding.

I continue to be amazed that evangelicals are joining with Gingrich given that the campaign thus far has been dependent on gambling profits via the donations of Sheldon Adelson. Sheets has had some harsh words for gambling in the past, writing in his book Releasing the Prophetic Destiny of a Nation:

The curse of Horace is linked with Freemasonry. We asked the Lord to blind the evil eye linked with this curse and the corruption of gambling so that it would not overtake Louisiana completely. (p. 239)

The corruption of gambling is paying for the campaign of the man Sheets is now endorsing.

Newt Gingrich favored tax policy requested by gambling industry

In May 1998, Newt Gingrich held a three-tiered fund raiser in the Las Vegas Sands Expo and Convention center, a large casino and hotel complex run by Sheldon Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Hoping to raise $100,000, Gingrich provided a private briefing to supporters for $2,500, appeared with others for $500 and then held a rally which cost $35 to enter, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, Gingrich struck the right chord during his meetings with Las Vegas politicians and casino interests.

Nevada’s casino industry gained an ally with clout Sunday when House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he would work to block an Internal Revenue Service plan to tax meals casinos provide employees.

While in Las Vegas, Gingrich informed then Rep. John Ensign that he would block an IRS effort to collect taxes on meals provided by casino employers to workers. The gambling industry pushed both Democrats and Republicans to prevent the IRS from collecting these taxes. Eventually an amendment was added to an IRS reform bill which changed IRS rules regarding meals provided to workers. If 50% of employees are allowed to take free meals supplied by hotel owners in order to stay on their post, then all meals provided in that way to all employees would not be taxed as a form of compensation. To read the exact language, see the law with amendment at Section 5002. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the move cost the Treasury $316 million dollars (see below).

The Las Vegas Sun outlined the changes in a June 23, 1998 article:

The exact language of the amendment is still being drafted, but is expected to amend the tax code to allow all employees at a “business premises” to receive meals tax-free as long as more than half of the employees at that location are allowed to receive tax-free meals under current law.

In other words, as long as more than half the employees at a casino are food and drink servers or dealers — job classifications the IRS already recognizes as exempt from the meal-tax — then everyone else at that location is entitled to a tax-free lunch.

That language was drafted after casino operators throughout Nevada said it would solve the problem, Ensign said.

Rep. Ensign gave Speaker Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott ample credit for the change. According the Las Vegas Sun:

In the end, Ensign claims his personal lobbying carried the day.

“I went to the Speaker (of the House, Newt Gingrich), and to Trent (Lott, Senate Majority Leader) and said, ‘We have to have this,”‘ Ensign said in an interview.

A June article in the Review-Journal sounded the same theme:

“This really started getting momentum about the same time (House Speaker Newt) Gingrich came to Las Vegas (in May), and he held a news conference to support us,” Ensign said. “Then we got Lott on board.”

Gingrich also demonstrated favor toward the gambling industry in 2006 when he supported the removal of subpoena power from a commission devised to investigate the gambling industry.

As far as I know, none of these activities are illegal or unethical. I am not insinuating wrongdoing. Rather, I think Speaker Gingrich activities are noteworthy because he is now presenting himself as a Washington outsider. However, while in Washington, he was quite involved in fund raising and working as an insider to respond to donor requests.

The other interesting aspect to this story is the clear tie between Gingrich and the gambling industry. While he courts evangelicals and other family values voters, the lifeblood of his campaign and his non-profit work since the mid-1990s has come from Sheldon Adelson, the CEO of Las Vegas Sands. Gambling profits from the US and Asia are powering the Gingrich campaign. Given that evangelicals consider gambling to be a vice, it seems out of character for them to support a candidate with such a friendly relationship to that industry.

Treasury impact:

The provision [on employer provided meals] is estimated to reduce Federal fiscal year budget receipts by $20 million in 1999, $33 million in 2000, $34 million in 2001, $35 million in 2002, $36 million in 2003, $38 million in 2004, $39 million in 2005, $40 million in 2006, and $41 million in 2007.