Historian Newt

In last week's New Yorker, humorist Calvin Trillin turned his satirical gaze on Newt Gingrich and the GOP presidential candidate's claim that Freddie Mac hired him as a historian, and not as a lobbyist or influence peddler.

Trillin imagines a scene of Freddie Mac executives who are meeting to discuss who to hire as the housing giant's resident historian.

After Freddie Mac's chief executive rejects Eric Foner, a Columbia University historian, and David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, the firm's chief lobbyist suggests Gingrich.

"The CEO looked up from his doodle, which turned out to be a fairly realistic rendering of a house going underwater," Trillin writes.

"'Newt Gingrich,' he repeated. 'An interesting notion. What was the subject of his dissertation?'"

"'Belgian education policy in the Congo,' the chief lobbyist said."

"'Right up our alley,' the C.E.O. said."

It's a cutting piece of writing, though not quite as harsh as one of the other scenes that Trillin imagines from Gingrich's life.

Another scene is entitled, "Callista Gingrich, aware that her husband has cheated on and then left two wives who had serious illnesses, tries desperately to make light of a bad cough."

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