Maddow: Newt Gingrich is a 'bottom-feeding' scam artist

To many people who have been following the political scene since the failed attempt to unseat Bill Clinton as President of the United States, it is frankly amazing that Newt Gingrich has a career at all, let alone that he is currently enjoying front-runner status, or close to it, in several recent polls of the GOP's 2012 presidential hopefuls.

One of those people is Rachel Maddow, and on last night's show she presented a segment entitled "Getting to the Root of Newt's Loot", which detailed just a few of the various influence-peddling, "Nigerian prince e-mail, send-me-your-bank-details" schemes that have made Gingrich a very wealthy man.

According to Maddow, "Newt Gingrich’s profession since he got kicked out of Congress under a cloud of ethics charges related to fundraising, his full-time profession has been selling access to himself as someone who is influential because of his time as a public servant. He has been marketing the Speakership of the House for his own private financial gain to anybody who will pay him."

It is a scathing indictment, but it makes for a highly entertaining video clip, which you can watch below, embedded via MSNBC.

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