Tiffany's was lobbying the committee where Calista Gingrich worked (thus the interest free loan)

The Gingriches and Tiffany: When a loan becomes lobbying
May 25, 2011 11:27 EDT

Amid all the convoluted explainers and analysis of the deal that Newt Gingrich and his wife had with Tiffany, one crucial point seems to have been missed. So well done to SpyTalk for picking up on this:

At the same time Tiffany & Co. was extending Callista (Bisek) Gingrich a virtual interest-free loan of tens of thousands of dollars, the diamond and silverware firm was spending big bucks to influence mining policy in Congress and in agencies over which the House Agriculture Committee–where she worked–had jurisdiction, official records show…

Tiffany’s annual lobbying expenditures rose from about $100,000 to $360,000 between 2005 and 2009, according to records assembled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan government watchdog organization.

There’s enough confusion over the Tiffany’s deal that it certainly looks unusual — while Tiffany’s does extend interest-free loans of up to one year to top clients, Gingrich’s account was open for two consecutive years, despite the fact that Gingrich claimed to be paying no interest on it. And in any case it seems unwise, to say the least, to accept an interest-free loan of more than $250,000 from a company which is lobbying your committee — no matter how rare or common such loans might be.

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http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/05/25/the-gingriches-and-tiffany-when-a-loan-becomes-lobbying/

...They simply have a lot of friends who are willing to help them out whenever they find it necessary.'"
--Newt Gingrich, ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 31 October 1974

Thanks to dbuck, a commenter on the SpyTalk blog, for reminding us of this quote from the Gingster.