Newt should have been able to hit another home run on that exchange about lobbying last night. Here is a very simple formula for setting the record straight.

1. Mitt either doesn’t know what lobbying is all about or is taking advantage of the fact that most of the public doesn’t know what lobbying is all about.

2. Newt’s company was engaged in teaching its clients how Washington works so that those clients could operate within the complexities of the system.

3. For example, Newt’s company would teach its clients how a particular government office works, or about how twenty years ago a particular U.S. Senator had a formative experience that will affect his decision making in a particular way, or how a particular regulator is really a rubber stamp for some other person or organization of influence.

4. It was then up to his clients to make use of that information in the course of their operations.

5. To call Gingrich a lobbyist would be akin to calling Bill O’Brien the quarterback of the New England Patriots.

6. It is just a unfortunate reality today that any large organization needs to understand how to work within the bureaucracy. Barack Obama has only grown that bureaucracy, making it even more necessary for firms to hire consultants who understand those complexities.

7. If Mitt really cared about reducing the need to “work the system,” he would join Newt in enthusiastically talking about a conservative vision to replace the current Federal behemoth.