Old news, revisited
Did anyone on the planet really think that Newt Gingrich was a bastion of moral purity before today's news that he was having an affair during the Clinton impeachment fiasco? He had previously admitted to having an affair while married to his first wife, shut down the US goverment in 1995 in an egomaniacal fit, and was investigated several times over ethical concerns -- which eventually cost him his post as Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1981, he divorced his first wife, Jackie Battley, for his second, Marianne, while Jackie was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment. When he eventually dumped Marianne (who had recently been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis,) for wife #3, a House aide 23 years his junior, he informed her by phone on Mother's Day.
Ol' Newtie's a prince among men, isn't he? But, was anyone not aware of it before this morning?
Clinton's impeachment proceedings (which Gingrich originally opposed before he flip-flopped) were justified (at least in legal terms,) because Clinton broke the law. But it was Gingrich's Republicans that tried to sell it to the American people as the latest entry in a string of unpresidential moral failings and their noble effort to "restore honor to the White House." Perhaps if they'd stuck to the law, rather than throwing stones at their own glass houses, they'd have actually managed to accomplish something. Instead, their pose of outraged moralism backfired and made themselves look like hypocritical idiots while propelling Clinton to high approval ratings.
The Republican Presidential candidate field is weak, but big on personal scandal. Gingrich had an affair with someone on the Congressional payroll. Giuliani had an affair with his Communications Director while he was a NYC mayor. John McCain had several extramarital affairs in the '70's (not to mention that lately he's abandoned the last tattered shreds of his integrity,) and Mitt Romney is *gasp!* a Mormon. Evangelicals are already in the process of locking up their daughters.
Gonna be a long campaign. Maybe we're looking at Presidential Candidate Brownback.
Of course, that would obligate us to bring back the "Heckuva Job Brownie!" jokes....
Ol' Newtie's a prince among men, isn't he? But, was anyone not aware of it before this morning?
Clinton's impeachment proceedings (which Gingrich originally opposed before he flip-flopped) were justified (at least in legal terms,) because Clinton broke the law. But it was Gingrich's Republicans that tried to sell it to the American people as the latest entry in a string of unpresidential moral failings and their noble effort to "restore honor to the White House." Perhaps if they'd stuck to the law, rather than throwing stones at their own glass houses, they'd have actually managed to accomplish something. Instead, their pose of outraged moralism backfired and made themselves look like hypocritical idiots while propelling Clinton to high approval ratings.
The Republican Presidential candidate field is weak, but big on personal scandal. Gingrich had an affair with someone on the Congressional payroll. Giuliani had an affair with his Communications Director while he was a NYC mayor. John McCain had several extramarital affairs in the '70's (not to mention that lately he's abandoned the last tattered shreds of his integrity,) and Mitt Romney is *gasp!* a Mormon. Evangelicals are already in the process of locking up their daughters.
Gonna be a long campaign. Maybe we're looking at Presidential Candidate Brownback.
Of course, that would obligate us to bring back the "Heckuva Job Brownie!" jokes....