Trent Lott. Ken Starr. Rudy Giuliani. A few boldface names who fueled the press and called for President Clinton's impeachment in the late '90s. All flawed in some way that disqualified them to pass judgment on anyone. But my favorite by far is Newt Gingrich.
Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker aggressively led the charge. And now, as all the contenders line up to run for office in 2008, he admits to having an extramarital affair at the same time he was publicly calling for Clinton's head How ironic is that? He was cheating on his second wife with a Congressional aide 20 years younger. (For the record, Monica was 27 years younger than Clinton.) This after he asked his first wife, Jackie, for a divorce while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. So much for family values.
And yet, he remains popular with the conservative set. Jerry Falwell has actually praised Gingrich for his candor. And if you think this won't impact the run for the oval office, guess again. There is a subtle Newt Movement in the works. Google, ever the non-partisan resource, serves up search results for Gingrich's site alongside the articles that have appeared over the past few days letting us all know that he has "moral failings." Interestingly, none of that "moral failings" nonsense is in the "Recent News" section of his site, although there are articles that ran on the same dates where he is quoted on the issues.
Listen, who am I to judge? We all have our own baggage and none of us are above reproach. We all have skeletons in our closet. Having said that, I'm pretty careful not to throw stones that can easily be picked up and thrown back at me.
Comments