From Washington Monthly:

But the most notorious of them all is undoubtedly Gingrich, who ran for Congress in 1978 on the slogan, "Let Our Family Represent Your Family." (He was reportedly cheating on his first wife at the time). In 1995, an alleged mistress from that period, Anne Manning, told Vanity Fair's Gail Sheehy: "We had oral sex. He prefers that modus operandi because then he can say, 'I never slept with her.'" Gingrich obtained his first divorce in 1981, after forcing his wife, who had helped put him through graduate school, to haggle over the terms while in the hospital, as she recovered from uterine cancer surgery. In 1999, he was disgraced again, having been caught in an affair with a 33-year-old congressional aide while spearheading the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton.

www.lesjones.com

whatta guy!

Newt is getting this out now so in a few months, he can say 'I've addressed this issue repeatedly, let's move on to issues which are important to America, like (fill in the blank)'.

As for Clinton, if I was married to Hillary...well, uh, hmm. I know this is a beaten dog, but my problem is Clinton lied about it. Spare me the unrelated Bush bashing of what you think W has lied about. Newt just portrayed one thing when something else was going on with him personally. If you forgive Bubba Bill (or don't care), what Newt did shouldn't trouble you. Some of you can surely find more issues of disagreement with Gingrich.

Some of you can surely find more issues of disagreement with Gingrich.

Like "Mr. Family Values" serving divorce papers on his wife while she was recovering from cancer surgery, also refusing to pay alimony or child support.

I know, that's quite apart from his record on policy, but he treats his duty to the American people in much the same manner as he treats his series of wives & mistresses.

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Recursive blogwhore.

It is really easy to say what you, or your spouse, would do in the absence of a real world test. I suspect that under the conditions that Clinton most would be sorely tempted and many, if not most, would succumb. Monica Lewinsky set her sights on Bill Clinton and took steps to entice him into a relationship of sorts. I have personally flunked a couple of tests of that sort and I refuse to piss off the universe by casting the first (or even the billionth) stone. If a 18 - 20 year old comes after my 51 year old ass, unless I find her completely unattractive for one reason or another, she is likely to be successful. At least, if history is any indicator, that is what I must conclude. Those of you who are saints or are married to saints may safely feel morally superior to me at this time.

CAFKIA

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It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
  - William G. McAdoo

Well put CAFKIA.

I'm happily (most of the time) married, and being a simple human will constantly struggle with monogamy.

Its human nature everybody fights with it.

If you don't struggle with it, you're either lying or have reached a higher plain of existence.

Well, well, well.

Via Digby:

Newt the crybaby, in a snit over his treatment by the ethics committee, pushes for impeachment...

Gingrich's statement a month ago that "only a pattern of felonies" and not "a single human mistake" should constitute grounds for an impeachment inquiry. (When Gingrich made this statement, he assumed -- as did a lot of people -- that Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr would come up with a report charging a broad pattern of obstruction of justice on the part of the Clintons.)

Gingrich, the moving spirit behind the current strategy -- shared by the other House leaders -- is driven, according to colleagues, in some substantial part by vengeance. Not against Clinton. Not against what he might see as serious offenses. A major motivation for Gingrich, these people say, is his lasting resentment of his treatment by the House ethics committee. (After a long investigation, the committee in January 1997 voted to reprimand Gingrich for use of tax-exempt foundations for political purposes and recommended a financial penalty for providing "inaccurate information" to the committee, causing a lengthened investigation. The House voted its agreement on Jan. 21.)

Gingrich feels that the process against him was unfair, that even the Republicans on the ethics committee didn't protect him from the Democrats, who were on a tear, so why should he protect the president? This is an unusual rationale for proceeding to impeach a president.

____________________________

Recursive blogwhore.

Well, I am pretty sure Newt wasn't giving sworn statements to anyone, committing random acts of perjury, or shaking that swarthy finger at me and the rest of the American public on national tv around this time period .. At least Nixon left his misdeeds to his underlings (and had at least
enough shame to exit stage left).

"Hillary bashing is passe."

Really? And the election is still more than a year away. Now, if we were talking about Quayle, surely that would be out of date.

And, a slight joke about her looks and personality is "bashing". Geez.

"But I bet you a month's pay that everytime somebody does the "ooh, she's an unattractive scary female" thing, the intelligent, independent female voters cringe right along with me. Along with perhaps the not-so-young and not-particularly-beautiful."

I think you've perpetuated some sort of stereotype here.

I'm with Rachel on this one. Strong, intelligent, independent women still have a tough time integrating into certain male dominated fields. I admire Hillary. I find it sad that some people have to "joke" about her looks or personality to be critical of her. Many times a "joke" is just a way to get away with saying something rude, crude, whatever, and not having to defend the statement.

I do believe Hillary can handle whatever criticism thrown at her. She, her daughter, and husband have handled an enormous amount of personal criticisms for over twelve years. I would prefer more relevant criticism.

Good points. That's why I've said that adultery per se isn't sufficient to disqualify someone from public office.

Andy:

Like I said above, I think Gingrich is an enormous hypocrite, but I also think he was the victim of an ugly political hitjob vis-a-vis the massive ethics charges against him. Despite all the furor all of the ethics charges were eventually dropped.

You may also recall that someone eavesdropped on his cell phone calls and then made the tapes public. So, yeah, Gingrich was on the receiving end of some political shenanigans himself. It wasn't a simple case of Republicans=meanies and Democrats=choir boys. There was bad behavior on both sides.

www.lesjones.com

...

Spare me the unrelated Bush bashing of what you think W has lied about.

8 hours later:

It's just a little jab. I've certainly endured a zillion or so of those on this blog about W, the Bush twins, Cheney, Frist, etc., etc., generally without a whine or complaint.

Not to mention that lies of omission, deception, hypocisy, living a lie, tacit lies, etc. are apparently fine with you.

(I'm talking about Newt, the one who drummed that leaders needed to be held to a "higher standard," though I guess it obviously wasn't intended to be GOP-inclusive.)

In all fairness, Newt did resign once news of his affair became public. He never denied it. He did exactly what he said Clinton should do: resign and let the country move on...

I'm not defending his affair and his hypocrisy is sickening, but once found out, the guy took the high road. More than we can say for other GOP jackasses like Tom Delay and Dick Cheney.

His affair was never widely known (and not exposed by the "librul" MM) and I don't remember any public confessions at all. Can you cite one?

Virtually all of the analysis of the day centered on Gingrich's failure to lead the GOP in the November elections that year.

"In all fairness, Newt did resign once news of his affair became public. He never denied it. He did exactly what he said Clinton should do: resign and let the country move on..."

That is completely incorrect. He resigned after the GOP did poorly in the 98 elections, and he was facing fallout over the book advance ethics thing. There were rumors of affairs that Newt declined to discuss. You're thinking of Bob Livingston, probably.

I have another word for it.