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Monday, January 23, 2012

Dear Folks, Sorry I Haven't Written Lately

So, how the hell did this happen? Newt Gingrich as a viable candidate for the Republican presidential nomination? I thought Mitt Romney was supposed to be a dead-solid lock. Instead, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul are still alive.
Actually, it's a bit insane that this race has even begun by now. There were debates in 2011 for an election that was nearly a year away. True, that allowed the wackjobs - Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain - to self-destruct. Rick Pawlenty gave up the ghost long ago and Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie realized they had zero national name-recognition. Donald Trump decided to stay where he belongs: on a "reality" show. Sister Sarah successfully slunk south to Arizona and out of the spotlight.
Paul appeals to the lunatic fringe - and to those who have no frame of reference with which to truly assess his stupid ideas about eliminating this department and that one. Romney appeals to ... beats me.
The level of discourse spewed by Sir I Do Of Newt (aka The Marrying Man) is as disgraceful as the way the man's lived his personal life. He can bitch and moan about being insulted by a question about the latest slimy revelations about his past, but that doesn't make them untrue. Character matters ... to the Republicans when they want to turn some obscure, borderline indecent piece of a Democrat's history into campaign commercial fodder.
Gingrich winning South Carolina is not exactly earth-shattering news. He's good at pushing the right buttons, especially in the cradle of treason. Calling Obama the "food stamp president" appeals directly to those who still refer to the Civil War (and they are legion) as the "War of Northern Aggression." I'm personally appalled at his behavior:
  • His first wife was his high school geometry teacher. Some people would find that distasteful.
  • After beginning an affair with the woman that would become his second wife, according to Cuckold #1, "He walked out in the spring of 1980 ... By September, I went into the hospital for my third surgery. The two girls came to see me, and said, 'Daddy is downstairs. Could he come up?' When he got there, he wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while I was recovering from my surgery." It was also of her that he said, "She isn't young enough or pretty enough to be the President's wife. And besides, she has cancer." Some people would find that distasteful.
  • Newt subsequently stopped paying alimony and child support. His wife's church raised money to keep the utilities on. Some people would find that distasteful.
  • He was having an affair during his second marriage and when she confronted him about it, he asked for an open marriage. Oh, and she had just been diagnosed with MS. Some people would find that distasteful.
  • While leading the impeachment process against President Clinton for his oral sexcapades with Monica Lewinsky, Newton Leroy was getting the same treatment from Congressional aide Callista Biske, 23 years his junior. Some people would find that distasteful.
  • At least three women have had sex with Newt Gingrich. Most people would find that distasteful.
  • He was among the most active participants in the House Banking scandal, bouncing 22 checks. Some people would find that distasteful.
  • Gingrich was initially offered a $2.5 million advance and then $4.5 million by Harper Collins, a publishing house owned by the Pirate King himself, Rupert Pupkin. I mean Murdoch. When it was pointed out that Murdoch's publishing arms were giving big advances to conservative authors in countries where Murdoch was having regulatory trouble, Newt turned down the advance. Instead, he got a lucrative deal based on royalties. Some people would find that distasteful.
  • In 1984, Gingrich established a limited partnership in Atlanta called COS Limited, funded by his leading campaign contributors. The administrator of Gingrich's congressional offices in Georgia, Dolores Adamson, eventually resigned. "The manuscript was put together in the district office using office equipment," she said. "He would just come in and say 'This is what I want to do.' I would say, 'This is not ethical,' but after a while he didn't listen." That office equipment, of course, was paid for by US taxpayers. Some people would find that distasteful.
  • Gingrich resigned from the House and paid a $300,000 fine in the midst of an ethics investigation into his political action committee GOPAC. Some people would find that distasteful.
  • He wants poor inner city children to be employed as janitors in their schools. Some people would find that distasteful.
  • He referred to President Obama as the most radical president we've ever had. Some people would find distasteful and just plain stupid, just like all the items before this one.
I'll close by sharing something Bill Maher said on "Real Time" Friday night. He's accused President Obama of being a socialist, with no evidence. He's accused President Obama of not having a jobs bill, which he does. He's accused President Obama of making the economy worse, and he's made it better. Gingrich is running against someone that doesn't exist.