Spare Us Your Indignation Newt
Those on the right love the chutzpah of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. They love his unabashed criticism of the mainstream media and the current administration. For the purpose of this article we will assume that the mainstream media is any outlet who challenges Mr. Gingrich.
Gingrich and other candidates have hammered Mitt Romney on his many flip-flops on various issues such as immigration, the individual mandate, abortion, global warming and others. Since these are issues important to describing how Mitt Romney could possibly govern they are considered fair game regardless of how consistent he may or may not have been in the last decade.
The issue of adultery has ended the dreams of many campaign hopefuls. It is an issue which many people find very important as it points to a candidates character. We are all a little surprised that the political party which dubs itself the family values party has twice now placed a serial adulterer as the front runner in their nomination process.
So how does this work exactly? Rick Perry probably explained it best, "I believe in the power of redemption for it is a central tenant of my Christian faith."
That ends it then, Newt Gingrich is redeemed. There is in fact a statute of limitations for adultery in the family values party.
This was never more clear than at a South Carolina debate when John King dared to ask the "redeemed" about an interview his ex-wife Marianne Gingrich gave in which she described an alleged proposition that Newt gave her concerning maintaining an open marriage. In a booming voice in which the indignation was almost palpable, Newt replied, "I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like this, is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine."
Well done sir. The conservative family values crowd went crazy. Yeah, adultery! He went on to add, "Let me be quite clear. The story is false. Every personal friend I have who knew us in that period says the story was false. We offered several of them to ABC to prove it was false. They weren't interested, because they would like to attack any Republican."
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