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Even the OG political terrorist & uber-hypocrite Newt Gingrich thinks the GOP is disgraceful [1]

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Date: 2023-10-19  

Newt Gingrich is blind to irony and impervious to shame. Reacting to the staggeringly incompetent attempt by Republicans to elect a Speaker, while the GOP’s rabid wing screws the pooch, the ex-speaker declared in an interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business:

"And it’s really, truly, I think the most disgraceful behavior by Republicans in my lifetime."

I remember Gingrich in the 1990s. But for those too young or those who have mercifully wiped their memories of the snarling pseudo-intellectual, here are a few brief observations of Gingrich during the birth of contemporary toxic conservatism.

In the 1998 midterm elections during Bill Clinton’s second term, the Republicans had high hopes for a red wave. The Monica Lewinsky scandal dominated the headlines. The GOP anticipated further gains from the “six-year itch” — the sixth year of two-term Presidents had long seen wins for the opposition party. It was not to be.

The Republicans lost four seats in the House and gained none in the Senate. For the first time since 1934, the non-presidential party failed to pick up seats in Congress. Presiding over this dismal underperformance — reminiscent of 2022 — was the GOP Speaker, Newt Gingrich. He was soon gone.

Peevishness and ethics challenges exacerbated his leadership failure. He famously whined about his back-row seat and his exit through the rear door of Air Force One after a flight returning from the funeral of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The thin-skinned moron then showed a political tin ear by announcing the supposed snub had caused his decision to shut the government down.

His hypocrisy was legendary. As he campaigned to depose Clinton for lying about sexual adventurism, this moral black hole was cheating on his MS-afflicted second wife with the woman who would become his third wife. His second wife should not have been surprised, as he had done the same with her while married to his cancer-stricken first wife.

(Note: When a man marries his mistress, he creates a job opening.)

Gingrich, who had promised to clean up the House after 40 years of Democratic control, bounced 22 checks drawn on the House bank, including one for $9,463 to the IRS in 1990.

While in Congress, he taught a course at Kennesaw State College. The course's organizers solicited financial support from "individuals, corporations, and foundations," promising donations were tax-exempt. The House Ethics Committee disagreed, saying that the class was "actually a coordinated effort" to "help in achieving a partisan, political goal" and ran afoul of its tax-exempt status. Gingrich agreed to pay a penalty of $300,000 and admit that he had "engaged in conduct that did not reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.”

There is more, of course. But you get the point.

It takes chutzpah to claim that you have never seen more disgraceful behavior among Republicans when your mirror shows one of the most morally bankrupt Republicans still breathing. Gingrich is so riddled with dishonesty that he joined the GOP chorus blaming the Democrats for the current congressional disarray.

Here are his full remarks to Kudlow:

"These folks [House GOP] have gotta calm down. The level of anger, the level of hostility in the conference – all of it started by the eight traitors. That’s what they were – traitors, who abandoned their party and allied with the Democrats against 96% of the Republican Party with no idea what they would do if they won. They have caused chaos. They have embarrassed the Republican Party and they have weakened the United States at a time when there are two major wars underway. And it’s really, truly, I think the most disgraceful behavior by Republicans in my lifetime."

Gingrich is like the parent of children raised to be antisocial, immoral, and incompetent by their father’s example, who wonders why they turned out that way.

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