Friday, March 09, 2007

Return of the Newt

Now let's make it clear - Newt Gingrich is not a hypocrite for having flung excrement at Bill Clinton: whooping and hopping like a zoo chimpanzee whose cage had been rattled, even though he was himself having an illicit sexual affair at the time. Not a hypocrite at all, said he to Focus on the Family, a self-congratulatory Christianist radical group. "There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards." Pandering to the Godbothers is of course not just a way to render one's sins nugatory, but a signal that Newt intends to run for President.

Whatever the relative standards of morality and decency demanded by Newt or by God, both seem to be entirely situational and subject to constant reinterpretation as befits the sales goals of the moment, but by my standards Newt is a hypocrite whose hypocrisy is rather too indelible to be washed away as easily as he would wish. "Clinton was punished for perjury" claims Newton although he was neither punished nor a perjurer. "you cannot accept ... perjury in your highest officials" but you can apparently accept tax evasion and you can accept sinners throwing stones at sinners and bearing false witness against the innocent as long as you clear it through God's own laundry, Focus on the Family.

Irrespective of his honesty in denying a sexual relationship, the question was irrelevant to the charges against President Clinton and of course not only were the charges not proved, they were heavily dependent upon fiction, bought and paid for by those who are lecturing us about ethics, morals and family values.

Gingrich apparently retains a good deal of popularity amongst the Republicans, at least the segment of that party that has become used to running things, and I believe we're seeing the launch of his trial balloon. Whether there is enough hot air available to float it, laden as it is with ego and freighted with enough ethical baggage to weigh down the Hindenburg, remains to be seen.

5 comments:

RR said...

Hot air is all that balloon will hold...

I blogged about this same thing this morning: Gingrich is a hypocrite of the first order. The speed with which the Republican base is able to rationalize their duplicity is baffling to the sane.

He's obviously trying to get this little "moral issue" out of the way so it doesn't come back to haunt him closer to the election (assuming he runs, which I do assume). However, since the widest plank of his candidacy will undoubtedly be pandering to those who claim moral outrage at such goings on I hope it will be thrown back in his face -- full force. (Usually I wouldn't care about such things -- but throwing stones in a glass house has its implications).

d.K. said...

Please, please let Newt be the next Republican presidential nominee! If he is, even you might agree it's time to reconsider whether or not there is a God.

I read recently where Dobson had sent a letter to Haggard's successor in whatever that huge umbrella organization of evangelicals is called, demanding that they stop their efforts that emphasize concern for the environment, and get back to God's agenda, which includes, of course, lower taxes, fighting gun control advocates, and of course, blaming gays for all the country's woes.

I don't see anything in that list that would disqualify Newt from garnering Focus on the Family's unqualified endorsement.

Capt. Fogg said...

I guess you either turn to rehab or religion to launder your reputation - anything but a little honesty.

But yes, I would rather have Newt to kick around than most other REpublican hopefuls.

Libby Spencer said...

Newt would be a gift from the Gods although it would be a mistake to underestimate him. He would still be a formidable candidate. He enjoys an incomprehensibly large amount of support.

Capt. Fogg said...

Incomprehensible is the word. There is nothing about him that I can see that would qualify him for success in any field other than Florida real estate developer, used car salesman or evangelist. He's appropriately named for a slime coated salamander.