It's Really Not that Funny After All: Newt's Infidelity

At the behest of a friend, it was my intention to write a humorous post about Newt Gingrich's revelation today that he was screwing around at the same time Bill was teaching Monica about cigars.

In an interview with the Oily James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, Gingrich was asked if the allegations of sexual impropriety were true.

According to the AP Gingrich replied: "The honest answer is yes...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."

Gingrich makes the case, however, that he is not a hypocrite. After all, he was just committing adultery, Clinton was accused of lying in court. (Have you ever noticed that conservatives ALWAYS have a reason why THEY aren't guilty?)

At first, it seemed like an easy way to have a little fun. After all, there hasn't been a story this good since Rush the Pill Popping Pundit.

But then I listened to the interview. This is certainly not an example of "Gotcha Journalism" from the Right. This is no hit job. Listening to Dobson and Gingrich talk, it is obvious that this is a "dramatic re-creation" of an earlier conversation. One which each party seems to have felt would be worth airing in public.

Why would Newt deliberately expose himself?

It's pretty obvious that the Right Wing tossed a softball for Newt to belt out of the park. By the time Newt throws his hat into the Presidential ring, which he will do next fall, after it becomes clear that the Radical Right is not at all happy with their less than completely crazy choices, this story will have become OLD NEWS.

The story obviously won't hurt Gingrich with the Religious Right, because there is nothing the Born Again Snake-Handlers love more than a sinner come home to Christ! He's Sinned, He's Confessed, He's Repented, He's Forgiven. Amen.

It's a neat trick, and it could be a fun post. But I'm not writing it.

Why? Because as I think about it, this looks like the beginning of an effort by the Right to Dust Newt Off and Return Him to Power.

And that is scary, very scary.

Because the REAL FOCUS of the interview was not the cute little Come to Jesus moment.

The REAL FOCUS was what Newt Gingrich calls: The Genuine Danger of Terrorism.

At a speech in New Hampshire Last Fall, Gingrich said:

This is a serious long term war, and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country, that will lead us to learn how to close down every website that is dangerous, and it will lead us to a very severe approach to people who advocate the killing of Americans and advocate the use of nuclear of[sic] biological weapons.

Newt Gingrich is seriously proposing that we: "adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us"

In effect, we are going to need to place Freedom of Speech in a sort of Blind Trust, until we win the war on Terror.

At this moment, as I write, stories are going up on the internet about the recent findings of a Justice Department Audit:

The FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.
And for three years the FBI underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.

These are exactly the people and the institutions Mr. Gingrich proposes to trust with protecting our free speech.

Mr. Gingrich is the person the right wing wants to be our next President.

And there is nothing funny to write about there. Not one funny little word.

Because if you thought Bush and Cheney were scary, you ain't seen nothing yet. You see, unlike Bush, Newt Gingrich is NOT stupid..EVIL..but not stupid. And unlike Cheney, Newt Gingrich would NEVER shoot anyone...at least, not accidentally.

It will make you sick, I know, but you owe it to yourself to go to the Focus on the Family site and here the "interview" between Dobson and Gingrich for yourself.

Because, unfiltered by the "Liberal" Media, which totally misses the real story in persuit of a joke, it will make your blood run cold.


It's Here: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Focus_on_the_Family/archives.asp?bcd=2007-3-9