By now, of course, we've all heard the news about our favorite punching bag Newt Gingrich. And if you're like me, the reaction was joyous celebration (short of Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachman, can you think of a worse potential nominee for the GOP?), tempered by dismay at realizing we'll have to deal with his loathsome kisser front and center for many months to come.
But mostly, I'm gleefull with anticipation? Why, you may ask? Because him entering the electoral field of battle again means all his scandals are about to come spilling out into the public eye again. And what a treasure trove we have to savor, because short of Bluebeard, no one has more skeletons in his closet than Newt. Hell, his antics ever since Obama became President alone are enough to keep campaign ads fat for decades. A quick sample:
Calling Sonia Sotomayor a "Latina woman racist" and then using the ensuing flap to raise money.
Saying Obama follows a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview, basing his attack on an article from longtime crony Dinesh D'Souza.
Saying his utterly atrocious history of adultery, hypocristy and broken marriages was born of his patriotism and passion for the country. (I can see the ad campaign: Vote Newt: He Fucks Because He Cares.)
Attacking Obama for bombing Libya, mere weeks after attacking him for not bombing Libya, setting a flip-flop speed record that even Mitt Romney would be hard-pressed to top.
Yes, our Newt has been a busy, busy boy. But it's only the recent tip of a massive, massive iceberg. I'll let Josh Marshall at TPM sum it up nicely:
Jon Alter and David Corn are on Hardball right now working their way through Newt Gingrich's history of ferociously crazy and borderline eliminationist rhetoric going back 30 years. And it's almost comical: because watching, you can see that they are defeated by the sheer volume of completely clownish and wildly intemperate statements. Where do you possibly start?
Indeed. And I credit Mr. Marshall for bringing up one of the ugliest incidents of Gingrich's career (which is really saying something):
But for me it all goes back to that epic moment on the eve of the 1994 GOP congressional blowout when Gingrich took that horrible tragic example of the Susan Smith murders - the young woman who murdered her little kids down in South Carolina - and used it as an example of the results of Democratic social safety net programs and the need to vote Republican to keep crazy young mothers from murdering their children and blaming it on black men. It was somewhere around then when he said that Democrats were "traitors" and the "enemy of normal Americans."
If you don't remember the Susan Smith mess, you might remember that Gingrich's comments became doubly offensive after the revelation that Smith's stepfather Beverly Russell, a Christian Coalition county chairman and member of the South Carolina GOP's executive committee, had sexually molested her reguarly since she was fifteen. Did Gingrich have any regrets over his inflamatory comments? If he did, he kept it well hidden.
Really, we could go forever listing Gingrich's scandals, failings and offensive comments. This is the man, after all, who shut down the government because he didn't like his Air Force One seat. (I never get tired of this cartoon.)
He's truely one of a kind. So sit back, pop some popcorn and get ready to enjoy what may be one of the most hilariously offensive political campaigns in our history.