Bucks County billboard praises Gingrich -- for adultery!
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Bucks County billboard praises Gingrich -- for adultery!
If Mitt Romney digs himself out of his current hole and somehow wins the GOP nomination, maybe he should pick Ashley Madison as his running mate.
Never heard of Ashley Madison? Me neither, but according to my email in box, AshleyMadison.com (Link? Are you serious?) is, ahem, "the world's premier extra-marital dating site with over 12 million members in 17 countries." And here you were bemoaning the lack of entrepreneurship in America. Anyway, the other claim to fame at Ashleymadison.com is that they're big fans of current Republican 2012 frontrunner Newt Gingrich.
How big? They've erected (where are Beavis and Butthead when you need them?) a giant billboard monment to fhe former house speaker which is located, for reasons known only to them, on Route 1 in Bucks County in what their e-mail release calls the "sleepy town" (Blogger's note: Ouch!) of Morrisville, just across the Delaware River from Trenton.
If you can't read the signage above, it says "Faithful Republican...Unfaithful Husband."
Says the news release from a company CEO that I don't feel like naming: "Gingrich proves that marital fidelity has no bearing on someone's ability to do a job. Rather than judge him, Americans have finally embraced the reality that affairs are commonplace, and perhaps paradoxically, might be an indication of great leadership to come. He is not the first nor last politician who will step outside of their marriage.”
Of course, this billboard is going to be subjected to the Cialis effect: Call your lawyer immediately if it stays up longer than four hours. And when the inevitable attorney for the Gingrich campaign makes the inevitable phone call and the billboard comes down, the good-or-whatever people at Ashleymadison.com will benefit from another round of news coverage. What a cheap publicity stunt! What kind of journalistic sap might fall for this?
Oops, as Rick Perry is fond of saying.
Well, OK, there is actually a broader point here. On the same day this billboard appeared, the venerable conservative publication National Review put out an editorial begging Republicans NOT to rally around Gingrich, and it hammered him hard for his three marriages and two known affairs. When the National Review and an online cheating site are going in the same direction, that's what we nowadays call a meme. Gingrich had been getting a fairly easy ride -- just two months ago the mild joke on "SNL" was that Newt didn't really want to be running for the White House -- but that's officially over as of today. From here on out, it's "Hardball."
OK, maybe that wasn't the best choice of words, either.
At the time of Clinton and his escapades, I made no judgments. I thought he was fine as president. I didn't like that he lied about it. I feel the same way about Newt. What does tick me off is that repubs are willing to look the other way because he is a conserv. It was the same with Bristol Palin. Had the knocked up teenager been Chelsea Clinton it would have been #1 news story. But, everyone was supposed to respect the delicate nature Bristol Palin found herself in... So much for teaching abstinence only. I make no judgments either way. I just hate hypocrisy and the Orwellian nature of it all.— PotteryPete- Since 1980, "family values" has been the establishment's way of differentiating Repubs from Dems, another phony meme designed to fool voters in thinking that they have a choice. Like so many other articles of the emperors wardrobe, we of the 99% are now seeing it for what it is.
- Two things here that are advantage Gingrich. First, anything the left can bring up about him is already known, there will probably be few surprises. Second, the left watered down the impact of adultery during the Clinton administration, so there will probably be no traction there.— jmc
- Stop Willy....It was good enough for your boy Billy Clinton I read nothing from you but that his private life did not matter, but now that it someone you don't like you bring up morality, as if you or any other media type or plastic head knew what that was......You are a fraud willy— nuggett
- So by extension, Newt himself is a fraud for making our boy's private life an issue. Isn't that what we've been saying?
- Republicans are scum. Gingrich is scum. Let's get rid of the scum.— bushmciworlcomenron
- Hey Bill, your boy was on his Texas ranch "clearing brush" during his crises. Pot, meet kettle.— philharmonic55
- Batty's now old enough to be unemployed. It hurts, because only Righties can be conspicuously wealthy and throw it in the face of the downtrodden, not uppity Libs. Show some sympathy.
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- We've seen it time and time again with politicians over the last 20+ years. Clinton was elected even though he had several sexual harassment cases looming during his time as Governor. It happens with both parties. While it is true that a person's sexual life may have no bearing on his or her ability to perform the job, Newt's case is a little different. It is the timing of his affairs and the way he divorced his wives: while they were sick and needed him most. That's distasteful.— General Turgidson
- Indeed. Compassion and support for the sick and vulnerable. Isn't that the true test of character and leadership, and the missing element in this debate? Newt broke that part of his vows, but it's the equivalent of our founding fathers pledging, in that pact we call the Constitution, a government that would provide for the security and general welfare of a nation. Let's not quibble over what that means but at least recognize it as a broken promise that needs to be redeemed.
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