Courtesy of Nancy Pelosi, find here the 1997 House Select Committee on Ethics report on former Speaker Newt Gingrich. From what I understand most of it is already public domain, so do not expect any serious new dirt in it. Not that it matters; Newt already has enough questionable behavior under his belt to leave your average oppo researcher on the floor and gasping. Instead it is simply a handy reference for, say, a lazy reporter who wants to know what this disgraced former Speaker stuff is all about.
Like usual I am happy to be wrong.
As to whether this makes good or bad eighteen-dimensional chess, your guess is as good as mine.
***Update***
Yeesh. One link in the post and I goofed it. Should be fixed now.
superking
bad link?
Winston Smith
This links to a Business Insider article. No mention of 1997 reports.
Benjamin Franklin
It’s the Big Love Season. Newton will be hounded to Baskerville Hell.
Steve
The funny thing is, until a couple days ago, nobody would have really cared about rehashing the old ethics charges against Gingrich, and Pelosi would have looked kind of petty if she had just come out and republished them.
Instead, she makes a casual comment to TPM, Newt loses his shit and starts making threats, and all of a sudden this dusty old report is relevant again. Well played, Madam Speaker.
Martin
Yeah, let’s give that guy the football.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
shouldn’t we be pleading with the GOP not to throw us into the briar patch of Newt? I still can’t believe they would pick Newtie, but I thought Pawlenty was gonna walk away with the nomination, then I thought Rick Perry was gonna grin and pray his way to an acceptance speech. So what the fuck do I know?
Nellcote
Funniest headline of the day via The Hill:
Gingrich or Romney: McCain prepares to play kingmaker in 2012 GOP primary
jl
yes, link fixed. Report in four parts, each as a 100 plus page pdf document.
I saw a poll that said Newt’s core support is among the elderly who for some reason think he is the most electable.
Wow. That is Newt’s core support. Nothing wrong with being elderly, but these people seem to be a special group of elderly people who do no think like anyone else in the country, even most other GOP primary voters. Seems to me that even most GOP primary voters know that Mitt is more electable than Newt in the general election.
Nellcote
@jl:
It would be a shame if they didn’t have their official picture IDs in order.
Snowball
@Steve:
I don’t get it. Unless Pelosi wants Obama to face Romney, why would she republish this report now? It is like she wants Romney (who by all accounts is by far the most electable nominee for the GOP) to be the GOP nominee.
Why wouldn’t she wait until Gingrich became their nominee?
carpeduum
I gotta question the timing of this. We want Newt to win the nomination so logic says we should be attacking Romney right now or since Newt is ahead…do nothing at all.
Or maybe her advisors figure since GOPers will oppose ANYTHING she is involved in this will help the Newtmentum.
Not 18 dimensional chess. Just chess.
David Koch
Have to think Romney’s fleet of private detectives are scouring Washington to find one of Newt’s mistresses and out of wedlock children.
amk
I know the present crop of teabaggers’ party is nutty enough to get newt as their frontman. Will rest of america follow these nuts into committing seppuku (thereby bringing a dishonor to that honorable practice)?
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Don’t feel bad. I imagine that God, or the Great Spaghetti Monster, or whatever it is, is peering perplexedly into the gaping maelstrom of the GOP primary.
Anonymous At Work
Your average oppo researcher is bitterly cursing Newt’s campaign because there isn’t call for him/her. It’s all public record and well-known. It’s like searching for garbage at the town dump; use a shovel to turn over anything and there’s garbage in the open.
Elizabelle
Can we have a Newt-free thread?
Lots of other news to discuss:
yesterday’s mine disaster fine of $209 million — sounds like Blankenship could still face charges, but will he?
Sebelius decision to not allow over the counter sales of Plan B
Mumia no longer threatened with execution; prosecutors dropped that threat
Sandusky arrested on two new charges; Syracuse ex-coach will not be charged due to statute of limitations
Pearl Harbor 70th anniversary
Please. Can’t deal with ALL NEWT ALL THE TIME.
Pet pictures welcome on any thread.
carpeduum
@Martin: No…just the nomination. Nobody who understands general elections thinks Newt would have a snowballs chance under ANY possible scenario.
Don’t you think it’s curious a lot of the people like Bill Clinton are so quiet right now. If Newt got the nomination they will be coming out of the woodwork with all kinds of stories.
Elizabelle
@Nellcote:
tee hee. re IDs
amk
And how do koch bros feel about newtie ?
rikyrah
This is so much fun
Yevgraf
@Snowball:
Because to her, this isn’t a game to win or lose – which has been a big part of the problem with reporting on politics like we do sports. To her, Romney may be a craven douche who would make miserable policy on many issues, but he’s not deliberately destructive in the way that these other guys are, nor is he a demagogue at heart.
She loves her country, and is acting like it.
Chyron HR
@Snowball:
I can’t think of anything that would ensure victory in a GOP primary more than being cast as The Enemy Of Nancy Pelosi.
jl
@Snowball: Newt’s sketchy ethics (in several domains of human life) will be brought up again and again. So, this will be brought up again.
And, as a commenter said above, exactly how all planned this was by Peolosi depends on the sensitivity of Newt’s hair trigger.
If a minor aside that any sane person would realize would be forgotten within a day gets Newt from 0 to 100 in 60 seconds on the blow up scale, that tells you more about Newt than any grand plan by Pelosi.
Yevgraf
@amk:
Like it is a December 26th sale at the Dollar Store.
In short, orgasmic.
Benjamin Franklin
@Elizabelle:
There are a lot of posters who have their own axe for grinding. But, there is a limit on nuance.
amk
Occupy demonstrators storm Washington’s K Street
Finally… Next stop msm.
amk
@Yevgraf: I thought they would hate his nutty guts. Will he play the puppet role willingly ?
Villago Delenda Est
@Chyron HR:
This.
Nancy Smash is crazy like a fox.
The fact that the 73% will find Newt to be unelectable garbage means nothing to the 27%. Pissing of the liberals is all they care about, they don’t even care if Obama will score an historic landslide as a result. They’re far too myopic to grasp this.
Play the fuckheads. They walk right into the trap.
Redshift
@amk: Yeah, I would have called the DC encampment “Occupy K Street” from the beginning, but what do I know?
Amir Khalid
@Nellcote:
Has McCain ever had the kind of pull with his party to play that sort of role? As I remember from the financial-crisis management week of the 2008 campaign, he wasted time trying to whip House Republicans’ support for rhe TARP legislation and was soundly rebuffed. It seems to me that he overestimates his influence with his Congressional colleagues, let alone with the party as a whole.
David Hunt
@Snowball:
One frightening thought that occurs to me is that she thinks the Republicans will have successfully tanked the economy enough that anyone with an “R” after his name on the ballot will win and she wants that person to be someone saner than Newt.
Redshift
@Villago Delenda Est:
Reminds me of that comment from the Corner quoted in last night’s thread:
As usual, the 27-percenters are sure they whole country agrees with them and they’re going to win, but a few of them are just bright enough to realize that doesn’t square with stronger candidates staying out of the race.
Snowball
@Chyron HR:
Your comment is in my opinion the best response to my question. They hate Pelosi. So by her criticizing Gingrich, they may be more likely to support Gingrich. Which, I would assume is her ultimate goal.
Thanks.
Benjamin Franklin
@Villago Delenda Est:
Never the victims of ‘redemptive self-awareness’, they construct, place and bait their own trap with alacrity.
Yevgraf
@amk:
He’ll be buying a gross of kneepads, and his chin will be rubbed raw from him having to constantly wipe Koch splooge off of it.
carpeduum
@Redshift: Your average taxpayer doesn’t understand what K street means.
Legalize
Brilliant. This serves three purposes: (1) endearing Newton Leroy to the mouth-breathing base because if there’s anyone they hate more than the Kenyan and Mittens, it’s the San Fran Nan, thereby helping to ensure a Newton Leroy nomination; (2) Newton Leroy’s checkered past is now relevant again, whereas before no one would have cared if he just let it go; (3) exposes Newton Leroy as the thin-skinned weenie he really is.
Ultimately resulting in independents saying, “Christ, I’d rather stick with the Kenyan.”
amk
huntsman walks back his crazy talk on climate change.
Are mormons famous for flip-flopping ?
shortstop
@jl: I hadn’t put the pieces together on Newt’s intense targeting of moderately educated and more than moderately grouchy old white people until TPM had a piece on it the other day. Suddenly Newt’s impassioned defense of Medicare combined with his remarks about Obama’s “Kenyan anti-colonial world view” — surely a more elegant, pseudo-intellectual way to say “nigger” than full-on birther talk, for those who love their chain letters but don’t want to associate with obvious fringe elements — made sense.
I don’t know that these idiots have actually analyzed the race and managed to conclude that Newt’s the most electable. I think it’s more that they focus so much on what they want and what benefits them that they can’t see the bigger picture…for example, the rest of the country. Wishful thinking writ large?
shortstop
OT, I hate when people complain about the ads, but this BibleMesh thing is working my nerves. Is that the John Adams soundtrack they’re using? Fuckers ruin every nice thing there is.
Jenny
@amk:
Only at the alter.
amk
@Yevgraf: eweww. Brain bleach.
shortstop
@Amir Khalid: Yes, too right, and he continues to overestimate it in his arrogant bantam rooster way, which makes him ever more pathetic as well as an ongoing asshole.
Steve
@Snowball: How many Republican primary voters are going to turn against Newt because Nancy Pelosi attacked him? Think about who these people are.
The Other Bob
@Chyron HR:
Bingo! The more Pelosi rips on him, posts ethics charges and the like, the more he can play the victim card and win nutball votes.
Ian
@Yevgraf:
Also wingnuts are inverse on Pelosi- she says Gingrich is bad, well by golly lets get Gingrich to piss her off!!
jl
@shortstop: “Wishful thinking writ large?” One hope so. Most alternative explanations are depressing, if Newt’s base is mostly elderly. I think they were older elderly too, but not sure.I will have to go find the story again.
geg6
@Nellcote:
Heh. Indeedy.
General Stuck
If Newt is the GOP nominee, Obama will not have to try so hard for the swing voters. They hate Newt, most of them that were around for the 90’s and suffered through his buffoonish antics.
Ian
@Villago Delenda Est:
I need to. Read. Before. Commenting…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@shortstop: With apologies to Orson Welles, when McCain made his concession speech in ’08, his id was shaking its fists at the country screaming “I’m John Sidney McCain! The Third! John Sidney McCain! Damn you!”
shortstop
@jl: Well, wishful thinking in the sense that they’re hepped on him (which is far from nothing; they’re the votingest bloc in America) and they’re so self-absorbed and insular that they just assume large numbers of other demographics will want him, too. Post that link for us if you find it, please.
General Stuck
I suspect Newt and his Kapos, are going to use the Rove playbook, of base only campaigning. Or, 50 plus 1 strategy, except Newt doesn’t have an ounce of charm, even the “ah shucks” kind that Bush had. I think it is the only way he can possibly win, being his mean motherfucker self, provided he even wants to win, and it all does portend some most excellent wingnuttery to mock. And the Jokes? Dear lard, they will write themselves in crayon.
shortstop
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Am I a terrible person for enjoying his impotent rages so thoroughly? I mean, I don’t give a damn if I am; I just want to know.
geg6
@Villago Delenda Est:
Wish I could remember where I read this so I could link it, but there was a poll in Iowa the other day about this. Apparently, the wingnuts are pissed at the usual GOPer suspects because they may have finally figured out that they’ve been getting played for the last 30 years. You know the scam…campaign on “moral” issues and then do nothing about them once elected. Anyway, a large, large percentage are saying they’d rather vote for someone they think will actually do what they want than for someone who is electable. They are perfectly happy to lose and lose big if they can nominate someone who they think is ideologically “pure.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@shortstop: Nah, you’re fine. I do, however, feel sorry for Cindy. Blithe and clueless one-percenter aging trust fund baby that she is, she did do the right thing with the No H8 campaign, and I can only imagine the spittle-flecked, obscenity-laced tantrum that forced her to retract.
Amir Khalid
@shortstop:
Well, it’s not nice to partake of Schadenfreude. But the stuff is tasty, so I wouldn’t think less of you for trying a piece from time to time. Especially when it involves John McCain.
Gin & Tonic
@geg6:
I say fine. Then it’ll be 1964 all over again.
shortstop
@Amir Khalid: Thank you! I’ll try to keep it in marked moderation so as to avoid holiday weight gain.
Mnemosyne
@Amir Khalid:
Not just tasty — Schadenfreude Pie is delicious.
Calouste
@geg6:
Those Iowans are conveniently missing that Newt, currently leading in the Iowa polls, was part of the GOP establishment for at least half of those 30 years. He’s going to scam them just as much. Although it kind of explains why Paul is polling second.
shortstop
@Calouste: Mitt has pulled even with Paul! What does it all mean?!
SRW1
Nancy simply probed whether Newt’s hair trigger was still fully functional. The test results came in as a spectacular success. I guess the D team can start working on the design of the charge.
Yevgraf
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He does have some occasional decent moments. Yes, I blame him for foisting Snowball Snookie on us, but think he was snookered on that, as he refused to let her speak on the concession.
I think he realized too late her role – to goad real ‘Murkans into making Obama’s ability to govern effectively a difficult task. I’m thinking that between her and the Wingnut Wurlitzer, they were almost too effective, and set everything up for even more difficulty than was anticipated. He pulled her before she could go even further.
I admit it, I’m weak sometimes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yevgraf: I think there is decency in him, but none of that decency is enough to trump a delusional (and incredibly thin-skinned) arrogance that reaches all the way to a messiah complex. And the only major issues he’s been consistent on, no matter who he’s mad at, is bombing brown people and telling women they need permission to make their own medical decisions.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yevgraf:
I can never forgive him for flip-flopping on torture merely because it was what his ambition told him to do in order to get the support of the deserting coward faction of the GOP in 2008.
The man could have been a shining moral light, against something that he experienced himself.
But no, his ambition won the contest with his honor and integrity. They are both gone now.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
Social conservatives are a cheap date compared to factions within the Democratic Party.
To get labor or ethnic minorities or teh gey on your side, you have to make promises and (sometimes) deliver. They want the ring before you get to third base.
But social conservatives? A few dog-whistles and hints you’ll appoint anti-abortion justices and they’re in the back seat of the car with their panties off.
After thirty years, they’re finally insisting on dinner and a movie first.
Nellcote
@Snowball:
Nancy didn’t “republish” the report. She’s just reminding people that it exists.
chopper
@Snowball:
are you kidding? this is brilliant. the base is going to circle the wagons around newt precisely because pelosi is bringing this shit up. bad for romney, especially since this was going to be his attack and now he can’t up and copy nancy smash, can he?
meanwhile, independents are turned off on newtie even more because, well, he and ethics go together like oil and water.
well done, madam speaker. truly a thing of genius.
Suffern ACE
@Nellcote: IIRC events of a few days past, she implied that there were thousands of pages on Newt that could be released. I’m certain that those documents had allegations that were investigated where the investigation went nowhere or turned out to be false, or icky sounding but within the ethics rules. I am not certain if she could release those, but of course, if someone left the key to the vault on a desk, and just happened to go inside…
Mike in NC
Latest polling in South Carolina shows Swollen Amphibian beating Plastic Mormon by 38.4% to 21.5%. 59% of all respondents believe Obama will be reelected, including 32% of Republicans. Tea Party is apparently in the toilet in SC. Spend, Mitt, spend!
John M. Burt
I don’t think Ms. Pelosi planned this, but it is the product of years of patient work and a lifetime of honesty, and I most sincerely thank the once and future Speaker for this, one more service to the country in a long and heroic career.
birthmarker
@Nellcote: It will be a shame if they have to pee in a cup to keep their medicaid funding nursing home bed.
AA+ Bonds
What a crooked dude that Newt Gingrich is. So crooked! Crooked, crooked, crooked.
That famous Newt Gingrich $300,000 swindle. I almost can’t help but repeat the words “Newt Gingrich” and “crooked” and “$300,000 swindle” over and over, all day long. Feels good!
cleter
@Snowball: This lets Newt rail against Pelosi, which boosts his stock with GOP base nutballs and enhance his primary chances, while simultaneously reminding independents and others who are NOT GOP primary voters just how repulsive Newt is. It’s a win/win.
MJ
@shortstop: See also, Eye of Newt’s tagging of President Obama as “the candidate of food stamps, and the finest food stamp president in the American history…whose policies would turn all of America into Detroit“.
No racial dog whistle there.