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House Reprimands, Penalizes Speaker (Flashback)
WaPo ^ | Jan.22, 1997 | John E. Yang

Posted on 12/07/2011 8:16:15 PM PST by fightinJAG

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To: Hoodat

Ran circles around him? Clinton was against balancing the budget, against welfare reform, the contract w/ America, & certainly against his own impeachment. Who ran circles around whom?


81 posted on 12/07/2011 9:47:27 PM PST by Confab
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To: fightinJAG

Seriously. A statement contains a leaning. You are a publican, I’ll give you that.
Your afterthoughts are innocent declamations? I can see how this can happen. I just can’t see it on FR with a JAG. Forgive my incredulity.


82 posted on 12/07/2011 9:50:03 PM PST by TwoSwords
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To: Confab
They both stink.

Newt's track record as a conservative since he left office, in part:

* Taking millions from Fannie and Freddie

* Supporting massive boondoggles related to ethanol subsidies and tax credits

* Pushing an individual mandate in health care, including through his for-profit Center for Health Transformation that has Big Pharma and huge health insurers pay very large "membership fees" for access to Gingrich

* Calling Paul Ryan's plan "right-wing social engineering"

* * OPPOSING efforts in 2005 to strengthen regulation of Fannie and Freddie -- one of the key failures that led to the housing crisis and the economic crash

* As a former Professor of Environmental Studies and one of the first to push global warming legislation in the 1980's, still supporting man-made global warming junk science in 2009

* Going on an Education Tour with Al Sharpton and Arne Duncan to support Obama's education policies

* And, in office, buying off Clinton's veto on welfare reform with billions and billions in NEW entitlement spending, such as federally funded childcare and new Medicain eligibility.

Is that the record of a strong conservative? No, it's not. And that's just a partial list.

So let's dispense with that issue and talk about whether Gingrich will be the least bit accountable to conservatives once elected.

83 posted on 12/07/2011 9:50:31 PM PST by fightinJAG (NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION! Everyone should pay taxes, everyone should pay the same rate.)
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To: TwoSwords

Suit yourself.


84 posted on 12/07/2011 9:51:42 PM PST by fightinJAG (NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION! Everyone should pay taxes, everyone should pay the same rate.)
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To: fightinJAG

“What’s your take on the fact that it was members of Gingrich’s own party that were the strongest proponents of punishing him for his ethics violations and who later all but demanded he resign?”

My take was that after Newt was taken out, they became a directionless boat on the ocean, and it didn’t take long for them to hand it all right back to the enemy.


85 posted on 12/07/2011 9:54:47 PM PST by Dogbert41 (Israel is real:))
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To: fightinJAG

Tell me where any of those have anything to do w/ past GOVERNANCE? He’s changed his views on a number of those things & how he will GOVERN in the future.

You keep dodging my questions. I know why, but I’ll keep asking.


86 posted on 12/07/2011 9:55:45 PM PST by Confab
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To: Confab

Why do you assume I think Gingrich was guilty?

Good grief, posting an article is not an endorsement of its content.

My only interest in the article was the one I stated: that Republicans who worked with Gingrich hated him as much or more than the Democrats did.

Take that any way you want, but it’s a fact and it has meaning for today, I think.

Otherwise, the thread is here for people to say whatever they want about it.

It’s really adolescent that this meme has taken over that what’s really the point of a thread is the poster’s motive in posting it.


87 posted on 12/07/2011 9:56:03 PM PST by fightinJAG (NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION! Everyone should pay taxes, everyone should pay the same rate.)
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To: fightinJAG

Yes sir - I recall. Newt accepts the battlefield as it is instead of changing it. He teases us with occasional offenses then pulls the rug out with a cave in on a core principal.


88 posted on 12/07/2011 9:56:03 PM PST by SteelTrap
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To: ncalburt

So you can study up for what’s coming.


89 posted on 12/07/2011 9:56:55 PM PST by fightinJAG (NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION! Everyone should pay taxes, everyone should pay the same rate.)
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To: fightinJAG
C’mon dude, those other charges were dropped when Newt copped a plea and agreed to pay $300,000 (which, curiously, he initially borrowed from Bob Dole, of all people).

You're a JAG so you would almost certainly be more familiar with this process than I am. So here goes, when you do a plea bargain with someone don't you plea bargain the strongest charge rather than the weakest charge. That way, if the defendant violates the plea bargain by, for example, committing further crimes, you still retain leverage to go after him.

With that in mind, below is the first paragraph from the ethics report that was put together by the Ethics Committee. Tell me if you think that charge, particularly in light of the IRS's subsequent tax decision in favor of Gingrich, is a got-him-dead-to-rights sort of ethics charge. In making this assessment, you might compare it, for example, to Charles Rangel failing to report income to the IRS.

The only grey I see in all of this would be the content of the college course, but take it from me, the course was a fairly standard college course on American history. And it was notable only because it didn't have the typical leftwing view of American history that is found on most college campuses nowadays.

On September 7, 1994, a complaint was filed with the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct ("Committee") against Representative Newt Gingrich by Ben Jones, Mr. Gingrich's opponent in his 1994 campaign for re-election. The complaint centered on a course taught by Mr. Gingrich called "Renewing American Civilization." Among other things, the complaint alleged that Mr. Gingrich had used his congressional staff to work on the course in violation of House Rules. The complaint also alleged that Mr. Gingrich had created a college course under the sponsorship of 501(c)(3) organizations in order "to meet certain political, not educational, objectives" and, therefore, caused a violation of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to occur. In partial support of the allegation that the course was a partisan, political project, the complaint alleged that the course was under the control of GOPAC, a political action committee of which Mr. Gingrich was the General Chairman.

90 posted on 12/07/2011 9:57:10 PM PST by vbmoneyspender
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To: fightinJAG

So a JAG, is sort of like a trial lawyer, right?

:)

Did you mention yet, who you support?


91 posted on 12/07/2011 9:57:52 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network ("FREE TRADERS": Self-loathing Americans)
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To: Confab

Please don’t tell me what I do and do not realize.

You are very wrong.

Sometimes dislike is a valid indication of poor leadership. That was not the case, imo, with the people who did not “love” Reagan or Churchill.


92 posted on 12/07/2011 10:00:16 PM PST by fightinJAG (NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION! Everyone should pay taxes, everyone should pay the same rate.)
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To: Confab

Sorry, I was short with you in my last post. I’m tired and calling it a night.

More and more, I think Newt is going to be a nightmare. My honest opinion.


93 posted on 12/07/2011 10:02:18 PM PST by fightinJAG (NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION! Everyone should pay taxes, everyone should pay the same rate.)
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To: fightinJAG

I seriously didn’t mean to offend you. I generally agree with your posts.
I just can’t see how you expected to post this story and then add on that the pub Congress agreed on the charges and consider it fair.
Fellow criminals/politicians turning on their own is never pretty.
We’re all pretty frazzled right now. Again, my apoligies. Sometimes I’m too aggessive with my fellow Freepers.
I’m no Newt fan but he seems the best of a bad lot.


94 posted on 12/07/2011 10:03:15 PM PST by TwoSwords
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To: fightinJAG

he could be, but certainly not as frightening as the ride we are on right now.


95 posted on 12/07/2011 10:04:13 PM PST by Dogbert41 (Israel is real:))
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To: fightinJAG

Calling it a night before divulging who you support, just an observation for readers...


96 posted on 12/07/2011 10:04:57 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network ("FREE TRADERS": Self-loathing Americans)
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To: fightinJAG

I guess I assumed you were inferring he was guilty by your remarks about having paid the 300k & the context in which you made those remarks. Silly me.

If this thread was in a vacuum, then your points may have some validity. Your posting history in regards to Newt leaves no such luxury. At least admit this was a hit piece because you don’t like Newt, rather than just an informational piece.


97 posted on 12/07/2011 10:06:35 PM PST by Confab
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
Stop attacking our own. Democrats are the opposition.

Maybe to you or other Republican operatives.

All corrupt politicians are my opposition and this covers most of them from both parties.

All politicians who support big government and big government programs are my opposition. Republicans are just as guilty of this as Democrats.

Any politician or government official who will not enforce our immigration laws and whose "compassion" threatens the very sovereignty of my Country is my opposition. Republicans fit this description as well as Democrats.

Obama and the Democrats are only one obstacle to our Country regaining its Constitutional greatness. If you think getting rid of him is going to solve any of our problems you are naive.

98 posted on 12/07/2011 10:08:45 PM PST by Prokopton
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To: vbmoneyspender

Regardless of the process or the charges, my interest in this article was the number of Republicans who spoke on the record against Gingrich, who were strongly supporting the Ethics Committee case, and who voted for the penalty recommended by the Committee.

I find that somewhat curious and not explainable by the somewhat blythe caption that “Newt was fighting the elites” — good grief, he was the Speaker of the House and he initially borrowed the $300,000 to pay his Ethics fine from that other fighter-against-the-elitesl-NOT, Bob Dole.

Nor do I think it’s the end of the discussion to say the GOP caved or they were idiots or whatever.

Having lived through this episode, I look at it differently now. It does make me wonder about Newt’s leadership if he could so thoroughly lose the confidence of the House Republicans in so short a time as Speaker. Clearly, imo, there was much more behind this loss of confidence than these ethics charges.


99 posted on 12/07/2011 10:10:34 PM PST by fightinJAG (NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION! Everyone should pay taxes, everyone should pay the same rate.)
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To: fightinJAG

Now your opinion is something I can respect. No one knows for sure what the future will hold. We differ. It’s all good. Time for bed myself.


100 posted on 12/07/2011 10:10:52 PM PST by Confab
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