President John Tyler’s grandson says Newt Gingrich is a 'jerk' (they're really reaching now)

President John Tyler’s grandson Harrison Tyler, 84, says he’s not impressed with the state of politics today and particularly thinks Newt Gingrich is a “big jerk” for his three marriages.

Incredibly, President Tyler, who was born in 1790 and became the 10th president in 1841, has two grandchildren still alive today. His grandson, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, currently maintains the Tyler presidential home, Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation in Charles City, Va.

Harrison said he doesn’t spend much time focusing on the 2012 presidential race — “I can’t stand watching television” — but considers himself a conservative. His big problem this election, he said, is with the candidates.

“He needs to stick with the same wife, that’s what my mother taught me,” Tyler said. “But that doesn’t seem to happen much today.”

Tyler, an engineer who founded his own business, ChemTreat, in 1968, said he thought it was important that Mitt Romney had business experience, but noted he is firmly undecided at this point. He said he plans to vote this fall, but “I just haven’t made up my mind yet.”

And President Barack Obama — who Tyler called a “charming man” — just doesn’t have the right pro-business policies to get his vote, he said.

“Well, I think he’s a charming man, but he grew up in the society where he believes in running the show and changing the apple cart and taking it away from those that have,” he said.

Tyler said he prefers to focus on the family home in Virginia, not on politics. He spends some time giving lectures on local Jamestown history — he’s also descended from Pocahontas — but notes he didn’t even start studying presidential history and his grandfather until his retirement.

“I’m retired from my business,” he said. “I’m 84 years old. I drive around, I bought a lot of additional land, beautiful land around the river. I just drive around watching all the deer and all the turkey.”

President John Tyler, who lived from 1790-1862, had 15 children during his lifetime, making him the most prolific president. One of his children, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, born in 1853, fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Jr. in 1924 and Harrison in 1928. Lyon Tyler, Jr., is 88 and currently living in Franklin, Tenn., according to Harrison.

President Tyler was William Henry Harrison’s Whig running mate in the 1840 election, which spawned one of the most famous campaign slogans in American history, “Tippecanoe and Tyler too.” On his 32nd day in office, Harrison died of complications from pneumonia. Tyler was then the first vice president to become president due to the death of his predecessor, serving from 1841-1845.

John Tyler also has the distinction of becoming the first president to get married while in office — after his first wife died in 1842, Tyler married Julia Gardiner, who was 30 years younger than him, in 1844.

Any pointers to that restriction?

Can’t imagine that JimRob would have a rule that he himself wouldn’t live under for 5 minutes if it was for a candidate that he liked or disliked.

I know JR is a man of strong opinions but I’ve never seen him restrict speech (beyond common decency) or run FR as his own personal fiefdom vs. as a community resource.

I’ve stated that I think Newt is an uncontrollable ego manic and that I believe he represents Nixon level risk to the Republican and Conservative brand several times and have not had a warning or a zot. Some strong response? For sure, but everyone has an opinion.

Writing books is private enterprise? Well, The Won wrote a couple of books, so I suppose you can say he is even more qualified since he sold more books than Newt.

He resigned not only as speaker but as a representative days after re-election, amid an ethics committee investigation that resulted in a reprimand.

You don’t think that is disgrace, fine. But please don’t accuse me of regurgitating talking points.

Writing books is private enterprise? Well, The Won wrote a couple of books, so I suppose you can say he is even more qualified since he sold more books than Newt.

Can you please explain how producing and selling a product in the free market is NOT private enterprise? If your measuring stick for who should be president is now based on how much money that person makes, then does that mean you'd support Warren Buffett or Bill Gates for president?

He resigned not only as speaker but as a representative days after re-election, amid an ethics committee investigation that resulted in a reprimand.

You don’t think that is disgrace, fine. But please don’t accuse me of regurgitating talking points.

You ARE regurgitating talking points which means you're a Romney backer which means you're either a Mormon, a socialist, a liberal, an idiot, or you've been paid off. No one else would claim that Newt resigned "amid an ethics investigation" or in "disgrace" because it isn't true, and no one ever claimed it was true until Romney started his new talking points immediately after losing South Carolina. Even liberals like Kirsten Powers admit it isn't true. Saying that is the exact same thing as saying Nixon resigned amid controversy over his opening relations with China. The two events are not related to each other. The ethics investigation was concluded 2 years into Newt's term as Speaker and he resigned 2 years after that as a result of a bad election where many voters chose to back Clinton the perjurer over the Republicans.

Here are the facts on the ethics investigation quoted from "What really happened in the Gingrich ethics case?" by Byron York in the Washington Examiner: Stunned by their loss of control of the House -- a loss engineered by Gingrich -- House Democrats began pushing a variety of ethics complaints against the new Speaker...It ended with a special counsel hired by the House Ethics Committee holding Gingrich to an astonishingly strict standard of behavior, after which Gingrich in essence pled guilty to two minor offenses. Afterwards, the case was referred to the Internal Revenue Service, which conducted an exhaustive investigation into the matter....the IRS concluded that Gingrich did nothing wrong. Gingrich was exonerated. The bottom line: Gingrich acted properly and violated no laws. But if Gingrich is to have any hope of climbing out from under the allegations, he'll have to find some way of letting people know what really happened.

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