Despite his Ph. D., Newt Gingrich Doesn’t Know the Meaning of the Word “Despicable”.

As He Rises in the Polls in South Carolina, Republicans Are Getting What they Deserve

Here is a brief snippet from what is otherwise an almost unwatchable debate in South Carolina between the remaining four Presidential candidates.

John King cuts right to the chase and directs his first question to Newt Gingrich, asking the former House speaker about his former wife’sstatement to The Washington Post and in a forthcoming ABC News interview that Gingrich had wanted “an open marriage.”

“Would you like to take some time to respond to that?” King asks.

“No. But I will,” says a defiant Gingrich, to a burst of applause from the crowd.

“I think the destructive, vicious negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office, and I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that,” Gingrich says, to an extended round of cheers.

Gingrich continues, taking his time as he responds: “Every person in here knows personal pain. Every person in here has had someone close to them go through painful things. To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything that I can imagine.”

No Mr. Gingrich, what is despicable is to cheat on your first wife, divorce her, cheat on your second wife, divorce her and then claim to be the candidate of high moral and ethical values.  It is also despicable to use overt racism to win votes by pandering to the worst, rather than the best instincts of voters.  Really, it is, you can look it up.

By presenting Mr. Gingrich the opportunity to blame the press for his own ugly past,  the Press is the group most responsible for Mr. Gingrich’s rise in the polls in South Carolina. Conservatives hate the press, particularly the part of the press that reports facts. Facts and Conservative ideology cannot inhabit the same space.

Mr. Romney must be appalled, because for all of his other faults, he has led an exemplary personal life and does not appear to be even tempted to appeal to the racist aspects of extreme Republican politics.  Yet that is what it takes to win in South Carolina.

As for the extremist Republicans in South Carolina who are giving Mr. Gingrich new life in his campaign because of and not in spite of his rhetoric, well, be careful.  If Mr. Gingrich’s long shot campaign results in him so becoming the nominee, something that seems almost impossible once the campaign moves away from the remnants of political attitudes of 1955, then you and your party are only getting what you deserve.  Unfortunately you are inflicting on the nation something it does not deserve.