Tales About Gingrich Make Field Level

Gennifer Flowers, meet Anne Manning. Flowers is the woman who said she had an affair with Bill Clinton. Manning is the woman, quoted in the September issue of Vanity Fair magazine, who says she had an affair with Newt Gingrich nearly two decades ago.

What goes around, comes around.

A spokesman for Gingrich told The Associated Press that the allegations about the affair are “tabloid psychobabble.” At least that was the official response when this was written, but there could be a new line out any moment.

My bet is that Manning did have an affair with Gingrich. I’m also inclined to believe many, if not all, of the worst stories about Clinton’s sexual escapades. In that respect, I’m objective.

I’d also bet that no matter what Gingrich says or does, he won’t be able to refute Manning’s allegation and the other accusations about Gingrich’s sexual conduct that are in the article by Gail Sheehy. Too many people don’t like Gingrich. He wouldn’t be able to prove they were all liars, even if they were.

The Gingrich these tales portray wouldn’t make anybody’s list of finalists for “Mr. Family Values,” nor do they describe the sort of person you would expect to lead a conservative revolution that focuses heavily on “traditional” values. But hey, just because a person preaches traditional family values doesn’t mean he or she practices them. And there’s an argument to be made that adultery has been around long enough to be considered a traditional - not to be confused with conservative - practice. No one can blame it on the ‘60s or liberals, although Gingrich might give it a shot if he was really worked up.

Clinton preaches traditional family values, and yet he has been repeatedly excoriated by some conservative critics as an adulterous hypocrite. Talk to a Clinton-hater, and chances are the Gennifer Flowers/sex stuff will be somewhere on the bill of complaint.

Well, at least now we have some symmetry. The head of the Democratic Party is an adulterous hypocrite, and the leader of the Republican revolution is an adulterous hypocrite.

That assessment, of course, is based on the assumption that the allegations about both men are true, and not everyone will believe the worst about both men. Many will believe the worst about one or the other. And there may be two or three people, probably very old Sunday school teachers, who will refuse to believe the worst about either man.

I understand that some people are sincerely and deeply offended by Clinton’s alleged infidelities, and he has admitted “causing pain” in his marriage. But such people, if they are consistent, can hardly sign on as warriors for Gingrich. Sheehy’s article, by the way, is about 14 pages, with six paragraphs devoted to the tabloid headline sex stuff. It is a fascinating, if mostly negative, portrait of the most dynamic man in American politics today. Gingrich and Clinton, despite their immense political differences, both come from very difficult upbringings. The idyllic American family was not a part of either man’s childhood.

I hope that Sheehy’s article helps level the playing field for Clinton. He has been pummeled on the charges of infidelity and promiscuity. Anyone who throws that rock now risks hitting the glass house in which resides the Speaker of the House. And Sheehy’s piece offers the reminder that Clinton wasn’t the only politician who missed the war in Vietnam.

Gingrich may have some good ideas, but he is a very complex man. And as far as personal ethics go, I don’t think he’s qualified to preach to Bill Clinton. Certainly he’s as deserving of the same scrutiny that’s been given the president.

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