What REALLY Happened in the Gingrich Ethics Case??

[TVDOC]

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/what-really-happened-gingrich-ethics-case/336051

The Romney campaign has been hitting Newt Gingrich hard over the 1990s ethics case that resulted in the former Speaker being reprimanded and paying a $300,000 penalty. Before the Iowa caucuses, Romney and his supporting super PAC did serious damage to Gingrich with an ad attacking Gingrich's ethics past.  Since then, Romney has made other ads and web videos focusing on the ethics matter, and at the Republican debate in Tampa Monday night, Romney said Gingrich "had to resign in disgrace."
 
In private conversations, Romney aides often mention the ethics case as part of their larger argument that Gingrich would be unelectable in a race against President Obama.
 
Given all the attention to the ethics matter, it's worth asking what actually happened back in 1995, 1996, and 1997.  The Gingrich case was extraordinarily complex, intensely partisan, and driven in no small way by a personal vendetta on the part of one of Gingrich's former political opponents. It received saturation coverage in the press; a database search of major media outlets revealed more than 10,000 references to Gingrich's ethics problems during the six months leading to his reprimand.  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.  And then, after it was all over and Gingrich was out of office, the IRS concluded that Gingrich did nothing wrong.  After all the struggle, Gingrich was exonerated.

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Balance at link......

doc

[Rugnuts]

after 15 yrs, if there WAS something, we would all know by now. whether its classified or not.

[Eupher]

Thank you heartily, doc, for posting that story.

I had been meaning to check into this for some time now, and never seemed to find the time.

CNN's own story on the matter is especially rich. The only thing that Gingrich was guilty of was admitting to wrongdoing that itself was wrong.

He was railroaded into admitting those minor issues and even after the IRS conducted a 3.5 year investigation, there was no tax fraud, no wrongdoing of any sort.

I remember David Bonior. I remember that scumbag who is just about a rabid, vicious little liberal weasel that you can think of, save Nancy Pelousy maybe. It gives me GREAT PLEASURE to report that the little shitstain lost his seat due to redistricting (he was a congressman of Michigan's 10th District). But Bonior is too stupid to realize that his own liberalism is partly to blame for the mass exodus of people from Michigan (including myself) who refuse to make their home on a sinking ship and thus he's partly accountable for having lost his own seat. How's that for irony, Bonior? 

Bonior's Wiki article says he ran for governor and lost. He's now professor of "labor studies" at Wayne St. University in Detroit and runs a union advocacy organization. He later ran John Edwards' 2008 campaign for the presidency and was honored by the "Democratic Socialists of America" in Dec. 2008.

When I utter the name "David Bonior" I get a disgusting stink in my mouth. Gotta go use some mouthwash to get rid of it.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The things that trigger an ethics inquiry in the House have vastly more to do with power plays than with facts or any real "Ethics."  Noted tax cheats like Rangel can go untouched for years, or have their cases sit idle for years even after being initiated, while another member (Particularly one in a coveted position) can be hounded out over things that a CEO like Romney could have never been touched for in the business world, and would have laughed off had anyone tried.