On Ethics: Maxine Now, Maxine Then
When, last October, the House Ethics Committee placed Congressman Charles Rangel in exactly the same spot that Speaker Gingrich found himself fourteen years earlier, Congresswoman Maxine Waters observed
“What happens is, unfortunately with the requirements for disclosure that we all have, mistakes are made,” she said. “And you do get a chance to correct them. And so it looks as if he is correcting those mistakes.”
Regarding Gingrich’s situation, however, the congresswoman had not adopted quite the same understanding tone. Courtesy Charlie Spiering at the Washington Examiner; h/t Fred Thompson.
“The house ethics committee found the Speaker guilty guilty guilty!” raged Rep. Maxine Waters on the House floor on December 7 1995. “. . it’s about time, believe me the American people do not appreciated double standard, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, no one should be so big, so important, so powerful, that they can violate the rules of this house and the laws of this country and not suffer the consequences. . .”
Newt Gingrich Dead-beat Dad Serial Adulterer Draft-Dodging COWARD Newt Gingrich’s serial wife-dumping make serial adulters, David Vitter, Ronald Reagan and John McCain look like alter boys. In 1981, Newt dumped his first wife, Jackie Battley, for Marianne, wife number 2, while Jackie was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment. Marianne and Newt divorced in December, 1999 after Marianne found out about Newt’s long-running affair with Callista Bisek, his one-time congressional aide.”who’s salary almost trippled once the affair started” Gingrich asked Marianne for the divorce by phoning her on Mother’s Day, 1999. Newt (57) and Callista (34) were married in August, 2000. : “Gingrich’s misbehavior goes back years. Fidelity was apparently never his strong point. After marrying his high school math teacher, Jacqueline Battley, even he admits: ”In the 1970s, things happened.” “As a congressional candidate, he conducted an affair in 1977, a year before enlisting Jackie to write a letter attacking his opponent for planning to leave her family in the district: ”When elected, Newt will keep his family together,” declared one unintentionally hilarious campaign ad. Gingrich ended his 19-year marriage shortly after his victory.” “He famously visited Jackie in the hospital where she was recovering from surgery for uterine cancer to discuss details of the divorce. He later resisted paying alimony and child support for his two daughters, causing a church to take up a collection. For all of his talk of religious faith and the importance of God, “Soon thereafter, Gingrich married Marianne Ginther,… Yet, his relationship with Bisek, a House employee, apparently extended back to 1993 while he was talking of reforming the corrupt welfare state and promoting society’s moral regeneration. Rumors of his relationship with Bisek, more than 20 years his junior, did not stop him from writing his political testament, in which he criticized sex… Read more »
Here we go,let’s find whatever some Republican did years ago and trumpet the old news to divert from what Waters is charged with.Gingrich resigned from the House if I remember.
Waters will likely stoop to the race card and fight it all the way.If she’s cleared,good for her-if not she should be gone.
I’d rather see Rangel leave with his dignity intact-he’s been a pretty good Congressman on balance,but he let a safe job get to him and he screwed up just like the man he replaced.
Dumping wives is not the same as rape.I believe Clinton was a serial sexual predator.Oh yeah,he was a draft dodger too.Matter of fact,the Congress is crawling with cowardly shirkers.
Randy Cunningham was a legit hero in Vietnam,and I really liked him,but he was a crook,and he wound up where he belonged-in the can.
If liberls couldn’t use their stinky old equivalence argument,they couldn’t post anything.
I can tell you all ‘kudzu”stuie is blathering away at RIF,but he can’t deal with a straight factual answer to a question or assertion.few of them over there can.
Send Congressman Charles Rangel, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Congresswoman Maxine Waters to Hawaii to learn what ethics means.
Ethics is written into the 50th state constitution for all politicians and residents to follow and strictly enforced.
Politicians are not allowed to attend Christmas parties so the perception of accepting gifts for service does not present its self.
Two underage sons turn in their General Assembly father for being stopped (not convicted) for DUI and he was forced to resign elected seat as an unworthy public role model.
A City Councilwoman was publicly ostracized in the news media, TV and in chambers almost forcing her to resign because in anger she threw a pen across the chamber floor over a bill.
I expect nothing less from a hypocrite like Maxine Waters.
Ken-really?There’s never been more serious stuff than you mentioned?People are people all over-whether New Jersey or Hawaii.
I mean I’m glad you enjoy where you live,but politicians the world over have a common and unlikeable tendency to thing they rule us rather than serve us,and he who rules often thinks he follows no rules.
Maxine Waters simply cannot be taken seriously. Looking for contradictions in her background is like looking for hay in a haystack.
joe bernstein,
There probably has been more serious stuff that has happened but those three examples are what have happened since I’ve moved to Honolulu so I am speaking from my first hand knowledge.
I’m serious! Send them to Hawaii and let them get a taste of real ethic laws that are written into a state constitution!
The ethics laws here are very brutal to say the least!
The public outcry and news media damnation is above anything I’ve ever heard when a public official is found willfully violating the constitutional ethic laws. Because we are all living on an island and expected to help each other survive and show aloha to each other; people become very vicious here when they find that the public trust has been violated!
A week of daily Hawaiian damnation and public ostracizing for each of them for violating public trust would do them good. Almost like hanging the scarlet letter around their neck and parading them through the streets for public comment on all the islands.
The elected officials, state and municipal works in Hawaii really do try not to violate any ethics law because it becomes a nightmare to them and they no longer can be trusted making finding a job very hard.
There is a different mindset here than on the mainland.
The most corrupt place I’ve been in the US is Chicago.I spent 8years there.Shortly after I left 15 jusges were convicted of taking bribes(Operation Greylord).A judge from downstate had gone in undercover for the FBI posing as a crooked attorney.
Obama came out of this Chicago machine-so did Rahm Emanuel.Draw your own conclusions.The state legislature in Illinois were a worse collection of scumbags than what we have in RI and that’s saying something.
Hi!
Newt was born in 1943 making him 67,.
I will stand corrected on this but I think that is the exact year.
Unless you know any of these celebrities personally or someone that really does, it is hard to discuss them unless you have a proven/documentable news item on them.
I have had my photo taken with Newt a number of times. Kindness, decency, and other attributes should know no party or ideology. I do have these concerns about Newt. Has anyone of you seen Ron Kessler’s “Inside Congress” or “Inside The White House”?
I prefer listening to Charlie Rangel than Maxine Waters. Both need to address their issues and “not blow them off”. I need to know about the Waters situation but Rangel clearly seems to be in serious difficulty, that I don’t think he can escape. Waters case mainly involves her husband and I do not know to what extent she can be held accountable?
Regards,
Scott
Hi!
To clarify my earlier post that while I have concerns about Newt especially about his treatment of family members,
we all fall short of the concept ” Do under others as you would have them do under you”. When I said I have concerns about Newt, the virtues or lack of them, of kindness,decency, and other attributes, that could be applied to a number of people: Democrat, Republican, Liberal, or Conservative and should be part of an overall evaluation of a person. Loyalty is a value that is important in a family setting as well as a political setting. There are limits to loyalty but yet is still important. Loyalty particularly in case of serious health issues in a relationship is a “real test” of dedication and committment.
In fact I recall the thing with his former wife and cancer was mentioned in Ron Kessler’s book “Inside The White House”.
You need to always consider the author when reading a book or a post on any blog etc., also.
Regards,
Scott
Hi!
Yet another correction “Inside Congress” on Newt.
Scott