Gingrich was accused of lying and using tax-deductible donations for his own use. GOP front runner?

Hey there Koz.. And now, for the rest of the story. I know, I know, it doesnt fit the agenda, oh well This was back in what 1995-96, when the Dems brought 75 ethics violation charges against newt, and 74 of them were found to have NO MERIT WHATSOEVER. The last charge, whether Newt funded his college class "Renewing American Civilization" properly, was too complicated a tax issue for the committee to investigate on its own, so they brought in an outside tax expert to investigate. Two charges arose out of this investigation. The first 'charge' from the ethics committee is that he "may have" violated tax law by using tax-deductible contributions from nonprofit organizations to teach an allegedly partisan college course. The lectures never mentioned the words "Republicans" or "Democrats," and one entire session was spent praising FDR. Is that "partisan?" Not only has a former commissioner of the IRS has come forward and said that no tax laws were violated, but an Ethics Committee lawyer even gave approval for the class before Newt started it. The second 'charge' from the committee is that, in the course of the investigation, Newt provided false information to the committee. Do you know what this "false information" is Newt testified that the above contributions were in fact made by those organizations to "Renewing American Civilization." He filed papers that stated the very same thing. This is never a fact that anyone was trying to hide. But one paper filed with the committee stated that those groups did not make the contributions. The only reason that Rep. David Bonior and other Democrats filed 75 ethics charges against Speaker Gingrich in the first place is because Newt filed and forced former Democrat Speaker Jim Wright to resign in 1988. The whole ethics violation farce was about nothing but revenge. Bonior and the Dems. wanted revenge for Jim Wright and for losing the House in 1994 and 1996. Basically, Newt was fined $300,000 because he didn't read his lawyers' documents carefully. Newt COULD have legally taken the money out of campaign funds or legal defense funds, like Clinton did for his sexual harassment suit! But Newt, paid that obscene and ridiculous amount of money out of personal funds. Well, after a 3.5 year probe, after Newt paid the $300,000 fine, the IRS announced on February 3, 1999, that it found NO IMPROPRIETIES IN THE TAX FILINGS of Gingrich and the sponsoring Progress and Freedom Foundation. The IRS said the principles taught in the course were not of use only in political campaigns. "The ... course taught principles from American civilization that could be used by each American in everyday life whether the person is a welfare recipient, the head of a large corporation, or a politician." Well isn't that nice - and isn't that what Newt had said all along? In other words, the ethics charges David Bonior filed against Newt were ALL bogus. Every single one of them. In the end, what was Newt's "ethics problems"? One of the papers filed by his lawyers had an error and Newt didn't catch it. That little oversight cost $300,000. So yeah, Front runner is just fine with me....

I always start from the presumption that politicians are lying crooked scumbags. Then, I can be pleasantly surprised if they do something good -- that's just a little cheap buzz I like. I quit sniffing glue, so I need something.

Newt is just the next flavor of the week now that Cain's campaign has pretty much failed. First it was Bachmann vs Romney, then it was Perry vs Romeny, then Cain vs Romney, and now Gingrich vs Romney, and Newt has just been served: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWKTOCP45zY&feature=youtu.be It's going to come down to Paul vs Romney for the GOP.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I am non partisan because I believe that political parties are corrupt and self-serving.

Sounds like a page out of Timmy Geithner's playbook.