usertron2020
Donor
I don't know if Callista would come out, honestly. By this time (1999-2000) that's a seven year relationship that is obviously mutual on both sides.(1) I don't think you can really compare Monica to Callista, but I could be wrong.(2) Callista may indeed follow Newt to the WH, or Newt could divorce his wife early (Newt's smart enough to know that divorcing her before an affair became public would be in his best interest; OTOH, that's one hell of a high profile divorce.(3))
Plus, I don't think Newt would try to lie about it,(4) especially after watching Clinton get impeached for perjury. Would it affect the 2000 Presidential election? Of course, but remember that Ted Kennedy (who's likely to be the Dem nominee) has personal issues of his own and can hardly take a stand on righteousness against Gingrich.(5)
No, I see Newt winning the 2000 election, unless I'm underestimating the impact of the affair becoming public.(6)
1) First Lady Callista? That's a helluva incentive to tell Newt that its time to make a decision...
2) You're not. So far. Newt hasn't been caught (yet), and hasn't testified under oath.
3) First in the WH divorce?
4) Under oath.
5) Gingrich would more likely have troubles with his own base. As I see it, Newt would already have to BE the nominee for Callista's revelation not to destroy his candidacy. THAT, and that Teddy Kennedy is just about the only Democrat in the country he COULD beat in these circumstances. Which is why I rolled my own eyes when I saw his name first introduced into the thread. Oh yeah, Teddy Kennedy. Every Republican's favorite Democratic Presidential candidate.
6) You're not. But against Kennedy you are looking at a 2000 Election that will be basically a Republican game of tee-ball.
7) BTW? On that note? Teddy wasn't in the car. He drunkenly staggered across the bridge well after Mary Jo had drowned, unaware of her crash. He WALKED away from the island to establish an alibi, thinking he had been seen and recognized by a local deputy with the girl. After sleeping in a local motel that night, he came out to the sight of all those emergency vehicles. The first person to see him was one of his own aides. Time to cook up a story! Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
This is why his story was so ridiculously convoluted. He was telling a "story" for the voters of Massachusetts, not America. His WH prospects were dead. This was 1969, not today. Back in 1969, you could get drunk, get into a car, plow into a busload of nuns and orphans
Notice the reporters never asked Teddy how he could have been in that car, gone off the bridge into the water, yet was so perfectly kempt AND DRY, wearing the same clothes he'd had on the night before?
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