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C’mon dude, those other charges were dropped when Newt copped a plea and agreed to pay $300,000 (which, curiously, he initially borrowed from Bob Dole, of all people).

The point is that Newt Gingrich ultimately lost the support of his entire caucus, for MANY reasons.

That is not consistent with the myth being spun around here of his vaunted leadership.

He lost the support of weak kneed republicans! They were scared to death of Clinton. Answer my question, did the republican party become more, or way, way less conservative after Newt’s departure? How many balanced budgets did they produce? How many entitlement reforms? Shall I go on?

How did those that kicked Newt out ultimately fair in keeping control of congress & forwarding conservative principles?

C’mon dude, those other charges were dropped when Newt copped a plea and agreed to pay $300,000 (which, curiously, he initially borrowed from Bob Dole, of all people).

You're a JAG so you would almost certainly be more familiar with this process than I am. So here goes, when you do a plea bargain with someone don't you plea bargain the strongest charge rather than the weakest charge. That way, if the defendant violates the plea bargain by, for example, committing further crimes, you still retain leverage to go after him.

With that in mind, below is the first paragraph from the ethics report that was put together by the Ethics Committee. Tell me if you think that charge, particularly in light of the IRS's subsequent tax decision in favor of Gingrich, is a got-him-dead-to-rights sort of ethics charge. In making this assessment, you might compare it, for example, to Charles Rangel failing to report income to the IRS.

The only grey I see in all of this would be the content of the college course, but take it from me, the course was a fairly standard college course on American history. And it was notable only because it didn't have the typical leftwing view of American history that is found on most college campuses nowadays.

On September 7, 1994, a complaint was filed with the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct ("Committee") against Representative Newt Gingrich by Ben Jones, Mr. Gingrich's opponent in his 1994 campaign for re-election. The complaint centered on a course taught by Mr. Gingrich called "Renewing American Civilization." Among other things, the complaint alleged that Mr. Gingrich had used his congressional staff to work on the course in violation of House Rules. The complaint also alleged that Mr. Gingrich had created a college course under the sponsorship of 501(c)(3) organizations in order "to meet certain political, not educational, objectives" and, therefore, caused a violation of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to occur. In partial support of the allegation that the course was a partisan, political project, the complaint alleged that the course was under the control of GOPAC, a political action committee of which Mr. Gingrich was the General Chairman.

C’mon dude, those other charges were dropped when Newt copped a plea and agreed to pay $300,000 ...

C'mon dude yourself. The IRS found him innocent of this charge and YOU KNOW IT!

from the link I have sent you -

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."

Your disgracing yourself and FR