Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 6, 1994 TAG: 9412060076
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He preaches about family values, which generally means keeping families intact (unless we're talking about orphanages for kids of welfare mothers), and this usually means keeping fathers around. The story about how Gingrich dumped his first wife - discussing terms of divorce in her hospital room the day after she had cancer surgery, the collection-plate passing in church for his kids' welfare, etc. - is pretty well known now.
But this is past, and hypocrisy charges can be leveled fairly widely, especially in Washington. Divorced people are allowed to worry about family values, too.
More serious is the hint of McCarthyism that Gingrich displayed over the weekend.
"Up to a quarter of the White House staff, when they first came in, had used drugs in the last four or five years," Gingrich said on television.
Up to a quarter? Well, that's an actual number; sounds real enough. The source: an unnamed law-enforcement official who told the congressman that "in his judgment" this was so.
Reminiscent of the way Sen. Joe McCarthy would wave a piece of paper and proclaim, I have here a list of card-carrying communists working for the federal government, Gingrich did not reveal names or offer specifics to back up his allegation.
McCarthy poisoned political discourse during the 1950s by blaming national problems on enemies within, on traitors. Gingrich has come perilously close to a similar strategy - once referring to Democrats, for example, as the enemy of "normal Americans."
Assuming Gingrich isn't prepared to mount a witch hunt for "countercultural" types subverting American values from the White House, he will make do with having planted his little accusation. That is bad enough, and should be deplored by all Americans, normal or otherwise.
by CNB