The GOP’s new, post-Clinton-phobic world By Steve Kornacki of salon.com
Newt Gingrich seems to look at the 1990s a lot differently now than he did at the time -- just like his party
It wasn’t long ago that the mere hint of an association with Bill Clinton was the kiss of death in Republican politics. Maybe you remember the run-up to the pivotal South Carolina primary in 2000, when John McCain, stung by a barrage of negative attacks from his opponent’s campaign, declared in an ad that George W. Bush “twists the truth like Clinton.” So stinging was that charge that Bush brought it up at the start of their next debate, accusing McCain of the lowest form of politics.
“You can disagree on issues,” Bush said. “We’ll debate issues. But whatever you do, don’t equate my integrity and trustworthiness to Bill Clinton.”
Contempt for all things Clinton was the animating force on the right for more than a decade, from the moment Bill was elected in 1992 until well after he left the White House, with the prospect of a Clinton restoration hovering over American politics for most of the aughts. But when Barack Obama unexpectedly beat out Hillary in 2008 and became the face of national Democratic politics, it gave the right a new all-purpose villain — and an incentive to embrace a revised, more Clinton-friendly version on the 1990s
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The reality of the 1990s is that the conservative movement that drives the modern Republican Party regarded Clinton with the same suspicion and animosity that it has regarded every Democratic president of the modern era. He was the enemy, he’d won office through less than honorable means, and he was to be fought every step of the way. Feeding and channeling this mindset was key to the rise of Gingrich, who served as the face of the congressional GOP’s assault on the Clinton White House. “Counterculture McGoverniks” is how he referred to the first couple back in those days, and he also led the charge in hyping the supposed Whitewater scandal.
Against that backdrop, it makes sense that McCain saw linking Bush to Clinton as a killer GOP primary strategy in 2000, just as it’s understandable why Bush took such strong exception to the charge. And if Hillary Clinton had somehow won in ’08, then rest assured the right would still be at war with the Clintons today, with Gingrich reminding GOP primary voters of all of the gallant fight he’d led against them. But Obama won, and his election instantly altered the right’s psychology.
link to full article:
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/14/two_nasty_republicans_say_nice_things_about_newt/?source=newsletter
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