Grand Old Paradigms of virtue

An article in the current TNR, reminds me that many of the fine Republican men who loudly and self-righteously decried the personal sleaziness of Bill Clinton were, themselves, adulterers.

Some examples:

Newt Gingrich
Anti-Clinton bonafide: As Speaker of the House, led the GOP to focus on the impeachment project as a principal strategy.
Worse than Clinton moment: Cheating on his first wife and served her with divorce papers while she was in the hospital recovering from uterine cancer. Twelve years into his second marriage, began an affair with Callista Bisek, a Hill staffer 23 years his junior. The affair went on for six years before Gingrich finally gave second wife Marianne the heave-ho to wed Callista.

Bob Livingston
Anti-Clinton bonafide: Succeeded Gingrich as House speaker. Led impeachment efforts.
Worse than Clinton moment: Allegedly had sex with lobbyists included those who represented the defense industry.

Bob Barr
Anti-Clinton bonafide: Served as House Manager during the impeachment trial.
Worse than Clinton moment: Second divorce involved a trial in which he lied about his long-term adulterous relationship with a woman who eventually became his third wife. Photographed in 1992 licking whipped cream off a stripper. Later sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act.

Henry Hyde
Anti-Clinton bonafide: Served as House Manager during the impeachment trial.
Worse than Clinton moment: Conducted an extramarital sexual affair with Cherie Snodgrass. At the time, Snodgrass was married to another man with whom she had had three children.

Charles Canady
Anti-Clinton bonafide: Served as House Manager during the impeachment trial.
Worse than Clinton moment: Canady lied to his constituents about his adulterous affair with Sharon Becker, which caused her divorce from Florida businessman Robert Becker.

Bob Dole
Anti-Clinton bonafide: Regularly impugned Clinton's character during the 1996 election
Worse than Clinton moment: Dole had an affair with a much younger woman during the last four years of his first marriage, before suddenly dumping his wife of 22 years in 1972.