How a Petty Snub Led to Clinton's Government Shutdown--and the Lewinsky Affair

[kentuck]

https://www.history.com/news/bill-clinton-government-shutdown-lewinsky-affair

<snip>

Newt Gingrich was offended that Clinton hadn't talked to him on Air Force One.

In November 1995, Newt Gingrich gave President Bill Clinton an ultimatum: approve cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other programs, or he would shut down the government. The ensuing shutdowns were a public embarrassment for Gingrich and a victory for Clinton, but the president’s behavior during those shutdowns hurt his presidency in the long-term.

That’s because it was then, while most government employees were out of the office on furlough, that Clinton began an affair with a 22-year-old White House intern named Monica Lewinsky.

Gingrich, who was the Republican speaker of the House, triggered the shutdown by sending Clinton a bill that he knew he wouldn’t sign because it raised Medicare premiums and cut environmental regulations. Clinton’s veto shut down most of the government between November 14 and 19, and Gingrich hoped Clinton would shoulder most of the blame. But Gingrich’s bizarre explanation for why he triggered the shutdown ensured this didn’t happen.

...more at link

[DURHAM D]

1. Stupid headline. It was not a "petty" snub by Clinton.

It was a peevish/childish reaction by Newt that lead to the shutdown.

“This is petty,” Gingrich said, according to The Washington Post. “[But] you land at Andrews [Air Force Base] and you've been on the plane for 25 hours and nobody has talked to you and they ask you to get off the plane by the back ramp… You just wonder, where is their sense of manners? Where is their sense of courtesy?”

Gingrich said that the fact that the president didn’t speak to him during the trip was “part of why you ended up with us sending down a tougher” interim spending bill. “It's petty…but I think it's human.”

Indeed. The next day, the New York tabloid Daily News ran the front-page headline “CRY BABY” with a cartoon of Gingrich crying in a diaper and holding a bottle. “NEWT’S TANTRUM: He closed down the government because Clinton made him sit at back of plane,” the front page stated.

Polls showed that Americans blamed Congressional Republicans more than Clinton for the standoff.

[Buckeyeblue]

2. Newt was playing with fire

Bill Clinton is one of the best politicians in our country's history. Newt is not.

I would say that if he were constitutionally able, Bill Clinton would wipe the floor with 45. And he's no longer in his prime and really hasn't aged the greatest.

[marybourg]

3. But they continued to vote for publicans anyway.

[dlk]

4. No One Anywhere Can do Petty Better Than a Republican

As they’ve shown the world time and time again. T