Jonah, you forgot to laugh at Cohen claiming that without Kenneth Starr, perhaps Clinton would have waged a more cohesive battle against Osama bin Laden. Or maybe he would have insisted that al-Qaeda sleeper cells wear uniforms to school. I find it consistently amazing that one part of the Clinton legacy liberals never want to consider is how the Democratic party collapsed out of a majority during Clinton’s era, in the House, the Senate, the governors, the state legislatures…and Cohen wants to tout that Clinton outlasted Gingrich. All that proves is that Gingrich knew he couldn’t get everyone in his party to declare as a matter of dogma that his unique brilliance excused his extramarital hijinks.
It’s also tiresome to hear of Newt and his “vandals sacking Washington.” For your dedicated libertarian, that’s upside down, since Washington’s revenue agents are usually sacking the taxpayer. But it’s also a stupid phrase because Gingrich and his new Republican majority came to reform Washington, not destroy it. It came to restrain government and empower the people, not empower the government and restrain the people.