Scandals engulf impeachment speakers

I'm a staunch Bernie Sanders supporter, and I'm not one to defend the Clintons. The fact is that civil liberties and economic equality were utterly pulped in the Bill Clinton years. My longtime readers know that, because I made sure they knew.

But when Clinton was being impeached for a sex scandal, 3 different Republicans served as Speaker of the House or as an official designee for that post - and now all 3 of them have been embroiled in sex scandals themselves.

The impeachment effort started under Newt Gingrich, who had an affair with a congressional aide. When Gingrich quit Congress like the sore loser he is, he was supposed to be replaced by Bob Livingston. However, Livingston never got to be Speaker because of his own series of extramarital affairs. Gingrich was instead replaced by Dennis Hastert, who was recently sent to prison because of a scandal in which he concealed his sexual abuse of teenage boys.

Gingrich, Livingston, Hastert - all disgraced for life. Three disgraced politicians, a disgraced party, a disgraced ideology.