Remember Gary Hart and the 'Monkey Business'?

[milestogo]

His brief, consensual affair with a younger woman cost him his political career.

Where is the cost for DJT? He's a rapist and a lot of people just don't care.

[jaxexpat]

1. Such a forgotten era, it has the relevance of a...

prehistoric cave painting.

[FalloutShelter]

2. The MSM ran Dr. dean out of the

Presidential race over a war whoop in front of voters after a victory in the primaries.

TIFG is around because they want him around.

PERIOD.

[milestogo]

4. The Dems have had some fantastic candidates that should have been president

Gary Hart
Al Gore
John Kerry
Hillary Clinton

All incredibly intelligent people.

[Omnipresent]

11. Whether he leaves them stranded, without transportation...

At a campaign rally, in freezing conditions too!

[karynnj]

32. It was not after a victory - it was after an unexpected loss where he had 18% and Kerry 38%.

As Dean was expected to win, coming in a poor third was a disaster.

The fact is the intense coverage of that "scream" was mostly at the expense of Kerry, who won, and Edwards, who did better than expected. Without the scream, the top two "stories" would have been Kerry won and Dean did far worse than expected. With the scream, in the days after Iowa, it was excessively covered. Without it, there might have been more coverage on how Kerry - through retail politics in Iowa - pulled off a victory. (As the Republicans framed him as elitist and aloof - real coverage of things he did in Iowa could have made the Republican framing more difficult.)

[dawg]

3. Was there ever any conclusive proof that he actally did have an affair with her?

I don't remember either of them ever confirming that the allegations were true.

[milestogo]

6. There was a picture of her sitting on his lap on the boat.

[dawg]

9. A posed photo that some third person obviously took.

Not sure that proves anything other than lack of media savvy.

[moonscape]

12. I thought she later admitted it, but my

memory is leaky so maybe not.

[milestogo]

14. I think she did, but I couldn't find the reference.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Times have changed. Hart was when we were civilized.

Now we're batshit crazy.

[underpants]

7. ☝️this. Right there.

[underpants]

8. Don't forget St. Ronnie WAS the only POTUS to have been divorced

They look the other way when it’s convenient

[Docjohnson]

10. Gary hart

Was a good and decent man. I believe he exemplified our values perfectly

[Johonny]

13. Hart came back and helped the Clinton

and later the Obama administration. He tried to create a good version of Homeland security. Unfortunately most of his recommendations were ignored when Bush formed it. Although he helped reshape it under Obama.

It's unclear what would have happened had Hart simply soldiered on. It wasn't until Clinton that a politician had the guts to simply have an affair become known and say screw it, voters don't really care about my personal life. They want a good economy, jobs, leadership etc . . . Just like Reagan was divorced and that was thought to be political poison, and it turned out not to be an issue with voters.

[Wednesdays]

15. As always, IOKIYAR!

It's okay if you're a Republican!

THAT'S the difference!

[dchill]

16. Standards are clearly different for Democrats and ...

... completely dishonest and venal grifters.

[milestogo]

17. Yup.

And there is a massive difference between a consensual affair and pedophilia or rape.

[Kid Berwyn]

18. Different rules apply.

Hart is a Democrat, so he’s fair game for everybody.

DJT is a Republican, so whatever he does is OK.

[Karadeniz]

19. I saw an expose of this that we should look into. Remember the PR firm comprised of Roger Stone and

two others? One of them died first and before that he admitted that the whole thing was a set up. He said Hart had been invited to the boat for some privacy to bone up on issues. The PR guy had arranged for a hot tamale and a photographer to be present for the big event which was for the lady to jump onto Hart's lap and the photographer to get the picture. Hart probably thought it was a joke until the photo made the rounds. As far as I know, Hart's wife never believed the photos, accepting his account of events.

[unc70]

23. I remember seeing that setup being revealed

[Karadeniz]

24. Probably Eisenhower was the last legitimately elected GOP president. All the others have some

degree of malfeasance attached to their campaigns.

[Beautiful Disaster]

27. Except it wasn't just the photo.

Donna Rice was the person in the photo with Hart. She wasn't just some random woman who sat on his lap for the photo and that was that, with their paths never crossing again.

Rice was seen spending the night at Hart's townhouse in D.C. after he was being tailed by some reporters from the Miami Herald.

So, I do not believe she was some random person. Does that mean Hart wasn't set up? No. It's possible Hart was lured out on the boat solely to get that photo. But she was not a stranger to Hart. He knew her. Both have admitted as much (tho, neither admitted to anything sexual).

Oddly, Donna Rice has turned into a right-wing Trump nut-job who peddles anti-porn legislation and supports people like Giuliani and Trump, despite their vile past. She's similar to Juanita Broaddrick and Gennifer Flowers, women who bemoan that they're not believed, yet rally behind Trump despite all the accusations made against 'em. Real hypocrites.

[Spazito]

21. Welcome back...

[Scrivener7]

22. Ew. What a gross post. Won't be sorry to see you go.

[Solomon]

25. We had a black president.

[Beautiful Disaster]

26. Clinton got away with it. Multiple times.

I think Trump, in many ways, benefits from the same thing Clinton benefited from during his initial run for the presidency, and then the subsequent scandals that rocked his White House - it was baked into who he was. Everyone kind of expected Clinton to be that guy and so, it was never a surprise when it turned out that he was, in fact, that guy. It's the same with Trump.

Remember, Clinton was accused multiple times of sexual assault - both with Paula Jones and Juanita Broaddrick. We can debate to the heavens how legitimate those claims were - but they were lobbed at Clinton similarly to the accusations lobbed at Trump. And he was able to overcome it.

There's contradictions everywhere in politics, unfortunately. And a lot of it makes no sense.

[Pathwalker]

28. Not even Ken Starr believed Juanita Broddrick. She recanted under threat of perjury

charges.

[Beautiful Disaster]

29. The accusations were still made.

On top of the Gennifer Flowers situation + everything with Paula Jones and then Monica Lewinsky. None of it sunk Clinton.

But it certainly would sink a guy like Joe Biden. I'm sure of it. The point is that some people are better equipped to overcome those accusations, no matter how believable. Clinton was one of 'em and so is Trump.

[yardwork]

31. Not similar at all.

Trump has been found liable of sexual assault by a jury. Clinton was never even charged.

[Beautiful Disaster]

34. It is similar, tho.

Clinton settled with Paula Jones, who made some really awful accusations about Clinton.

The point is that Clinton wasn't leveled by any of his accusers - just like Trump. Even if a civil trial had found him guilty in the Paula Jones ordeal, I doubt it would have impacted him all that much.

[yardwork]

30. The hypocrisy is infuriating.

[usedtobedemgurl]

33. Pretty Sure The Photo Was Fixed....

If I remember what I learned correctly, the girl in the photo was paid and showed what to do. (Sit on his lap). A repub was the shooter. She went up to Gary and planted herself in his lap, and the other person quickly shot the photo. If I recall, the media did not know it was a fixed photo and no one would print what Gary was saying.

Found one article:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/was-gary-hart-set-up/570802/

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/news/trail-mix-was-gary-harts-downfall-orchestrated-it-might-not-matter/article_1f9bf400-3f02-5c89-9296-79de9584da64.html

“Was Gary Hart Set Up?” Fallows asks in the article’s headline.

The answer, based on a pair of deathbed confessions decades apart — one of which, it turned out, was premature — is yes.

The way Fallows tells it, top Hart consultant Raymond Strother learned in 1991 from the dying and repentant Lee Atwater — a notoriously vicious Republican operative who managed George H.W. Bush’s successful 1988 presidential run — that Atwater had staged the events that knocked Hart from the race.

The set-up is supposed to have hinged on the cooperation of Billy Broadhurst, a larger-than-life Hart associate who arranged the cruise that stranded Hart overnight in Bimini — as well as making sure Monkey Business was the only boat available, and putting Rice on the trip and on Hart’s lap for the iconic photo.

The entire string of events, Strother told Fallows, landed Hart on the front page of the Miami Herald following a tip that was also orchestrated by Atwater.

Strother mostly kept Atwater’s confession to himself, but a cancer scare late last year spurred him to share what he’d learned more widely, including with Hart, Fallows wrote. (His cancer went into remission, but Strother decided the time had come to open up.)