The Dukes of Hazzard star who could destroy Newt Gingrich … again
“The actor at the centre of Newt’s mid-90s tax scandal watches the former speaker’s resurrection with amazement and disgust.”
Read the article at: The Guardian
By Ed Pilkington
Why is the GOP in an uproar? It seems their sacred primaries are leaning toward a candidate who is not only amoral, unethical, and just plain nuts, but is also corrupt beyond any measure.
As Newt Gingrich fights to save his political life, locked in a potentially decisive battle in the final days of the Florida primary with his bitter rival Mitt Romney, one man is following the struggle with peculiarly intense and personal interest.
Ben Jones is best known by millions of Americans as the actor who played “Crazy” Cooter Davenport, the truck driving mechanic in the hit 1980s TV series, The Dukes of Hazzard. But in politics, Jones is credited with having helped destroy Newt Gingrich’s Congressional career by leveling accusations of financial improprieties at him, which ultimately led to his resignation from the speakership.
Jones has watched the improbable resurrection of Gingrich as a presidential contender almost two decades later with a mixture of bemusement and disgust. “It’s astonishing to me that this has come back around. It testifies to the fact that Mr Gingrich cannot be destroyed by conventional weapons – he is the abominable Newt Man.”
Jones sounded the alarm about Gingrich’s dodgy practices in September 1994 at a time when he was locked in his own bitter electoral battle with the speaker over a Congressional seat in Georgia. Jones, who by then had served two terms in Congress as a Democratic member having turned to politics after Dukes of Hazzard went off the air, presented the House ethics committee with 450 pages of documents that proved to be incendiary. Continue reading ‘Keep this under your hat’ »
