Five years ago, this kind of story might have shocked people. But this has basically turned into a political archetype, so the shock value is at least a little diluted. But regardless, the family-values mayor of a small town in Mississippi was recently caught billing $67 to taxpayers for an eyebrow-raising expense he made.

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When talking about the rise of Newt Gingrich in current Republican politics, one subject that does not get brought up as much as it used to is his three marriages and his infidelity to his first two wives. Being one of the more family values-oriented candidates in the presidential race, Rick Santorum was asked on This Week today if voters should factor in Gingrich’s past indiscretions in their current judgments of his ability to be president.

Dana Milbank’s Washington Post column today is more of a trend-spotter than a policy analysis, noting that the Republican “Class of ‘94” that stormed in during Newt Gingrich’s Republican Revolution seems to have more sex scandals than most. “No fewer than 15 of the 73 elected in the landslide that year,” Milbank writes, “have entertained the nation with flaps that include messy divorces and a suspicious car accident.” In other words, the Class of ’94 is bringing career-destroying sexy back. But did it ever leave?

The Vancouver Sun reports on an explosion of racially-charged slurs in the comments section of Free Republic, a popular conservative blog: “‘A typical street whore.’ ‘A bunch of ghetto thugs.’ ‘Ghetto street trash.’ ‘Wonder when she will get her first abortion.’ These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative ‘Free Republic’ blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama’s 11-year-old daughter Malia.”