Shenanigans - the Gary Hart Story

[Berzerker]

A photo of Gary Hart with Donna Rice sitting on his knee aboard the boat "Monkey Business" sank his presidential run in 1988 and George Bush beat Michael "Willie Horton" Dukakis to win the White House.

Turns out Hart was set up and it was Bush's campaign dirty trickster Lee Atwater who did the deed. The Bush campaign didn't want to run against Hart so Atwater lured him onto the "Monkey Buisiness" for a trip that turned into an over night voyage to Bimini with young attractive women.

The next day when the boat returned Donna Rice went up to 'cuddle' with Hart just in time for photos and the National Enquirer ran the story about how Hart and Rice were a thing.

Apparently it wasn't true, Atwater would soon be dead from a brain tumor but before he passed away he confessed his sin to Hart's campaign manager as part of his "I'm sorry" tour.

Hart's manager kept it to himself for a couple decades until he had a cancer scare - his prostrate cancer had returned and was metastatic - so he opened up about Atwater's confession. Rachel Maddow did a segment tonight on this episode and had author James Fallows on to discuss it.

 

[Ajidica]

As if we needed any more evidence Lee Atwater was a racist scumbag without any shred of humanity whose proudest moment would have been an early abortion.

 

[Kaitzilla]

A photo of Gary Hart with Donna Rice sitting on his knee aboard the boat "Monkey Business" sank his presidential run in 1988 and George Bush beat Michael "Willie Horton" Dukakis to win the White House.

Turns out Hart was set up and it was Bush's campaign dirty trickster Lee Atwater who did the deed. The Bush campaign didn't want to run against Hart so Atwater lured him onto the "Monkey Buisiness" for a trip that turned into an over night voyage to Bimini with young attractive women.

The next day when the boat returned Donna Rice went up to 'cuddle' with Hart just in time for photos and the National Enquirer ran the story about how Hart and Rice were a thing.

Apparently it wasn't true, Atwater would soon be dead from a brain tumor but before he passed away he confessed his sin to Hart's campaign manager as part of his "I'm sorry" tour.

Hart's manager kept it to himself for a couple decades until he had a cancer scare - his prostrate cancer had returned and was metastatic - so he opened up about Atwater's confession. Rachel Maddow did a segment tonight on this episode and had author James Fallows on to discuss it.

The picture didn't sink the presidential run.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/...wnfall-forever-changed-american-politics.html

The most enduring image of that time, of course, is the infamous photo of Rice sitting on Hart’s lap, which Armandt snapped on a crowded dock in Bimini during that overnight cruise and later sold to The National Enquirer. In it, Rice is wearing a short white dress; Hart is wearing a “Monkey Business crew” T-shirt, along with a startled, crooked grin. Most people who lived through the event, and some who covered it, will tell you that the photo is what provided irrefutable evidence of the affair and drove Hart from the race. But the photo didn’t surface until nearly three weeks after Hart suspended his candidacy. It was a final indignity, to be sure, but it had nothing to do with his decision to quit.

But there was definitely a conspiracy!
Even the Senator at the time felt it deep in his bones.

So why had they just seen Hart and the woman enter the townhouse together a few minutes earlier?

“The obvious reason is I’m being set up,” Hart said, his voice quivering.

 

[Samson]

I have not heard about this story before, but my 1st thought is that if I was offered an overnight cruise to the Bahamas with a boat full of young attractive women, that just happened to be called "Monkey Business" (just in case I had not considered the possibility of monkey business before) I would have my doubts about someone's motives. For a presidential candidate not to consider that would seem to be indication of incompetence or corruption.

 

[rah]

Plenty of evidence of incompetence and corruption didn't derail our current fuehrer.

 

[Berzerker]

I have not heard about this story before, but my 1st thought is that if I was offered an overnight cruise to the Bahamas with a boat full of young attractive women, that just happened to be called "Monkey Business" (just in case I had not considered the possibility of monkey business before) I would have my doubts about someone's motives. For a presidential candidate not to consider that would seem to be indication of incompetence or corruption.

Hart was tricked into it, the boat trip wasn't supposed to be over night and the "Monkey Business" was a last minute replacement for another boat and he wasn't told about who would be on the boat.

 

[bernie14]

He had no choice but to fall in with the patriarchy...., it was the 80's after all...and he would have gotten away with it too, if not for those pesky reporters...

 

[Cutlass]

Plenty of evidence of incompetence and corruption didn't derail our current fuehrer.

Trump is right wing. Right wing leaders aren't held to the standards not-right-wing leaders are held to. It's too important to get right wing leaders into power to concern themselves with whether or not those leaders hold any of the values the right wing rank and file claim to hold.

 

[HoloDoc]

I have not heard about this story before, but my 1st thought is that if I was offered an overnight cruise to the Bahamas with a boat full of young attractive women, that just happened to be called "Monkey Business" (just in case I had not considered the possibility of monkey business before) I would have my doubts about someone's motives. For a presidential candidate not to consider that would seem to be indication of incompetence or corruption.

If someone offered me an overnight cruise to the Bahamas with a boat full of young attractive women, I'd be perfectly willing to give up on the whole presidency thing.