The End of a Revolution

Sex, lies and power games are just the latest symptoms of a Republican Party that has strayed from its ideals

HEADS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: DAVID HUME KENNERLY / GETTY; SCOTT J. FERRELL; BROOKS KRAFT / CORBIS FOR TIME; STEVE LISS FOR TIME; REDUX

Sex, lies and power games are just the latest symptoms of a Republican Party that has strayed from its ideals.

Every revolution begins with the power of an idea and ends when clinging to power is the only idea left. The epitaph for the movement that started when Newt Gingrich and his forces rose from the back bench of the House chamber in 1994 may well have been written last week in the same medium that incubated it: talk radio. On conservative commentator Laura Ingraham's show, the longest-serving Republican House Speaker in history explained why he would not resign despite a sex scandal that has produced a hail of questions about his leadership and the failure to stop one of his...

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