Our country's problems are complicated, but Newt Gingrich's Tiffany faux pas isn't. It's simple. It has to do with a leader having a sense of empathy, balance and propriety. The Gingriches and their million-dollar interest-free account at Tiffany's (they spent at least $750,000 on jewelry according to Slate) remind one of pre-revolutionary French nobility living frivolous, decadent lifestyles while their country faced financial crises and the peasants starved. It was amazing to hear Gingrich retort that he and his wife live "very frugal" lives. I doubt we'll see mobs storming the Bastille, but it does seem that many of the conservative rich in this country are oblivious, as in "Let them eat cake."
Paul Totaro, Baltimore