Newt Gingrich admits past infidelity, but swears he's no hypocrite.

Newt must be getting close to declaring that his self-initiated "draft" movement has compelled him to run for President, for he is courting the Religious Right and back in the news.

According to the AP, Newt did an interview with James "Spongedob" Dobson that aired today on Dobson's radio show. By the way, remember that Dobson--who some call the most powerful man in the Religious Right--claimed about two years ago that SpongeBob Squarepants was promoting homosexuality. Anyhoo, here are the basics of the interview:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.

"The honest answer is yes," Gingrich, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, said in an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson to be aired Friday, according to a transcript provided to The Associated Press. "There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards."

And now for the good part: "Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity."

Oh, really? Please do explain...

"The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge," the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton's 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. "I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept ... perjury in your highest officials."

(emphasis added). So Gingrich limits his claim of "no hypocrisy" to a comparison with Clinton. This is bogus, for two reasons. First, recall that Clinton tried to claim that oral sex really doesn't count as "sexual relations." However, as shown in Part 4 of "Newt Gingrich--what a swell guy!" Clinton was not the first politician to try to use that ridiculous claim. About 20 years earlier, Newt Gingrich did exactly the same thing. Second, Gingrich's hypocrisy goes way beyond a comparison to Clinton lying about Monica Lewinsky. For a detailed explanation of why Gingrich is completely full of crap, read all of Part 4 of "Newt Gingrich--what a swell guy!" Here's a quick review:

• During his marriage to wife #1 (Jackie), Newt had multiple affairs, and at least two were with women working on his campaign staff.
• In one episode during his first marriage, he went to a football game with his two young daughters to campaign. He left his daughters with his campaign treasurer and when they arrived at the house where they were to meet after the game, Newt was in a car getting a blow job from somebody's else's wife. Oh, and the campaign treasurer saw Gingrich as he walked up to the car--with Newt's daughters in tow.
• In his 1978 campaign, Gingrich attacked his female opponent for saying she would not take her family with her to Washington if she won, and then before his first term was over, he walked out on Jackie.
• Then, before the divorce was final, Jackie had surgery for uterine cancer, and Newt visited her in the hospital and insisted on talking about the terms of the divorce.
• Six months after his first divorce was final, he married wife #2, Marianne. He was having an affair with her while married to Jackie.
• During his marriage to Marianne, Newt still kept having affairs. One was long term with a sweet young thing named Callista Bisek. She became wife #3, and Newt's first sure enough trophy wife.
• Marianne went to visit her mother one weekend, and Newt called her and told her over the phone that he wanted a divorce.

And during all of this, Gingrich was saying that Democrats had no family values and that he was Mr. Family Values. That is why Gingrich is a hypocritical pile of crap.

Oh, I almost forgot...The part from the interview about high officials and perjury is discussed in the next post.