Posted on 03/08/2007 7:02:04 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he 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."
Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity.
"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."
Widely considered a mastermind of the Republican revolution that swept Congress in the 1994 elections, Gingrich remains wildly popular among many conservatives. He has repeatedly placed near the top of Republican presidential polls recently, even though he has not formed a campaign.
Gingrich has said he is waiting to see how the Republican field shapes up before deciding in the fall whether to run.
Reports of extramarital affairs have dogged him for years as a result of two messy divorces, but he has refused to discuss them publicly.
Gingrich, who frequently campaigned on family values issues, divorced his second wife, Marianne, in 2000 after his attorneys acknowledged Gingrich's relationship with his current wife, Callista Bisek, a former congressional aide more than 20 years younger than he is.
His first marriage, to his former high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, ended in divorce in 1981. Although Gingrich has said he doesn't remember it, Battley has said Gingrich discussed divorce terms with her while she was recuperating in the hospital from cancer surgery.
Gingrich married Marianne months after the divorce.
"There were times when I was praying and when I felt I was doing things that were wrong. But I was still doing them," he said in the interview. "I look back on those as periods of weakness and periods that I'm ... not proud of."
Gingrich's congressional career ended in 1998 when he abruptly resigned from Congress after poor showings from Republicans in elections and after being reprimanded by the House ethics panel over charges that he used tax-exempt funding to advance his political goals.
Focus on the Family interview (to be posted in full Friday): http://listen.family.org/daily/
I'm sure those who castigate Rudy for his marital issues will come down just as hard on Newt.
Scratch that campaign.
Unless he had an affair with an illegal alien I don't really care about that.
Did he lie about it?
Thou shalt not make demands of hypocrites.
Nice continued AP spin. They refuse to admit it. I think it was about perjury by a sitting President ABOUT an affair, not the affair itself.
While I would prefer for politicians to be faithful, bear in mind, the worst President in our lifetime, Jimmy Carter, is a paragon of virtue in that area.
I think the anger is proportional to how good looking the mistress is.
It is with me in any case.
And you might also ask did he carry on the affair while at work, in his office?
FWIW, you don't really know that. He could have had sex with a rabbit.
"Clinton probe". Just sounds wrong.
I love Gingrich and think that he would be a great president … however, he has so much negative baggage, he couldn’t be elected dogcatcher in any local election.
That's built in to the whole "affair" thing.
"Doesn't remember it?"
It seems to me that most folks who are against Rudy are motivated largely by his political positions. His private life is just fuel to the fire.
Everyone knows that Newt was a cad as well in his private life, but politically? he was a conservative rock.
Gotta love Newt, but for President it ain't happening, never, period.
No kidding! I'm glad that you linked to the other thread. I was hoping that someone would.
Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity.
"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. "
The mainstream media doesn't want a guy like Gingrich or those who share his views to be president. The mainstream media wants someone like Hillary or a Republican who shares her views to be president.
Hmmmm.
Kinda early for the old media to bring that up;)
But Jimmy lusted in his heart.
I really like Newt, but his having an affair while he was going after Clinton for something similar just reeks of hypocrisy. Even if one said the difference between Newt and Clinton was perjury, that still leaves him in very bad company. I tend to not really make my political decisions on personal moral issues, but hypocrisy is something I have very little tolerance for.
Did not mean to be *that flippant. I agree that Carter is presented as a paragon of virtue but we only know what was presented to us via the media or other sources - we have no way of knowing what a person has done 24 hours a day over the course of an entire life.
So, was Gingrich affair with a subordinate, a much younger subordinate at that.
Besides the impeachment was not about the affair itself, but about lying under oath about it, in connection with an entirely separate "affair" involving yet another subordinate who BJ sexually harassed.
I personally admire Newt, and would love to see him as President... but, my wife heard on Oprah that he divorced his wife while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer.... She won't even listen to him for 5 seconds. She reacts to Newt the way I do to Hillary.
For the record, my wife is a relatively conservative stay-at-home Mom who is VERY good at predicting the votes of the country as a whole...
Newt is simply, unelectable. Sorry....
How old is that headline, exactly?
But wouldn't that fall into the category of jobs Americans don't want to do.
So. It's not like he lied to a Grand Jury.
Dang, don't I know it.
I'm gonna forgive him, but only cuz I think he's got the best combination of brains and experience available to us.
My gut says it's either Newt or Rudy to win the nomination. I think either can beat Hilly, her negatives are so high.
I certainly don't castigate Giuliani for that. I only criticize him for his views, many of which I find abhorrent.
We tend to eat our own.
If we don't have the perfect candidate, we give up.
Suicidal, but true.
Came out today on an Atlanta TV station.
I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that every politician in Washington is a horn dog, regardless of party. It just comes with the territory of being attracted to power.
People talk about Giuliani's record of failure at marraige and how the conservative Christian movement has a problem with that. Gingrich's history is just as bad.
Well, while Newt was having an affair, Bubba was probing Monica so what's worse? They're both bad but a segment of society still hold's Clintoon in high esteem.....(usually the one's that are as disgusting as he is).
Over and over and over again apparently.
That's the way the cookie will crumble on Newt.
Agreed, Messr. Clinton's problem was using the powers of his office to procure and then get rid of interns for sex toys.
But still, dang it. This was just -- STUPID.
I still think Newt has the best combination of experience and skills for the job. But dang it, this was a big oops.
It's been known for over a decade that Newt had this affair. It's not a news headline--"Gingrich Asks for Forgiveness for Affair" might be, but "Had An Affair" isn't news, it's history.
That makes two of us. I think you are correct in your analysis it has to do with power.
Think some of these folks on here with their heads buried in the sand are not in the real world either where you see affairs going on all around. Not sure that it is all that different today then before -- just more open.
Clinton was not impeached for having an affair. He obstructed justice, intimated witness, destroyed evidence, committed perjury, suborned perjury, turned in a false affidavit, and tried to fix a trial to deny a woman her day in court.
What Newt did was not nice, but he is no Clinton.
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