I'm not, and crap like this is why. Newt may or may not actually believe what he says, but it's highly unlikely that the statement has much more than a political intent.
His real purpose in saying it is probably pretty cynical: trying to stake out particular patches of rhetorical territory for himself, in preparation for his (sure-to-fail) presidential run.
Put another way, he's triangulating in the same way that Bill Clinton did: place himself left of most Republicans with regard to the WOT, so that come primary time he might pull in a lot of the more moderate votes.
Won't work, of course: Gingrich has more negatives than the Walgreens photo department.
LOL!
And the rest of your post is spot on, too.