Posted on 03/08/2007 10:53:12 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez
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
Newt Gingrich is no conservative, and he's immoral to boot. There is something wrong when the three supposed Christians (Gingrich, Giuliani, and McCain) have a total of 8 wives between them, and the Mormon Romney has just one.
Newt had an affair...did he or did he not?
P.S. He didn't lie to a Federal jury, but he lied to the woman he was married to.
And I've said nothing of the sort.
Nor does the article.
LOL! Ouch!
The MSM doesn't get this, either. Clinton was impeached because he gave perjured testimony under oath before a federal judge and then lied about it to a grand jury. Had he only wagged his finger in front of a TV camera and lied about his affair in that press conference, he never would have been impeached, never would have been held in contempt of court, never would have been fined and wouldn't have had to pay Paula Jones a dime.
You have to decide if you want your First Lady to be the First Mistress.
"Reports of extramarital affairs have dogged him for years as a result of two messy divorces, but he has refused to discuss them publicly."
The MSM will surely make this a huge issue, and expose all the dirt that's fit to print.
Not only was this posted yesterday, but it is old news. The affair was revealed during the Clinton impeachment. I'm sick and tired of people assuming the conservatives care about people's private lives. The judgemental Moral Majority is a thing of the past. Clinton was not impeached for having sex in the oval office. Clinton was impeached for lying and the Lewinsky lie was used because of all the obstruction and lost records that marked the investigation into the real Clinton crimes.
Okay, he wrote a book about the history of faith in the nation's history. How does this represent a frequent campaign on family value issues?
"We had oral sex," Manning revealed. "He prefers that modus operandi because then he can say, 'I never slept with her.'" She added that Gingrich threatened her: "If you ever tell anybody about this, I'll say you're lying."
BTW, Gingrich has since refused to comment on Manning's charges...
My issue with Clinton...and by the way...my Democratic dad's isue...was that as the chief law enforcement officer of our country he should face whatever charges went with lying under oath.
Obviously, to be carrying on with an intern as the POTUS was galactically stupid and does make you question his judgement. However, it was the undermining of our legal system that, in my mind, was impeachable.
Newt married his "other woman".
Rudy married his "other woman".
Bill Clinton bought off Monica's testimony with a high paying job she was unqualified for courtesy of FriendsOfBill.
I personally don't think Clinton or Gingrich have any business running for office after what they have shown themselves capable of.
Should be end MLK Day as a national holiday since he was an adulterer?
You're the one spinning this as a conspiracy (Newt and Dobson's).
It's leading the hourly news updates on radio (AP, Fox, and other services).
They are treating it as a "breaking" admission of hypocrisy/guilt/adultery.
No mention in the radio reports that he married the woman.
I didn't realize that ultimately marrying the mistress made it all okay. Thanks for the clarification.
It sure is dismal that is for sure.
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