If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Democrats are always going to get unlimited mulligans on this stuff, and there is not much to be gained in whining about it.
Which means that a conservative candidate needs to (1) have a history which is virginally white, or (2) be able to look the MSM in the eye when the smears start and say "Yeah. So what??"
So far, I think Newt is the only candidate who is capable of (2) and that's one reason why I'm supporting him now.
If a conservative candidate had a history that was absolutely watertight blameless, he would be pilloried for being “boring”, “holier-than-thou” or that old favorite “puritanical”.