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.
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.
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