Gingrich Had Affair During Clinton Probe
Former House Speaker Admits He Was Cheating, Says Clinton's Lie Was At Issue
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Newt Gingrich's Confession
Newt Gingrich admitted he had an extramarital affair while he was in office, but he's not the only one who's been trying to off-load baggage during the campaign season. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich speaks at the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference n Washington on March 3, 2007. He has admitted having an affair while leading the charge against President Bill Clinton concerning his affair with Monica Lewinsky. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
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"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.
Gingrich joins some other prominent White House aspirants who have been trying to off-load some baggage, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has had to explain her cheating husband. For Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., it's everything from unpaid parking tickets to drug use.
Republican Rudy Giuliani is addressing a rift with his son after the former New York City mayor's ugly divorce.
Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster, tells Axelrod that in the post-Bill Clinton era, voters assume their candidates have done something they're not proud of. So, it's not what they've done, but how they explain it.
Reports of extramarital affairs have dogged Gingrich 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.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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See all 155 CommentsNewt Gingrich,
From transcript of interview with James Dobson
Isn't that the idea as why we don't prosecute infants....Family values. Give me a break.
is a neocon loser who showed his party how they could hodwink America with their "Contract on America" -
morally a void - and this was the man judging President William Jefferson Clinton !!!!
Contact Congress http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
I guess he will go into rehab, and his sins will be cleansed? On the other hand, he will continue to condemed Bill Clinton for falling short of his standards. Clinton should have checked into Rehab, and then Newt, would have forgave him of his sins.
This is another example, along with Rudy who also cheated on his wife while in office of how the conservatives are not about family values. They are all about showboating for the religious conservatives. They can point their fingers at everyone else,just so long as they don't have to live it.
I say RUN NEWT. You'll will get trashed in the general election!
Guess poor Bill was only CHARGED BECAUSE OF HE WASN'T A MEMBER OF THE "GOOD OL' BOY'S" PARTY!
(AP) Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair,
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.
YEP, HE'S A REPUBLICAN ALRIGHT!
"Doesn't remember" divorcing his wife while she was sick with cancer. He's a piece of work. What a jerk.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha! hilarious holy hypocrites newtman!! Foley was out boy hunting and newt was tappin' the aide while they all played pompous and holier than Bill!
Lindsey Graham said yesterday that perjury isn't that bad -talking about Scooter. When pressed about the difference from Clinton's case Graham said it was like "apples and oranges". Ok, so apples are a stained dress and oranges are enabling liars to start an unnecessary war with 3000 plus American heroes dead??
God Bless our Troops
God forgive George Bush
Posted by ttinsly at 07:25 AM : Mar 09, 2007
The BIG difference is that Clinton lied under oath to a judge...that is a federal crime. Telling the truth under oath is a cornerstone of our judicial process. Both guys are jerks for what they did to their families...very selfish.
Hmmmm.... marrying your high school teacher and then going through two divorces to end up with a woman 20 years your junior doesn't seem to indicate the Newt has very honed decision-making powers, does it?
Mitt under attack by own party: Mass. GOP aims to sink prez bid
By Jessica Heslam
Boston Herald Media Reporter
Friday, March 9, 2007 - Updated: 01:17 AM EST
A Web-based %u201Ctruth%u201D squad is poised to chase Mitt Romney in an effort to trip him up on the presidential campaign trail - and its members are Republicans from his very own Bay State.
Founded by GOP consultants Holly Robichaud and Ron Vining, the Mass Republicans for Truth plans to launch a nationwide attack on the former governor%u2019s record - including radio and TV ads.
%u201CHe%u2019s running for the highest office in the nation and voters need to know the entire record,%u201D said Robichaud. %u201CWe can%u2019t elect an unknown quantity to president of the United States.%u201D
So far, about 40 Massachusetts Republicans, including elected state committee members and activists who have been involved in campaigns for years, have joined Massachusetts Republicans for Truth. Robichaud, a contributor to the Herald%u2019s Monday political briefing, said she would not yet identify the other members. The group%u2019s website goes live Monday.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 08:00 AM : Mar 09, 2007
First older woman when young and then younger woman when old...sounds like a smart plan to me.
Just kidding...like I said both very selfish
Contact Congress http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Posted by theUSA1st at 07:58 AM : Mar 09, 2007
+ report this comment
LOL You poor sheep are never going to learn are you. You just continue to carry the water for these people. The SAME people who were screaming for Clintons head are the SAME people who want Libby Pardoned. The "lie" Clinton told had NOTHING what so ever to do with White Water, which is what Starr was appointed to look into. The LIE told by Libby had EVERY thing to do with the Investigation of the Outing of the CIA Agent, you Fascist say the difference is that Libby is a Loyal supporter and deserves to be pardoned. God how low are you people? It's getting to the point that I want to take a shower everytime someone says the word Republican.
I still hear that it was somehow okay that Bush lied us into a war since Clinton lied about getting a bj.
We have a worldwide mess on our hands and now the President is trying to create a legacy in latin America. Does he not see that he is one of the most hated men on the planet?
Posted by jetlizhan at 08:22 AM : Mar 09, 2007
Maybe he's irrestible in a speedo...lol.
Posted by SHURCH4TRUTH at 07:17 AM : Mar 09, 2007
Isn't an affair a lie UNDER a VERY somber OATH? It's either before a Justice of the Peace (Judge) or (God) yet these freaks say there's a difference. Wonder where?
Posted by Vet_SK at 08:28 AM : Mar 09, 2007
He sees it alright, he just doesn't understand it.......
Posted by skyk at 08:24 AM : Mar 09, 2007
Another day...same old blather from you. Again...lying under oath is a federal crime...is that something you can't comprehend? I don't care who the pig had *** with. In your world the Dem's can do no evil...in my world both side of the isle aren't so innocent. The difference between me any you is I only stated the facts...you always resort to name calling and lashing out like a spoiled child when you don't get your way or somebody says something you don't want to hear.
You are one of the most intolerant people I have seen on here...get a life and stop distorting reality.
He's responsible for leading Bush into power with propoganda and Republican programmed vote count machines: that the Dem's still don't have a CLUE yet. Dem's are getting company who made the machines to test them instead of programmers looking for real time web links to alter the data.
The Evil and the Dumb: well Dumb Dem's is no doubt better than Industry's devil worshippers, the Republicans. But what a choice!?!?!?!
http://www.aipac.org/forms/join_aipacClubs.htm
This is true not because he had an affair, but because he's a hypocritical psychopath.
Here's a guy who doesn't stand a snowballs chance in heck to ever hold elected office again, out side of dog catcher, maybe!!
HYPOCRITE!
Gingrich is both!
He was of course talking about the GOP's Contract on America!!
Same goes for "Scooter". Lying under oath and he got convicted of it.
The tongues of Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, Horowitz, Ingraham, and *** Morris will all be tied in knots and flapping at both ends trying to spin this saga......
He felt compelled to impeach Clinton because he lied about about an affair.
And what has he said about Scooter?
Nothing.
at the minimum...30 YEARS? of doing bad, immoral, unjust things?
the man was clearly messing around with his second wife before the 1st divorce was final, did same to 2nd one with a new young woman, and was reprimanded for unethical activitites in congress.... a 30 year span of unethical lifestyle.... and this is a guy many republicans back for a run to the white house? no wonder the GOP is an embarrassment of corruption, immoral behavior and ill ethics.
Same goes for "Scooter". Lying under oath and he got convicted of it.
Posted by Terrapin78 at 09:01 AM : Mar 09, 2007
Absolutely...nobody should be above the law.
Posted by ov442 at 09:15 AM : Mar 09, 2007
Don't forget to look on the other side of the isle...they are no better. I believe that the best person to be president (whomever that would be) wouldn't do it because of the gutter politics from both sides...unfortunately we all lose.
...... then Hillary LIED when she went of the liberal friendly "Today" show with Katie to tell the American people that this whole Monica thing was just a "vast right-wing" conspiracy".....REALLY NOW??? Yeah....until we found a little white spot on Monica's dress.
Contact Congress http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
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