WASHINGTON, March 9, 2007
Gingrich Had Affair During Clinton Probe
Former House Speaker Admits He Was Cheating, Says Clinton's Lie Was At Issue
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Play CBS Video Video 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.
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 155 CommentsMaybe some of you don't know the two-faced man. He sat on the impeachment council to impeach President Clinton. The self-righteous gentleman asked his wife for a divorce while she was in the hospital. Let alone throwing stones at Clinton for his affair when he was having one of his own at the same time. Now HE's B A C K! Hoping that some of you are too young to remember what he is like. A lot of men cheat but ask for a divorce while his wife's in the hospital so he can saunter off with his mistress? I REMEMBER and you should too. He is good at presenting other people's mis steps as with Nancy Pelosi. (If there is one) He's probably having an affair on this woman now--you know the staffer who helped him destroy his first marriage. BEWARE OF NEWT GINGRICH what you see and hear is not real.
SHURCH4TRUTH
BS say I. In all the years I've worked, gone to college, any of my adventures, I've always been disappointed in the so-called intelligentsia. I find that they typically have nothing but theory, no real world experience, etc. When I rag on college profs I rag on all parts of the spectrum, from Left to Right. Wolfowitz, Hadley, Perle, Feith, Kristal, Gingrich, Armey have no military experience yet we've allowed them to set policy on going to war. I wouldn't want Angela Davis to do it either, but for now I'm working on the sins of the NEOCON SOB's. These stupid *** have popped the genie (middle east) out of the bottle and do not know how to get it back in. Personally, I believe it's too late. We missed our opportunity immediately after reaching Bahgdad and allowing it to go to hell. These college profs are moron's! When The upper echelons of the military wanted overwhelming force these moron's said the military was wrong. Well I was in the Army and I have no love for the officer core but they have the training Wolfie couldn't pour **** from a boot with the instructions stamped on the heel!!
Posted by US_Infidel
Thank you so much for letting us know you are human. Sometimes I wonder about smoe of the bloggers here... ;-/
In other words, he had some "professional" character - which is something NONE OF YOU will EVER understand!
Posted by US_Infidel
From Wikipedia:
Additional hypocrisy charges stem from Gingrich's affair with Callista Bisek while he was Speaker of the House. The affair took place around the same time Gingrich was pushing for perjury charges to be levied against former President Bill Clinton (as revealed in an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson)
nannyb
Actually I believe they're confessing early to go for absolution and they can also benefit from the American voters short memory. They figure by 2008 we'll all have forgotten about it. What scumbags, imprison them all!!
You don't understand how it works with the Christian crowd.
The sins they are not interested in committing - the only one that comes to mind is homosexuality - are totally unforgivable and send you straight to hell, do not pass go do not collect anything.
But the sins they like to committ, like rape, incest, adultry, fornication, stealing, killing etc are immaterial because they have all been washed away by the blood of Jesus and they are not bound by the laws of God. They are above God. They are forgiven. They are saved by their belief in Jesus. Praise the Lord.
See?
The sick part is that Pat Dobson and Jerry Falwell are supporting him. I guess their "family" or "christian" values are for sale at a much much much cheaper price this coming election cycle. Bargain basement sale on Jesus? They sell their values and their flock to the highest bidders for political power. They're the new moneychangers in the temple.
Posted by usmcvn at 10:32 PM : Mar 09, 2007
I agree. I have no doubt that Coulter swallows. How else could he get to be as popular on the religious right. I wonder if they know he's a he?
I was thinking more like "the three Muskotels".
It is true that he had one of his wives served with divorce papers while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery...all the time he was running all over with his latest mistress...Anyone in GA can atest to those facts.
I suggest that Gingrich and Giuliani seek the presidency as running mates...keeping all the adultry, cheating, lying, and hypocracy together in a nice little bundle. They would be perfect together! I'm sure they could even find something for Ann Coulter to do...speech writer, maybe. She can perfect their ability to practice the art of namecalling...and off-topic, but WOULD SOMEBODY CUT ANN COULTERS HAIR?????
Posted by energyecon at 12:11 PM : Mar 09, 2007
Ahh but he will declare his run for the White House this fall and he'll also get support from the Christian Right because they'll happily sell their values to support him because he says what they want to hear. To hypocrites like them it's not big leap to support another hypocrite. it doesn't matter to them if he actually believes in what he tells them and they don't really care. If he says he'll do what they want him to do if in some fantasy land he actually gets elected, they'll support him because they're all about political power and have no real christian values at all. It's a big sick game for both sides.
Posted by energyecon at 12:11 PM : Mar 09, 2007
Ahh but he will declare his run for the White House this fall and he'll also get support from the Christian Right because they'll happily sell their values to support him because he says what they want to hear. To hypocrites like them it's not big leap to support another hypocrite. it doesn't matter to them if he actually believes in what he tells them and they don't really care. If he says he'll do what they want him to do if in some fantasy land he actually gets elected, they'll support him because they're all about political power and have no real christian values at all. It's a big sick game for both sides.
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