GINGRICH: MONICAGATE COULD HAVE BEEN THE SLIPPERY SLOPE TO THIRD WORLD-STYLE LAWLESSNESS AND BRUTALITY

OK, you'd think Newt wouldn't run for president after this -- right?

Gingrich had affair during Clinton probe

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." ...

Sounds like a problem (as does his 49% unfavorable rating in the Gallup poll).

But go check out the transcript of the interview at World Net Daily. Start with the headline:

ELECTION 2008
Newt has 'sought God's forgiveness'
Potential presidential candidate says he's been on his knees in repentance

WND is presenting this in the best possible light -- and is clearly doing everything it can keep the door open to a Newt candidacy. Obviously that's what Newt wants -- and I bet a lot of righties would be happy to have him in, even after this.

Besides, his story is just heartbreaking.

...it's a very painful topic and I confess that directly to you. And it has some elements of it that I'm not in any way proud of.

... there are things in my own life that I have turned to God and have gotten on my knees and prayed about and sought God's forgiveness. I don't know how you could live with yourself and not end up breaking down if you didn't find, try to find, some way to deal with your own weaknesses and to go to God about them.

Fetch me another hanky.

Some might compare him to Clinton -- but Clinton's case was totally different, you see. He lied under oath -- and what he did could have had horrible consequences:

The standard is in a court of law, should somebody who's popular get away with committing a felony? And if this week it's perjury, and next week it's theft, and the week after that it's having somebody beaten up, then what morning do we end up as a corrupt country like Nigeria where the corruption is so deep that it eats at the very fabric of our society?

That's just how it happens -- throughout history! You start with a quickie, and you end up with clan violence, detention without trial, torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest, child trafficking, and harassment and detention of journalists. It follows as day follows night!

Thank God Newt saved us! Newt for president!

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UPDATE: Over at Shakespeare's Sister, Todd Mitchell notes that Newt was committing a crime under the laws of his state when he had adulterous sex.

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AND: Did I mention that Gingrich will give the commencement address at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University this year?

And (the good) Roger Ailes has a slogan (or two) for Newt's campaign.