Newt could fill the Republican desire for a strong conservative candidate, but his moral hypocrisy won’t sit well with the religious-right who see the Republican party as the divinely chosen party Jesus would vote for. Between the two of them, Gingrich and Guiliani have had six wives. Democrats must be looking better to “family values voters” than ever before, especially now that Republicans have been exposed as pedophiles, warmongers, and adulterers. Can the Religious Right be counted on to vote Republican in the next election? Gingrich may be the best thing for Democrats yet.

In an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson that aired Friday, Gingrich admitted to the affair in 1998. In 2000, he divorced his second wife, Marianne, after his attorneys acknowledged his relationship with Callista Bisek, a former congressional aide now his wife.

“He has admitted his moral shortcomings to me, as well, in private conversations,” Falwell wrote in a weekly newsletter sent Friday to members of the Moral Majority Coalition and The Liberty Alliance. “And he has also told me that he has, in recent years, come to grips with his personal failures and sought God’s forgiveness.”

Gingrich, 63, a former Georgia congressman who served as Republican speaker of the House after leading the party to its first House majority in 40 years, has been married three times. He has supported a family-values agenda as a candidate, and his two divorces have sparked reports of extramarital affairs as well as charges of hypocrisy from critics.

He abruptly resigned from Congress in 1998 after Republicans faired poorly in midterm elections. He also was reprimanded by the House ethics panel in connection with using tax-exempt funding to advance his political goals.

read more…
View Alison Stewart’s commentary at C&L