More GOP Scumbaggery (With Update)

You really can't make this shit up:

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. Especially when it involves a blow job. But perjury and obstruction of justice is OK if it is merely committed by the vice-president's chief-of-staff who is also a top advisor to the president, and it is merely committed during an investigation as to whether someone in the White House outed a CIA operative who was working on WMD proliferation issues during a time of war. Then perjury isn't that big of a deal.'"

OK, so I made up those last few sentences -- everything above "especially when it involves a blow job" is Newt's actual quote -- but that's really what he is saying, isn't it? Newt's timing for such an announcement is a bit off thanks to the recent Libby verdict, but is there ever a good time to admit you are a hypocrite?

He obviously wants to run for president and he's just trying to get this little problem out of the way now before he makes an announcement. I wish him luck. I really do hope he gets the GOP nomination.

And by the way, this is a great cartoon.

UPDATE: Here's a little background on Newt Gingrich's marital history (from Scoobie Davis via Eric Alterman):

1) Gingrich marries his high school teacher, Jackie, who was seven years his senior; 2) Jackie puts Gingrich through college and she works hard to get him elected to the House in 1978 (Gingrich won partly because his campaign claimed that his Democratic opponent would neglect her family if elected -- at that time it was common knowledge that Gingrich was straying); 3) Shortly after being elected, Gingrich separated from his wife -- announcing the separation in the hospital room where Jackie was recovering from cancer surgery (the divorce was final in 1981); Jackie Gingrich and her children had to depend on alms from her church because Gingrich didn't pay any child support; 3) Six months after the divorce, Gingrich, then 38, married Marianne Ginther, 30; 4) "In May 1999, however, Gingrich [55] called Marianne [48] at her mother's home. After wishing the 84-year-old matriarch happy birthday, he told Marianne that he wanted a divorce." This was eight months after Marianne was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; 5) In 2000, Gingrich, 57, married ex-congressional aide Callista Bisek, 34, with whom he was having a relationship while married to Marianne.

Bill Clinton is an amateur compared to this guy.