Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich 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."
Michelle Malkin opines, "We are all, as I said earlier today, fallible people. And conservatives are willing to forgive. Whether they'll buy into Gingrich as the best standard-bearer for the party and most deserving candidate for commander-in-chief--as opposed to anything more than the quick-thinking debater, cable TV guest, and lecturer that he now is--is another matter."
Adam's Blog gives Gingrich credit for taking responsibility.
Race 4 2008 posts the latest Gallup poll of presidential candidates, and Gingrich has a 49% unfavorable rating, which is much higher than any other candidate.
RedState'sErick Erickson adds, Newt "is super smart enough to know that unless he goes through some Oprahesque journey of healing and reconciliation, his super high negatives are going to stay that way. Reaching out to groups like Focus on the Family and other social conservative groups to repent and admit past sins is not only the right thing to do, but the calculatedly smart thing to do too."
Defending Matt Sanchez
David Horowitz opines, "I find it appalling that people who actually call themselves Progressives would attack an Hispanic American and accuse him of being an exploited minority because he chose to serve his country. I find it appalling that gay leftists – who otherwise think Bush is destroying the constitution by tapping the phones of our terrorist enemies – would open an American citizen’s buried past and make it public in an attempt to destroy him. But I’m not surprised. That’s what the Left does. All day and every day. It’s for the cause."
Right Wing News'John Hawkins adds, "The mistakes Sanchez made years ago aren't that important compared to the fact that he's doing the right thing today and standing up to, "anti-war thugs on campus" at Columbia University. He deserved his award and even though he doesn't have a perfect past, conservatives should be proud to have a guy like Matt Sanchez attending CPAC." and "One of the most fascinating things about the left is that they often accuse conservatives of hating gays in one breath and then display rampant homophobia in the next."
Gay Patriot'sB. Daniel Blatt explains why all of this is simply an effort by the left to discredit conservative ideas: "Matt Sanchez is a part of all that he has met. His past figures into the man he has become. But, people do have a right to their own private lives, to deal with their past mistakes — or merely just past experiences which no longer represent their present actions — in their own way. Once again, it seems that all too many are all too interested in the apparent hypocrisy of conservatives, more interested in defining us so that they may more readily dismiss our ideas. Without even considering what we have to say."
Cpl. Matt Sanchez explains himself and condemns porn on his blog: "I don’t like porn, it reduces the mind, flattens the soul. That’s not hypocrisy talking, that’s experience. If I started off with liberal leanings, being on a gay porn set should have been heaven. In porn, everything taboo is trivialized and everything trivial is projected."
Delusional Chucky Hagel
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a staunch member of the "white flag caucus", has announced he will run for President.
Captain's Quarters'Ed Morrissey can't stop laughing, "Bwa-ha-ha! Stop it, you're killing me!" and "The big question isn't whether Hagel can raise $100 million for a credible campaign. The question is whether Hagel can beat Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo for last place."
Power Line'sScott Johnson believes their is no market for a Hagel candidacy, nor is there any scenario in which he could become a plausible candidate.
Capitalism for Campesinos
The Corner'sMichael Novak eloquently defends President Bush's comments directed at Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez:
In an extremely important speech the other day, President Bush threw down the gauntlet to M. Chavez. You want to talk about "social justice"? We'll show you the way to social justice. You want to talk about the poor? We'll show you the only really successful way to liberate the poor from poverty ever discovered during the long history of the human race.
The President called it "capitalism for the campesino" — capitalism that begins at the bottom up. What Guy Sorman, the French writer, called "barefoot capitalism" just a few years back. How? By such methods as Hernando de Soto talks about, first, in changing laws to make possible — and far more frequent — the formation of new small businesses by the poor (almost all of whom are entrepreneurs, as de Soto found); and, second, in recognizing, protecting, and monetizing property rights in homes, so that the capital represented in them can be unleashed through mortgages.
Against the swampy tide of yet another socialism rising from the deep in South America, the President offered the light and sun of the rule of law, transparency, and universal inclusion of the campesinos in the dynamism of the market system.
Why not? The same forces, unleashed in China and India since 1980, have raised more than a half-billion persons out of poverty — the fastest exodus from poverty of any poverty program in the past.
A Web-based “truth” 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’s record - including radio and TV ads.
“He’s running for the highest office in the nation and voters need to know the entire record,” said Robichaud. “We can’t elect an unknown quantity to president of the United States.”
The group will post “The Romney Report” on its website on Monday, vowing to expose his flip-flops on a host of key issues, from abortion to taxes to gay rights.
Eye on 08 met the group's leader at CPAC: "I met Robichaud at the RNC Winter Meeting and again at CPAC. At the RNC Winter Meeting, she was verbally assaulted by Romney staffers. And Romney himself became extremely uncomfortable when she was in the room. The Romney team is quite nervous about MA Republicans standing up and criticizing him."
Lefty Kooks vs. Fox News
John Edwards has announced that he will not take part in a debate sponsored by the Nevada Democrats because they are in partnership with Fox News.
Townhall.com'sMary Katharine Ham opines, " Sure, not all the folks watching Fox are Reagan Democrats or moderates or conservative Democrats. Some of them are dedicated Republicans, who won't be convinced to go the other way, but a lot of them are the kind of voters who would be happy to listen to Democrats. A lot of them are the kind of voters who are fed up with business as usual and are willing to listen to any person hawking "a change," which is what all the Democrats want to do. Why pass up the opportunity to bring that message to those people?"
Hotair.com'sIan has the video of Rodger Ailes slamming liberals for trying to boycott Fox News:
Editor's Note
Make sure to check out the Citizens Against Government Waste's 2007 Pig Book, which details pork spending in Congress. It is fascinating to read about some of the bizarre and extravagant projects our tax dollars are spent on. Also, Robert Bluey reports that the Heritage Foundation's will soon release their 2007 Federal Budget Chart Book from the Heritage Foundation, which will show some interesting trends of earmarks during the past two decades.
There is a conservative in the race - Duncan Hunter. He won the straw poll in Arizona beating McCain and in South Carolina came in 6 votes behind McCain and Guiliani. By the way, continued trashing of conservatives like Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo is going to get the Republican establishment a 40 year walk in the wilderness. A third party is in the works folks - and it is going to happen partially because of attitudes expressed in the above column and in the so called "conservative" media. That media which has become a shill for the Bush wing of the Republicrats. It is quite apparent that wing stil does not GET IT. Their attitude was revealed in spades at the recent American Legion Convention by Alfonso Aguilar from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Aguilar on American Legion proposals on immigration:
In essence, he let the American Legion know that the Bush Administration regards the Legion's solutions as naive and unworkable.
Aguilar said the Administration agrees on the need for a secure border and tougher enforcement against employers. But refusal to give citizenship to the 12 million illegal aliens already here is a threat to national security, he said.
Besides, he said, America desperately needs foreign workers.
Why?
Because "we have American families not having kids." Aguilar's arguments paralleled the insulting comments one often finds on radical leftist and ethnic blogs in which America's citizens are described as increasingly aging, impotent and helpless people who don't have enough strength or smarts to continue to run their country -- and not enough passion for having their own country to keep it.
Aguilar said all over America he hears businesses say that Americans aren't having enough kids to provide a workfoce.
"To think we could keep our economy going on native-born Americans is totally unrealistic," the Administration spokesman said.
That is why the Administration is pushing to turn illegal aliens into "guest workers," he said.
Looking into the sea of American Legion hats, he told the veterans that if they backed strong border security without offering legal status to illegal aliens they would be suporting an insecure American in which 12 million illegal aliens would be living in the shadows without our knowing who they are.
Aguilar left before I spoke, along with Kris Kobach, Mark Krikorian and John Fonte.
Kobach (with deep experience in anti-terrorism in the Justice Department, and now law professor) said the Bush Administration he served is totaly wrong that bringing illegal aliens out of the shadows would guarantee that we know who they really are. Rather, it would simply mean that we know what names they have given us. He noted that one of the illegal aliens brought out of the shadows by the 1986 amnesty went on to plot the first World Trade Center bombing. Amnesty just makes it possible for illegal alien terrorists to easily travel back and forth to other countries to plan their acts of terror, he said.
When my turn came, I urged the Legion to stick with its solution of ATTRITION THROUGH ENFORCEMENT. And I decried the Administration spokesman's insult of American families as being too impotent to continue our economy. In fact, I said, native-born Americans are having almost exactly the number of babies it takes to replace retiring and dying workers.
I also lamented Aguilar's insult of native-born American workers, declaring them entirely up to the task of doing the jobs that Americans and the American economy needs.
Nonetheless, I was shocked that the Bush Administration had chosen to speak so insensitively to the national, state and regional leaders of our nation's veterans. But learning tonight of the aggressive efforts of the White House with Members of Congress right now, I better understand:
Massive new flows of foreign workers is once again a top priority of the Bush Administration.
Not only must American workers and families and veterans suffer the con! gestion, wage depression and quality of life deterioration due to this foreign flood, but they will have to subsidize them with higher and higher taxes.
While the Bush Administration shortchanges veterans programs and health care, it continues to force higher and higher tax transfers to the care of foreign workers. I noted to the Legion that Robert Rector of Heritage Foundation has found that the lifetime net taxpayer subsidy for the high school drop-outs among the foreign workers already here will be around ONE TRILLION DOLLARS. Not BILLION but TRILLION.
Does the corporate state wing of the Republican Party think we are stupid or can't see through their patronizing and lies about a host of subjects including immigration, badly negotiated trade deals, and life in general??? It is beyond disheartening to find all the work of 40 years pushing and supporting conservatives and conservative AND?OR Republican causes is for naught. Thanks guys - wait a sec while we take the knife out of our back and bleed out. What goes around comes around. The Republican Party choice of following the corporate wing of the establishment party is going to mean a generation or two on the back bench. Frankly my dears - it is well deserved.
Lastgleaming...beautiful! If we don't have enough citizens for the economy, then how about a smaller economy to match the resources we do have? This is our home, not USA,Inc. I wish my home to be clean and honorable, and left in the same condition as a legacy to all future generations. Coast to coast shopping malls is not the American dream, nor is uncontrolled immigration and overpopulation. With Martinez at the helm, I agree the myopic Bush republicans face 40 years in the wilderness, and it is well deserved. We elect politicians to carry out our wishes, not snipe and snark back at us that our ideas are naive and unworkable. Make them work, or step aside.
