Newt's "come to God" moment, nicely timed...

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He's been divorced twice. Served the divorce papers to the first wife when she was in the hospital being treated for cancer. Then married a second time to the woman he'd had an affair with while married to the first.

Then he dumped wife #2 for a woman 23 years younger than him. It was an affair he conducted right around the time he was putting the heat on Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky...

Three marriages into his life, Newt Gingrich is now a convert to Catholicism (in 2009). The church that will excommunicate parishioners if they remarry after divorce.

(Though I guess if you pay the annulment fee, you can pretend the first marriage was a figment of your imagination. Apparently, annulments are booming in the US.)

What's even worse than Newt's three marriages? According to the Chicago Tribune, he's apparently now blaming his infidelities on his love of country. Here's how he's quoted in the Chicago Tribune:

"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate," Gingrich said.

"What I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them," he said. "I found that I felt compelled to seek God's forgiveness. Not God's understanding, but God's forgiveness."

Quotes come from an interview he gave to the Christian Broadcasting Network. One wonders just what he means when he says he "wasn't trapped in situation ethics." Does it make it better or worse to be trapped in "situation ethics?"

What does it all mean? That the 2012 season has begun. I myself am weary of politicians who try get good and Godly on us right around the time they decide to run for a big office.

Newt may have asked for God's forgiveness, but he's not gonna get mine. Any man who served divorce papers to a woman undergoing cancer treatment does not have the moral character we need in a president.

Articles you won't see promoted on www.newt.org include:

Politico's bit on Callista Gringrich (wife #3)

The Trib's story

WaPo's take on Newt's conversations about past indiscretions.

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