Apparently, Newt Gingrich isn’t like most politicians.

The former House Speaker and possible 2012 presidential candidate sat for an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network in which he talked about “God’s forgiveness” relating to “personal issues” in the past. He said:

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.

Here’s some background on those things “that were not appropriate:” Newt proposed to his second wife, Marianne, in 1980 while his first wife, Jackie, was in the hospital fighting uterine cancer. Newt hadn’t asked Jackie for a divorce before he proposed to Marianne. After Marianne was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, Newt dumped her for Callista Bisek, with whom he was already having an affair and who became Newt’s third wife in 2000. Ironically, Newt was having the affair with Callista while pushing for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment over lying about sex with Monica Lewinsky.

So those “personal issues” – as the question was posed to Gingrich in the CBN interview – were caused by how hard he worked for America?

Well, if a guy’s going to run for president, and he has to justify leaving two wives while both were battling life-threatening illnesses, he’d better have a very good reason. Especially if during one of those affairs, the guy was trying to get a president impeached for lying about sex. What better reason than his passion for America that made him do it? He may have cheated on his wives, but it was because he loves America so much. He’s passionate about it to a fault. And by the way, that’s why he’s qualified to be president.

The excuse doesn’t fly, of course. But some politicians never miss an opportunity to wrap themselves in the American flag – even for the most absurd reasons.

Here’s the full question and answer from CBN:

h/t: Mediaite

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