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Newt Gingrich as a Litmus Test for Moral Conservatives

Newt Gingrich is testing the waters for a possible bid at the presidency in 2008 and has become a litmus test for conservatives who believe that character counts and that what a person believes and does impacts his or her suitability for public office.

You see, like former President Bill Clinton, Gingrich has demonstrated a very low moral standard in his personal life. For the Christian right to be consistent and demonstrate that they really believe that character counts, Gingrich, who portrays himself as a conservative, must be opposed.

La Shawn Barber, in an exceptional must-read post, puts it this way:

Why do I react this way? Because I think Gingrich is a man of low character. He served his first wife divorce papers while she was in the hospital suffering from cancer. During Bill Clinton’s impeachment scandal, he’d been cheating on his second wife with one of his staff and told her over the phone while she was attending her mother’s birthday party that he wanted a divorce. I won’t even get into the ethics violations.

Contrary to smooth Bill "Slick Willie" Clinton and his supporters, who made the nonsensical claim that a man’s personal life is separate from his professional/political life, a person is who he is in all areas of his life. Unfaithfulness is a character flaw, and that flaw affects the whole man, not just the "personal" one.

Will the Christian right look the other way for this fellow "conservative" (I'm using the term loosely) or will they demonstrate that they believe character does matter?

Posted by tim at January 17, 2005 12:39 PM

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Comments

I am a huge Newt fan, but I agree completely with you. We Christians are just as much sinners as everyone else, but we should strive to set a higher standard. Newt is a genius, and in small groups very charismatic, but besides the moral issue, there is so much hatred for him that he will only cause trouble for the republicans if he runs.

Posted by: anselm at January 17, 2005 5:13 PM