The Religious Right Redefines Hypocrisy with Gingrich

Dobson and Falwell try to soft land Gingrich's fall from grace by prepping his image as a US presidential candidate

BBSNews Commentary 2007-03-09 -- The old "moral majority" must have lost a publicist because this would be the worst time for their ongoing hypocrisy about Newt Gingrich and his dogged pursuit of Bill Clinton for having an affair at the same time Gingrich himself was having one. Yet this is just what they have done.

Even as the right-wing is coming undone at the seams, that is the seamy side of today's so-called "conservatives," the nation's leading evangelicals are trumpeting Gingrich in an early bid to make him a palatable choice for the GOP nomination of a candidate for president in 2008.

James Dobson, that paragon of moral virtue and spiritual advisor to Ted Haggard, has now emerged trying to massage Gingrich's image to make a soft landing for a presidential bid by Gingrich; this is the first sign of exactly where the evangelical community is going to put it's efforts for a candidate. Never mind that it's a no no for churches to get in the politics business, Jerry Falwell also has joined Dobson in praising Gingrich. And never mind those other pesky Republican candidates, it looks like the straw poll be damned. Bye Romney, hello Newt.

During the Dobson love fest with Gingrich there was reportedly this exchange when Gingrich was queried about his outside of the covenant of marriage sin:

"'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 should not worry, Jerry Falwell also comes to the rescue:

"He has admitted his moral shortcomings to me, as well, in private conversations," Falwell wrote in a weekly newsletter sent Friday to members of the Moral Majority Coalition and The Liberty Alliance. "And he has also told me that he has, in recent years, come to grips with his personal failures and sought God's forgiveness."

Falwell and Dobson should immediately and loudly admit their total failure to do the same thing for Bill Clinton.

Otherwise that pesky charge of hypocrisy sticks to them as much as it does to their false "conservative" standard bearer Newt Gingrich. Does the Republican party have even one single member that can live up to the GOP "moral virtue" and so-called "family values" rhetoric they have force fed Americans for so many years? 'Cause it ain't Gingrich and the lead actor in Bedtime for Bonzo is long dead...