Newt’s Over Anxious Patriotism…

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s infidelity now rests in pretty well-trodden territory. Even so, he has recently taken to the air in an effort to explain away some of his more pressing PR problems: 

 “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. And 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.”

 If Mr. Gingrich is under the impression that this sort of public relations effort will get the job done, he, rather clearly, has lost it. There’s no particularly easy route away from a multi-affair, multi-divorce personal past, but some ways are most certainly better than others. This, it goes without saying, was not among the best.

 Writing in the American Spectator, Philip Klein suggested that,

 “The problem Gingrich faces when it comes to his personal problems is that the best possible argument a politician can make in these cases is that people should separate personal indiscretions from performance in office. Yet as leader of the effort to impeach President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Gingrich is in the worst possible position to make that argument.”

 This, too, is not quite right. On the one hand, there’s obviously no good way around the hypocrisy latent in Newt’s efforts to explain away his own indiscretions. On the other hand is the even less flexible, and possibly more damning, reality that private problems do stand to compromise a President’s potential efficacy.

 Were the President to be just another executive officer, this might not necessarily be true. But the reality is that, in addition to its obvious political importance, the office of the President has cultural and symbolic significance as well. The President is the most watched person in America; and, as such, he or she ought to be obliged to set a good example.

 Too simplistic? Perhaps, but powerful nonetheless. And much to the chagrin of his potential presidential ambitions, this is a power that Mr. Gingrich has seemingly forfeited for good.