Newt on the horizon

Raleigh (N.C.) News & amp; Observer: Like some asteroid drifting toward planet Earth, Newt Gingrich makes an unwelcome appearance in national politics every few years. This time it was with James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, the Christian group based in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Dobson, no doubt, is a great family man. Newt is a work in progress.
"There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards," he confessed to Dobson. "There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards."
All right, if he says so. Consider his second marriage, which came up during the Dobson session. Gingrich divorced his second wife in 2000, after an affair with a congressional aide more than 20 years younger than he is. (She's now Mrs. Gingrich the Third.)
Notable affair
Because of the timing, this was a notable affair. Halfway through 1998, the then-House speaker vowed to mention President Clinton's adultery with Monica Lewinsky in every speech, as Republicans pushed for an impeachment inquiry. Now, Gingrich acknowledges, he was having an extramarital fling even as he led the charge against the two-timing Clinton.
Gingrich insists that he's not a hypocrite -- it was all about the Rule of Law, and Clinton's alleged perjury, not hanky-panky.
We'll leave that argument to boil between the partisans of Messrs. Clinton and Gingrich, and instead guess that Newt is getting ready to run. As in, for president. Why else the get-down-and-get-right session with a leading religious conservative? Gingrich is moving up in Republican polls; he's touted on the Web site Draft Newt '08. And there's the Gingrich mentality: he sees himself as the savior of party and country, a political prophet who may have his shortcomings and wilderness years but is destined to enjoy a big upside, maybe sooner than later.