"Gingrich Pledges Fidelity" - Is That A Joke ?

It's not often that Rick Perry gets anything right -- in fact, I don't remember the last time he was right about anything. But as they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day. And Perry hit the nail right on the head when he said this about Newt Gingrich, "If you cheat on your wife, you'll cheat on your business partner, so I think that issue of fidelity is important."

That's very true. A man who will cheat on his wife simply can't be trusted with other relationships -- including with the people he was elected to serve (as Gingrich proved back in the 1990's). And Gingrich didn't just commit adultery -- he's a serial adulterer. And a hypocrite as well, since he condemned another politician for infidelity (Bill Clinton) while carrying on his own extramarital affair.

This has led me to wonder how Gingrich could be so popular with the teabaggers, who pride themselves on being "values" voters, especially since one of those values is supposed to be a belief in the "sanctity of marriage" -- something Gingrich has been rather cavalier about in his own personal life. But the president (Bob Vander Plaats) of The Family Leader, a right-wing fundamentalist Iowa group, assures "values" voters that Newt wouldn't do that again, since he has agreed to the group's pledge -- which includes "pledging fidelity to his spouse".

I hate to bust Mr. Vander Plaats' bubble, but this isn't the first time Gingrich has made such a pledge. And both times in the past he broke those pledges (and both time to sick spouses, one of them in the hospital). Unless I'm mistaken, don't marital vows contain a pledge to be faithful to a spouse? What makes Vander Plaats, or any other teabagger, think this latest pledge is any more important to Gingrich than the pledges he has broken in the past? For Gingrich, breaking pledges is habitual behavior.

I have always been told that a person shouldn't fault themselves the first time someone else breaks their word with them -- after all, we're supposed to trust our fellow man. But the second time that person breaks his/her word, it's our fault because we should have known better. And the third time makes one a complete fool, because the person has repeatedly proven he/she can't be trusted.

Gingrich has now pledged he'll be faithful to his wife? That has to be a joke!