Pat’s been pretty tough on Newt here and he’s gotten some pretty nasty hate mail in return on that. But we’re cool with that. You want to see hate mail, check out the times that Pat said nasty things about Ron Paul. Whew.

But I must say. I’m completely with Pat on the Newt thing. I get a little tired of hearing that all that infidelity occured before Newt became a Catholic. Hooray. I’m all for Newt’s conversion. But when did conversion become an eraser of worldly consequences?

You can’t tell people you’ve done horrible things but that was before you became a Christian so all those things don’t matter. I think they do. And to weigh the fact that Newt has been a serial philanderer when choosing a President is not out of bounds. And it’s not un-Christian to bring it up.

Maggie Gallagher wrote:

The great pro-Newt meme now floating is that Christianity is all about forgiveness. Yes, it is. But isn’t there something…oh forgive me, I’m Catholic, this scripture quoting is so hard. Something about, “First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (True, it says nothing about ex-wives, a harder case.)

Truthfully, it’s not about forgiveness. Gingrich did not injure me, he doesn’t require my forgiveness. It’s a judgment about his character and trustworthiness with power that each voter will have to make.

Look, I’ve known some alcoholics and junkies in my life. There were a few times where I spoke to them and they said they rediscovered their faith and they seemed clean. They told me they were clean. They told their wives they were clean. And you know what…they were. For a while. And then they slid back and became worse than ever before.

I’m not saying that Newt’s conversion isn’t real. I’m saying that all Christians fail at times. We’re all sinners. Christianity is not an innoculation against bad behavior and it certainly isn’t immunity from the past. I hope Newt Gingrich is a better person than I think he is. I don’t believe he is. Hey, part of me wants to. But I don’t.

Just last year, Newt told David Brody on CBN that he cheated on his wives because he loved his country so much.

“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.

That was last year.

Even to think something like that is weird. Saying it is weirder. And saying it on camera is way too weird for me. A shfiting of responsibility is not what I want to hear. He doesn’t have to convince me. I’m not asking him for anything. He’s asking for my vote. He’s asking me. And at this point, I remain unconvinced.