At approximately 2:00 PM today, Newt Gingrich’s “Newt Explore 2012” presidential fund-raising website went live. Saying little more than,
“America’s greatness lies in ‘We the People.'”
“We are a nation like no other. To remain so will require the dedicated participation of every citizen, of every neighborhood, of every background. This is the responsibility of a free people.”
“We are excited about exploring whether there is sufficient support for my potential candidacy for President of this exceptional country,”
Newt Gingrich — who is strongly against marriage equality and the LGBT community but has been divorced twice amid several affairs — made it official that he is “exploring” a presidential run. Gingrich is the first major Republican presidential candidate to enter the 2012 race.
Read: “Gingrich, Huckabee, Bachmann Join Hate Group Leader For Fundraiser“
Gingrich’s past is definitely a major road block for him. The failed former Speaker of the House had to resign his congressional seat and Speakership following the 1998 mid-term elections.
Igor Volsky just reported that Gingrich “helped secure hundreds of thousands of dollars for a successful effort to recall three judges who overruled Iowa’s law prohibiting same-sex marriages.”
The anti-gay Gingrich has invoked God, often, and has said, “If you truly try to understand what God wants, and truly try to do what God wants, that has to impact how you behave.â€
As I’ve written earlier, according to PBS’ award-winning program Frontline and author Gail Sheehy:
While recovering in her hospital bed from cancer surgery, Gingrich told his wife he was divorcing her.
In the front seat of a car, in front of a neighbor and Gingrich’s own young daughters, Newt had oral sex without interrupting once discovered.
Gingrich, now on his third wife, has had countless affairs, including with a campaign staffer and a neighbor’s wife.
While prosecuting President Bill Clinton on charges of impeachment for lying about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Gingrich himself was engaged in an extra-marital affair.
Earlier today, The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Gingrich, who rose to the top of the Republican ranks 17 years ago as speaker of the House, has methodically worked to reinvent himself over the last decade after a spectacular fall that led to his resignation from the House in 1998. A presidential candidacy will test whether Mr. Gingrich, one of the party’s best known and most polarizing figures, can rebrand himself as a new messenger for a new era.”
“Mr. Gingrich is entering a phase that the Federal Election Commission refers to as “testing the waters†for a potential candidacy. He is allowed to raise and spend money to hire campaign staff, conduct polling to test his strength among the Republican primary electorate and travel around the country to meet voters and contributors.
“By simply testing a presidential bid, Mr. Gingrich is not required to disclose his fund-raising unless he becomes a legal candidate who opens a formal exploratory committee. But in the eyes of voters, there is little practical distinction, and aides to Mr. Gingrich say the period is more of a formality as he distances himself from several lucrative business ventures that are set up under different sections of the tax code.”