Adultery was not the issue then, and it shouldn't be the issue now... or:
Perjury and Adultery are irrelevant to Democrats unless committed by a Republican

In hindsight, Scooter Libby's biggest mistake: Entering into the political war zone as a Republican. We have entered a time when being a Republican puts a bulls-eye on your backside. Whether it be through criminal persecutions, like Libby and Delay, or morality charges, like those being thrown at Gingrich this morning.

Lets follow the logic and make the connections:

1: Scooter Libby had a faulty memory, as did many of the witnesses used to testify against him. People should note that people like Libby speak to dozens of people every day about issues far more important than some unimportant woman at the CIA, who we now know really wasn't a covert agent- which I am pretty sure both Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson knew all along. (Could the average person remember details of conversations from a week ago, let alone months or years ago.) Now convicted of perjury, in this case lying about an issue that was, according to the persecutor (oops, prosecutor) himself, not a crime, he faces up to 25 years in prison. At the risk of immediately being dismissed as a partisan, the most famous perjurer, perhaps in American history, is Bill Clinton. Clinton didn't go to jail, and he shouldn't have gone to jail.

2: In 1998, Bill Clinton lied during testimony in regards to his pattern of sexual impropriety because he was trying to protect himself from civil liability in a lawsuit filed by Paula Jones, one of many women to come forward with allegations about Clinton. He committed PERJURY. It also became well known that Clinton encouraged others to lie on his behalf to further insulate himself from the consequences of his behavior. This is OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE.

(His wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, asserted that a "vast right wing conspiracy" was behind all of these allegations and that her husband was innocent of all charges. She either lied to the public (not perjury because she wasn't under oath) or is really one of the most naive people on the planet. This issue alone should preclude her from the presidency: If she knowingly lied, perpetuating an issue that cost the taxpayers millions of dollars, and the U.S. an unbelievable amount in terms of international respect, she put her personal life above the good of the United States of America- not a quality I find attractive in a candidate for President. If she can be bluffed by her husband, how will she possibly handle Putin, Chavez, or Ahmadinejad. More on this in another post.)

Ultimately, Clinton admitted to all of his illicit behavior and was impeached by the House of Representatives because he had committed PERJURY and OBSTRUCTED JUSTICE, not because he had an affair.

3: Newt Gingrich has now admitted he had an extramarital affair, with his current wife, while he was leading the charge against Clinton in regards to perjury and obstruction of justice. This morning I listened to liberals on the radio and scanned the news and blogs and was not surprised to note many people drawing comparisons between the Clinton & Gingrich situations and calling Gingrich a hypocrite.

Gingrich should not have had an affair- he himself recognizes this. No matter how much I disagree with and am disappointed by Gingrich's personal behavior, he did not commit perjury or obstruct justice.

Conclusion:

Many people make poor decisions in their lives and few of us would want our actions analyzed in the public eye to provide fodder for the 24 hour news cycle. This has become one of the primary reasons many good people refuse to seek public office. If a group, a prosecutor or a reporter decides to go after any person, there is virtually no way to survive intact.

We should expect our public officials to make good legal and moral decisions as they exercise their responsibilities to the people of the United States. They should be held to the same degree of responsibility, regardless of their political leanings.

Therefore, Libby should be pardoned and Gingrich should go on to influence the policies of our government and make millions of dollars a year in speaking and consulting fees.