What Newt Needs to Say About Family Values

After the South Carolina primary, pro-family fighters in Washington, D.C. are scrambling for a Rick Santorum look-alike, and Newt Gingrich doesn't fit the bill. A Newt nomination and presidency would not focus on family values, these fighters say, and that's a hard pill for those on the pro-family front lines to swallow.

But not so fast. Who better to tout family values than Newt Gingrich, the poster child for bad family decisions? He's spoken of a deeper faith experience and getting right with God and his church. That's good; people can rah-rah around a humble candidate speaking about redemption. But let's go one further: Newt needs to talk about the pain of divorce and the effects it has on family members. His daughters can attest to that. He can attest to that. I'm sure his ex-es can attest to that (have we not all seen Marianne's pain?). And it doesn't have to be a long tirade with sickening, intrusive, and frankly, uninteresting, details. A few sentences addressing the pain of NOT having family values would assuage most evangelicals and libertarians, and he would be the pro-family hero in owning up to those mistakes:

"I made some mistakes. I made wrong choices. I hurt my family. Divorce hurts families. I can't go back and change those mistakes. But I can spread the word about this: the power of redemption heals broken lives."

Now, that would be an effective statement on all fronts, and it would keep the power of family values, in a Newt Gingrich presidency, intact.