Ever the Speaker

"Do you understand that word, 'repentance'?" he persisted.

"Absolutely," Gingrich answered. "I also believe that there are things in my own life that I have turned to God and have gotten on my knees and prayed about and sought God's forgiveness."

Today Gingrich verbally winces as he recalls that radio interlude: "Of course it's tough! It's like talking to your mom. There are things in life you just don't want to go home and tell mom. But it was my intuitive judgment that this was a room I had to walk through. If I never walked through it, I'd always be on the other side of the door."

Conservative activist and onetime presidential candidate Gary Bauer says the gambit was smart politics. "If you're thinking about running for the presidency and you have a personal history that you know will be used by your opponents -- and will raise questions for some who want to be your friends -- it is wise indeed to try to deal with that on your own terms rather than have people hear about it first from those who wish you ill," he says.

But former House majority leader Dick Armey, who was Speaker Gingrich's second-in-command, isn't so sure.

"Personally, I would not have gone on Dobson's show and made a confession of any kind," says Armey, who counts himself a Gingrich admirer. "My own view of the troubles of the Republican Party is that there have been many times over the years that Republicans have gotten themselves in trouble with the electorate by trying to make the Jim Dobsons of the world happy. But it isn't possible to make Jim Dobson happy. His occupation is not to be happy. Why give him what he will never receive?"

Armey claims Dobson's vaunted political influence is greatly exaggerated. "I doubt very much that Dobson can control all the votes even in his own family, let alone hundreds of thousands of votes. . . . I guess it's not outside the realm of possibility that Newt could be playing out a newfound religious conviction."

On the other hand, Bauer adds, Gingrich has never been a convincing religious firebrand. "Economics and national security are always what have made Newt's heart beat fastest."

Baggage Claim

"Are you Newt Gingrich?" asks a plump middle-aged woman in T-shirt and shorts.

"Yes, I am," confirms the object of her curiosity, who, wearing a bright orange Tommy Bahama camp shirt over khaki pants, has shown up unannounced at the National World War II Memorial to join Callista Gingrich and a small group of surprised tourists on a nighttime "photo safari" of the monuments on the Mall. "Ohmigod!" the woman exclaims. "I watch you on Fox News almost every night!"

But tonight Gingrich has a supporting role -- hauling his wife's tripod and camera bag as local photographer E. David Luria guides his wards from World War II to Korea to the Lincoln to Vietnam Veterans to, finally, the Albert Einstein statue. "I'm Callista's Sherpa," he says. But soon he's surrounded by out-of-towners -- two couples from Texas, another contingent from Louisiana, a teenage boy and his dad from Alabama -- who ask for his autograph and want to pose with him for snapshots.

"You need to run!" the plump lady calls out. Gingrich smiles. "I'd forgotten," he chirps happily after his fans move on, "how big a tourist attraction I am."