Cheating on your wife, however, is something the family-values conservative can overlook -- unless you're Jesus, apparently.
Franks was the Arizona campaign chairman for Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign. When Bachmann pulled the plug on the campaign, Franks threw his support behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- despite the former speaker's alleged marital "issues."
Gingrich's second wife, Marianne Gingrich -- whom he divorced in 1999 -- now claims her former hubby/current presidential candidate lobbied for an open marriage when the two were still in wedded (ahem) bliss.
In an interview with the Washington Post, published today, Marianne Gingrich claims that not only did Gingrich want an open marriage, but she knows he cheated on her.
In fact, she claims, he told her he wanted a divorce -- over the phone -- the day before he gave a speech titled "The Demise of American Culture" to the Republican Women Leaders Forum in Erie, Pennsylvania, "extolling the virtues of the founding fathers and criticizing liberal politicians for supporting tax increases, saying they hurt families and children."
"When a liberal talks about values, will he or she actually like us to teach American history?" Gingrich told the women's group. "Will they actually like young people to learn that George Washington was an ethical man? A man of standards, a man who earned the right to be father of this country?"
See the entire Washington Post article here.
Rumors of Gingrich's marital follies aren't new -- they've been floating around for years. The allegations are also coming from his scorned ex-wife, so they should be taken with a grain or two of salt.
However, Franks is well aware of the former speaker's past -- but the pious Franks is willing to overlook it, dismissing Gingrich's alleged marital misdeeds because the former speaker isn't Jesus.
"All of us have baggage, but Jesus is not on the ballot. Maybe it would be great if he were, but the point is we have to, in this case, pick the person who can best lead this country into the place that the Founding Fathers dreamed it could be," Franks says in an interview with the Daily Caller.
Watch video of the interview below.
