members, we contacted the spite s administrators about our interest in speaking to one of those members. one pastor said he no longer wanted to be secret about his skepticism. he s a working pastor at a naup denominational church in houston and he joins us from washington where yesterday he attended the reason rally. thank you so much for joining us. good to be here. tell me about your personal journey. how and why you entered the clergy, what was your religious faith upbringing. i grew up as a lutheran, main-line protestant, had gone to church my entire life. was a person of faith. when i went to seminary, i got into it with best of intentions, believing pretty much at the time i felt, the whole doctrinal you know, all the doctrines and teachings of the church. and i just wanted to help people and enjoyed church life and that s how i got into it.
the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. i saw a very upbeat newt gingrich this week. i spent time with him behind the scenes here in washington. before we sat down for our indepth interview. this is a man experienced big highs and big lows in his political career. and he s not ready at least publicly to presume he s got the republican presidential nomination all wrapped up. listen to our conversation here in washington. mr. speaker, thanks very much for joining us. we have new polls and i know you ve seen those numbers and you re doing remarkably well. double digit leads in south carolina, florida, and iowa. you re moving up even in new hampshire. but your critics say you, newt gingrich, are fully capable of imploding if you will, making a mistake, a blunder that can turn things around. are you worried about that? sure. that will be a bad thing to do. i mean is it possible? i guess. on the other hand, i have had a very long career. i have a very pub
right now highlights his long marriage to his wife and his longtime membership in his church, a clear blow to newt s conversion to roman catholicism a couple years ago. let s watch this tricky business. i think people understand that i m a man of steadies in and constancy. i don t think you re going to find somebody who has more of those attributes than i do. i ve been married to the same woman for 25 oh, excuse me, for 42 years. i ve been in the same church my entire life. i worked at one company, bain, for 25 years. i left that to go off and help save the olympic games. if i m the president of the united states, i will never apologize for the united states of america. what do you make of that, steve schmidt? i have to tell you, i think that is dangerous territory, to criticize somebody for being converted to another religion. most of us are the religion of our parents, fair enough. but if someone sees the light and wants to go to another religion, we cherish that right. that is
party in washington and new york, under ordinary rules, no candidate could surmount this kind of survive this kind of challenge. what gingrich has to bet is that these are the conventional rules do not apply, this is not a conventional year, this is not a conventional moment and an unconventional candidate can prevail. although really, on the books, he s got a lot of what would ordinarily be fatal weaknesses. you know, there used to be a phrase in the rules of boxing, you don t hit below the belt. i m not sure where the belt is anymore. look at some of these attacks on gingrich right now. the first attack on gingrich was religion yesterday in that romney add, highlighting romney s consistency in his faith. take a look at this surprisingly, i think, serious mistake by romney, venturing into the issue of religion. i think people understand that i m a man of steadiness and constancy. i don t think you re going to find somebody who has more of those attributes than i do. i ve been ma
scaring the romney folks quite a bit. let s take a look at that not-so-subtle swipe. a new romney ad running in iowa right now highlights his long marriage to his wife and his longtime membership in his church, a clear blow to newt s conversion to roman catholicism a couple years ago. let s watch this tricky business. i think people understand that i m a man of steadies in and constancy. i don t think you re going to find somebody who has more of those attributes than i do. i ve been married to the same woman for 25 oh, excuse me, for 42 years. i ve been in the same church my entire life. i worked at one company, bain, for 25 years. i left that to go off and help save the olympic games. if i m the president of the united states, i will never apologize for the united states of america. what do you make of that, steve schmidt? i have to tell you, i think that is dangerous territory, to criticize somebody for being converted to another religion. most of us are the religion of