Newt Gingrich Thinks Kathleen Sebelius Is More Dishonest Than Richard Nixon

Newt GingrichCNN host Newt Gingrich declared that Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' congressional testimony was worse than Richard Nixon's alleged crimes during the Watergate scandal, another round in the right-wing media's campaign to find their own Watergate scandal with which to smear the Obama administration.

During Sebelius' ongoing testimony before the House Energy and Commerce committee about HHS' role in producing the Healthcare.gov, CNN Crossfire host and former GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich commented via Twitter that Sebelius' “dishonesty” in her testimony “exceeds anything president [sic] Nixon was accused of.”

Newt Gingrich Tweet

Nixon, of course, was nearly impeached for his administration's involvement in and attempted cover-up of the wiretapping of Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. The Supreme Court had to order Nixon to hand over tape recordings implicating himself in the cover-up, and he subsequently resigned from the presidency.

Right-wing media have been desperate to crown a new Watergate scandal for the entirety of President Obama's administration -- often with embarrassing results.

Gingrich's comments come less than two month into his current stint at CNN, during which the network has suffered repeated ethical setbacks.

Perhaps conservative media should consult this helpful Media Matters flowchart in the future: Is It Watergate?

Is It Watergate?

UPDATE: CNN Newsroom host Wolf Blitzer confronted Gingrich regarding his Nixon comparison, explaining, “I just want to know if you want to revise making a comparison to Nixon.” When pressed by Blitzer on whether Gingrich believes Sebelius committed any crimes -- like Nixon allegedly did -- Gingrich said, “We don't know yet.” Later, when Blitzer called Gingrich's comparison “overblown,” Gingrich jokingly offered to “modify” his tweet, to say that Sebelius's testimony “equals anything” of which Nixon had been accused, admitting that "'exceeds' may have been too strong."

BLITZER: On the point comparing it to Nixon, comparing what she did -- what this secretary did to Nixon, that is, I mean just between you and me, that's a little overblown.

GINGRICH: Well, what do you say about an administration which, you just pointed out, the actual number may be 16 million Americans losing their policies. Now,  this affects life and death. It affects --

BLITZER: You're talking about the president. Here, you said -- and I'll read it again just to be precise and then you can tell me if you want to revise it. 'Sebelius dishonesty in testimony this morning exceeds anything President Nixon was accused of.'

GINGRICH: Ok, I will -- I will modify it: 'Equals anything.' How is that. Exceeds may have been too strong. I think to go under oath and say with a straight face there was not an outage in a site you've been covering for a month.