Newt Gingrich is in rehab. No, not the Betty Ford Clinic. This is moral rehabilitation, in which it appears a right-wing guru is resurrecting the former speaker of the House to run for president in 2008.

We wish James Dobson, the redoubtable head of Focus on the Family, lots of luck with that project. He may need to hire an exorcist.

Mr. Gingrich has more skeletons in his personal and political closets than Allegheny Cemetery. If you look closely at his do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do history, the man who led the "Republican Revolution" in the last decade makes Bill Clinton look like a saintly husband.

On the theory that Christian conservatives believe deeply in redemption, Mr. Gingrich appeared on Mr. Dobson's national radio show recently to admit publicly that he had sinned. Asked if he had had an extramarital affair in the late 1990s, while he was vilifying Mr. Clinton for messing around with Monica Lewinsky, Mr. Gingrich said, "The honest answer is yes."

The confession comes as conservative leaders are anxiously casting about for a presidential candidate. The idea that they might coalesce around Mr. Gingrich is not far-fetched, as the field of politicians they consider true believers is thin.

But the rehabilitation of Newt will take more than seeking God's forgiveness. From the phony Contract With America, to the shutdown of the government in 1995, to the ethics charges that swept him out of Congress, to his extensive record of marital misbehavior, Mr. Gingrich would have to spend so much of his campaign explaining away the past that he wouldn't have time to talk about the future.

Scoundrels have made successful comebacks before, but Mr. Gingrich is buried so deep in the wreckage of his own failings that daylight is but a glimmer above for this would-be candidate.