This is probably about as close as you can get to “journalistic groping.”

So there was Jeb Bush subjecting himself to a reportorial full body massage by the Florida Baptist Witness, which was asking the former junta leader about his life and opinions.

Jeb Bush insisted he didn’t enjoy being a “pundit” as he went on to commit first degree punditry on a wide variety of issues, which were about as revealing as a burka.

Except for one thing.

At one point, the Mandarin of Miami was punditzing about “21st Century” conservatism, when he dropped this load of ..., well, balderdash.

Conservatism in this century, Bush noted, should be a “… multi-faceted philosophy, including a progressive foreign policy that affirms the ‘Bush Doctrine,’ reforms government institutions, recognizes the global nature of the economy and cultivates a culture that supports the family.”

Of course, it was insane enough that the younger Bush sibling was promoting his brother’s foreign policy, which may well go down as one the great international relations failures in American history.

But then came this delusional line as Bush said he would “defer on these matters to Newt Gingrich, who I consider to be one of the more thoughtful, thinking conservatives in the country now who is doing a lot of work in these areas.”

Oh really?!?!?

Ahem, isn’t deferring to a bumptious windbag like Newt Gingrich on an issue like cultivating the family, a bit like looking to Uday & Qusay for guidance on how to pick up women?

Isn’t this the same Newt Gingrich, R-Family Man, who broached the topic of beginning divorce proceedings with his first wife, while she was being being treated for cancer?

Indeed, is this the same Newt Gingrich, R-Walton Mountain, who while running for Congress in 1978 using the campaign slogan “Let Our Family Represent Your Family” was carrying on an affair?

Oh and is this the very same Newt Gingrich, R-Ward Cleaver, (then married to Mrs. Gingrich Number Two) who led the impeachment charge against Bill Clinton, feigning moral outrage against the then president’s infidelity, while at the same time carrying on his own affair with a 33-year-old congressional aide?

Now this is the same Newt Gingrich, R-Daddy Dearest, Jeb Bush wants to defer to as an authority on cultivating a culture of family?

What family? The Borgias, perhaps? The Bushes?