Newt: Campaign Worker's 'Fraud' Cost Me Virginia

Newt Gingrich was in explaining mode today, with two notables:

• Virginia ballot: Gingrich said one of his own campaign workers cost him his bid to get on the state ballot. "We hired somebody who turned in false signatures," he said at a campaign stop in Iowa, according to CNN. "We turned in 11,100—we needed 10,000—1,500 of them were by one guy who frankly committed fraud." He offered no other details.

• Infamous cruise: He said a much-maligned Greek cruise he took in June with his wife was all part of a grand plan to gain "balance," reports the Des Moines Register. The trip ticked off his staff and contributed to a mass exodus of top-level staffers, but Gingrich compares it to Ronald Reagan's getaway trips to his ranch. “He was achieving a sense of balance and a sense of distance. He wasn’t sucked into Washington baloney,” said Gingrich. “We had been campaigning very hard and we had planned a long time to stop for 10 days to think. Again, I know this doesn’t fit the normal media model of how candidates operate.”

(Read more Newt Gingrich 2012 stories.)