[caption id="attachment_37807" align="aligncenter" width="607"] Simmer down, Repubs. (Getty Images)[/caption]

Newt Gingrich coming out of left field with quite the surprise today.

Good ol' Newt, a guy who oversaw the Defense of Marriage Act when it first passed, has changed his mind. He sees the "reality" of same sex marriage -- in the legal sense, of course.

"The momentum is clearly now in the direction in finding some way to ... accommodate and deal with reality. And the reality is going to be that in a number of American states -- and it will be more after 2014 -- gay relationships will be legal, period," said Gingrich.

He still, reportedly, believes marriage is between a man and a woman but he understands legal unions. Baby steps, people.

Gingrich further explained that he didn't see this changing happening back in 1996 when he was House Speaker. "I didn't think that was inevitable 10 or 15 years ago, when we passed the Defense of Marriage Act," he said. "It didn't seem at the time to be anything like as big a wave of change as we are now seeing."

Meanwhile, his lesbian half-sister who works at the HRC is proud of him. "On a personal level, reading the interview made me proud of my brother," said Candace Gingrich-Jones.

We all are. On to the next Republican.