There is nothing to inspire a more derisive sneer than when a politician undergoes a “spiritual” transformation and talks about how he regrets some aspect of his personal life.

So it is with Former Governor James McGreevey, 49, of New Jersey, who resigned in August 2004 after one of his aides “blackmailed” him with the not-so-shocking news that the closeted Chief Executive was really a queen.

Now McGreevey is hitting the road to (what else?) promote a book he wrote called, “The Confession”. The autobiography discusses his upbringing as a high achieving, Irish Catholic son, his marriage and family life to a woman, and his secret gay life that threatened to collapse everything else he had achieved.

As a politician, he learned to lie and his administration was corrupt and mistrusted throughout NJ. McGreevey impersonated a straight man, even visiting strip clubs where women danced, so that the “scandal” might leak out to further innoculate him against gay rumors.

It is probably true that no aspiring politician could have been elected before now, as an open homosexual. It is impossible to imagine the deceit and psychological torment McGreevey endured. But his own biography is still a politically whitewashed account of his own unethical behavior.

A politician is in effect an actor and depends upon the gullability of the public in order to maintain power. When the voters found out that the married and devoutly Catholic McGreevey was screwing men, they felt he had cheated on them personally.

Only liars who believe their own lies have a chance in the political world. McGreevey stopped believing his own lies, and so committed political suicide.