After straddling the fence for months on whether he would be entering the 2008 presidential race, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced on Saturday that he would not be seeking the Republican nomination. His announcement came two days after teasing supporters with a pledge that if they could raise $30 million by October 21, he would run for president. He said he has no interest in raising the money personally.

Gingrich had been hinting since 2006 that he would consider a run for president, saying that he would enter the race only if no Republican candidate emerged that would appear able to beat the Democratic opponent.

“I don’t have to be president,” he said. “I’d be willing to be president.”

So what’s his excuse for disappointing his legions of followers? According to an audio announcement posted on his website, Gingrich said that he would be unable to simultaneously run for president and continue to lead American Solutions, his conservative nonprofit.

“American Solutions is at the early stages of becoming a genuine national citizens’ movement,” Gingrich said. “To walk out of it just as it’s getting launched struck me as absolutely irresponsible.”

So why can’t he run both a presidential campaign and a nonprofit?

According to Gingrich, it’s all because of the McCain-Feingold Act, which regulates political campaign finances. He called the legislation an “anti-middle class” and “anti-citizen” act because he would have had to resign as chairman of American Solutions in order to form a presidential exploratory committee.

“They basically criminalize being a citizen,” Gingrich said. “It’s a very bad bill.”

Gingrich is not without his own sordid history of campaign funding. He was fined $300,000 by the House Ethics Committee in 1997 after he was found to have used tax-deductible money for political purposes and provided inaccurate information to investigators. In total during his time as Speaker, there were 84 ethics charges filed against him.

Such a questionable professional history leads critics to conclude that even if he had run for president, he wouldn’t have won.

Gingrich’s tiptoe toward candidacy and then sudden drop out of the race is just another example of the state of fluidity of the 2008 campaign. With no clear consensus candidate on either side, Republicans and Democrats will continue to duke it out over contributions and polling until the primaries begin in January, sans Gingrich.