Posted on 12/13/2011 11:34:02 AM PST by SeekAndFind
‘That one brief moment doesn’t define our lives.”
Jackie Cushman, Newt Gingrich’s second daughter, tells National Review Online that her parents’ divorce, though painful, should not loom over her father as he pursues the presidency.
But Cushman acknowledges that the story of the divorce, and her father’s 1980 visit to Emory University Hospital to see her mother, Jackie Battley, has become political lore.
Cushman sighs when I mention the November 1984 issue of Mother Jones.
For more than a quarter century, the magazine’s profile of her father has haunted Gingrich’s reputation. In the piece, her father’s associates claim that he approached his first wife, then battling cancer, with a “yellow legal pad” scribbled with a “list of things on how the divorce was going to be handled.”
Ever since the article was published, Gingrich has been accused, to various extents, of coolly and abruptly leaving his cancer-stricken wife for a much younger woman.
Cushman, who was 13 when her parents split, says she and her older sister, Kathy Lubbers, have for the most part moved on from their initial frustration with the Mother Jones story.
But as Gingrich continues to rise, Cushman hopes that “inaccurate” retelling — which she says skews and politicizes her parents’ conversations — will not define her father’s character.
“A lot of times, people have the wrong impression, repeating what they have heard,” Cushman says. “It’s very important that people understand what the truth is, and then they can decide.”
“This is a very private matter,” Cushman says. “Divorce is always painful; it’s never an easy thing. And that was a hard time for my family.” Yes, her parents argued, but to call her father a monster, she says, is a disservice to the “four people actually involved.”
Rather than walking out of his family’s life, Cushman says, Gingrich worked diligently to keep his daughters close after his marriage’s collapse. Three decades later, the episode has become a healed wound, she tells me, remembered but rarely discussed.
Gingrich, for his part, is a loving father and doting grandfather, Cushman says, inviting her two children, Maggie and Robert, to debates and playfully winking at them on live television.
Gingrich and his third wife, Callista, she adds, always send flowers to Maggie before recitals, a tradition Gingrich started with his own daughters. And though he is busy on the campaign trail, Gingrich, she says, takes care to visit the Cushman home near Atlanta “as often as he can.”
Cushman notes that her family, like most families, is imperfect. But her father, she says, has never wavered from his commitment to his children and grandchildren. And that dedication, she says, is recognized by all within the Gingrich circle, including her mother, Jackie.
“I hear some stories about children who won’t talk to their parents after the divorce, or about siblings who don’t talk to each other. I know many families deal with situations like that,” Cushman says. “We’re very close. I talk to my dad every day and talk to my sister . . . well, I don’t know how many times a day, calling and texting. Same with my mom.”
And years after the divorce, the relationship between Gingrich and his first wife, Cushman says, is not contentious but bound by a shared sense of duty and love for their daughters.
Jackie Battley, as most reporters know, is not interested in the spotlight or publicly discussing the past, and declines interview requests. But behind the scenes Battley has approved of Cushman and Lubbers stumping for their father as he seeks the GOP presidential nomination.
“She’s been very supportive,” Cushman says. “The other day she told me, ‘Look, if you need to go anywhere, for the campaign or anything, let me know and I’ll come and watch the children.’”
But don’t expect Battley to join them. “My mother is very private,” Cushman explains, and she does not expect that to change, even if Gingrich wins the White House.
During the mid-1980s, Battley felt like she “mishandled” her response to Gingrich’s rapid congressional rise, Cushman says, especially when she spoke publicly about the divorce with the Washington Post, among others. Battley told her daughters that she was frequently misquoted and “decided it was better to go and live [outside the media glare].”
These days, “when it comes to her children and grandchildren, she’s like my father and wants to do what she can to help, in her own way.”
As Iowans head to the polls, Cushman does not expect voters to care about the private life of the Gingrich family, and bets that policy questions, not personal matters, will shape the debate. “We’ve been through this before,” she says, especially during the height of his speakership. “But he has learned a lot since then, and he’s grown in his faith,” converting to Roman Catholicism.
“He’s wiser and more patient,” Cushman says, and that has been a welcome change from the chaotic 1990s and the hurt of 1980. “What has remained through all of it is his love for us, how we’ve been able to stay close. That is more than most families can say.”
— Robert Costa is a political reporter for National Review.
LLS
I wonder how many Americans even know that Newt’s first wife is still alive, when she was “dying” in the hospital as he presented his “demand for a divorce” to her?
Newt’s first wife is 75 years old ( 7 years older than he is ). His second wife is 60 years old ( 15 years younger than the first wife ). His present wife is 45 years old, 15 years younger than his second wife.
There seems to be an age pattern here....
“I wonder how many Americans even know that Newt’s first wife is still alive, when she was “dying” in the hospital as he presented his “demand for a divorce” to her?”
The true story is ugly enough.
I've never seen conservatives give the Mother Jones rag so much credence.
“You should read the daughter’s full story. They had discussed the divorce over the kitchen table in Washington, long before his wife was scheduled for surgery. The purpose of the visit was to give the girls a chance to see their mom in the hospital, not the divorce.
I’ve never seen conservatives give the Mother Jones rag so much credence.”
This was discussed extensively in several posts yesterday. According to the Salon.com article from 1998, which has the correct story about the incident Gingrich has acknowledged and now deeply regrets, Newt took the daughters to the hospital to see their mother, who was in a hospital bed recovering from surgery to remove a tumor which subsequently was determined to be benign. During the visit, and with the children present, Newt pulled out a list of “terms and conditions” for the divorce which he wanted her to sign then and there. A raucous argument then ensued in the hospital room.
http://www.creators.com/conservative/jackie-gingrich-cushman/setting-the-record-straight.html
Was there a fight or not? She doesn't say there was a fight. Would it be unusual for two people in the middle of a divorce to fight? Of course not.
That's private stuff. The daughters and apparently the ex-wife want all this to be left in the past. That's fine with me. I don't see that it has anything to do with Newt's qualifications to be President.
In our desperate desire to defeat President Obama, we shouldn't give a free pass to any candidate who has repeatedly shown contempt for conservative values in his/her political and personal lives.
You may soon be left with a choice between Romney and Gingrich. Not such a good idea to be tearing Gingrich down for things not political and way back in the past.
They are not interested in the truth.
The Daughters are helping their Dad, Newt, in the campaign with their mom’s approval..
But some Freeper’s just can’t get past bashing him over and over and over hoping against hope to sway some one to their candidate... All it is doing is making them look bad.
“The true story is ugly enough.”
Well since you know the “true story” why don’t you fill us in.” Assuming you are calling the family liars, give us the truth.
Here you go:
http://www.factcheck.org/2011/12/the-gingrich-divorce-myth/
Note that this article strikes the balance I mentioned in my previous post: Newt took the daughters to the hospital to see their mother, who was recovering from surgery that occurred the day before. Newt wanted to discuss the terms of the pending divorce, and he and his wife got into a heated argument over it. Newt has recently acknowledged the veracity of this version of the story. So, it is a myth that Newt “served divorce papers to his dying wife,” and it is also untrue that “there was no confrontation and argument in a hospital,” as some have claimed.
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I don't have a dog in this hunt, at the moment. I'm not happy with any of the current crop of potential nominees. I'll vote in the general election for whomever gets the nomination to oppose President Obama.
As will I. :)
Right. Me, too. I will vote for ANYBODY BUT OBAMA. Period. I’m sick of those two; though that may not be “honoring the king”. That’s just the trouble. He clearly considers himself the “king”, and she the “queen”.
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