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Newt’s daughter’s non-denial denial of Gingrich confronting 1st wife in hospital over divorce
America Blog ^ | 11/4/2011 | John Aravosis

Posted on 11/14/2011 2:20:32 PM PST by SeekAndFind

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The fruit doesn't fall far.

Newt Gingrich's daughter from his first marriage (he's had 3 marriages) claimed she wanted to "correct the record" earlier this year when she published an article denying that Newt served his first wife divorce papers RIGHT BEFORE SHE DIED. And the Washington Examiner picked the story up again two days ago, claiming that the daughter has now denied the story, thus supposedly showing that it's not true.

But of course, she denied something that wasn't even the story.


The story wasn't that mom was dying. The story was that Gingrich confronted his wife about the divorce while she was in the hospital having cancer surgery. Some reports say he served her papers, others say he confronted her to haggle over terms. But all the stories I've seen, see below, are about him confronting her in the hospital after cancer surgery. They don't talk about her dying.

But that's what Newt's daughter's denial says. Mom didn't die. Okay. But the daughter admits that mom was in the hospital for cancer surgery (confirming a key part of the story). And she doesn't confirm or deny that Newt confronted mom, or served her the final papers, in her hospital bed right.

I researched this story too, and I distinctly remember the sources I read never said that mom had died. They said that mom was in the hospital having cancer surgery and Newt served her divorced papers. Here's what I wrote in February of the year:

the man who told his first wife he was divorcing her while she was recovering from cancer
And here's how Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly described it in 2006 - again you'll note, no "deathbed" reference:

Gingrich obtained his first divorce in 1981, after forcing his wife, who had helped put him through graduate school, to haggle over the terms while in the hospital, as she recovered from uterine cancer surgery.
Nothing the daughter said today contradicted any of this. Here's what TPM said about this story last year:
Before marrying Marianne, Gingrich presented his first wife, Jackie Battley, with the terms of their divorce as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from surgery for uterine cancer.
Again, no deathbed.  Now, the daughter does say that mom and Newt had already talked about the divorce before she went into the hospital, so if that's true I was incorrect in saying he sprung the divorce on her at the hospital - meaning, it was the first time mom knew about the divorce.  But that was my mistake only, and in any case it doesn't negate the rest of the story, that something happened regarding his divorce over his hospitals cancer surgery bed. The other stories, including the original story where all of this came from (below), are about Newt confronting the wife about the divorce in the hospital after she had cancer surgery.  The daughter doesn't deny that anywhere.

Let's look at the original story from Mother Jones in 1984 that started the alleged "rumor" - you'll note that there's no mention of a deathbed.
The divorce turned much of Carrollton against Gingrich. Jackie was well loved by the townspeople, who knew how hard she had worked to get him elected-as she had worked before to put him through college and raise his children. To make matters worse, Jackie had undergone surgery for cancer of the uterus during the 1978 campaign, a fact Gingrich was not loath to use in conversations or speeches that year. After the separation in 1980, she had to be operated on again, to remove another tumor. While she was still in the hospital, according to Howell, "Newt came up there with his yellow legal pad, and he had a list of things on how the divorce was going to be handled. He wanted her to sign it. She was still recovering from surgery, still sort of out of it, and he comes in with a yellow sheet of paper, handwritten, and wants her to sign it.
A number of reporters fell for Gingrich's daughter's "denial" earlier this year, including just this week the Washington Examiner. But as I've shown above, the daughter simply denied one aspect of the story that no one serious was alleging. The rest of the story, as described by Mother Jones in 1984, hasn't been denied at all - least of which by Gingrich's own daughter.


Now let's look at the rest of the story, and why it was, and has been, a scandal that's haunted Gingrich for 30 years - again from Mother Jones:

Despite the solid family-man advertising pitch, however, some of Gingrich's associates could sense what was coming On election night, several of them took bets on how long his marriage would last. Unknown to them, the Shapard campaign staff was doing precisely the same thing. It seemed plain to many that while Gingrich had used his wife to get elected, he would now consider her a liability. "Jackie was kind of frumpy," explains Lee Howell, who asked Gingrich to be his best man in 1979 but pulls no punches about his friend's divorce. "She's lost a lot of weight now, but she was kind of frumpy in Washington, and she was seven years older than he was. And I guess Newt thought, well, it doesn't look good for an articulate, young, aggressive, attractive congressman to have a frumpy old wife."

The winning bet, as it turned out, was 18 months. In April of 1980, the candidate who had promised to "keep his family together" told his wife he was filing for divorce. According to sources in whom Gingrich confided at the time, he was already having an affair with the woman he later married.
So the story is that Gingrich dumped his first wife while she was undergoing cancer treatment because she had gained weight and wasn't the appropriate trophy wife that a congressman should have. Then, to add insult to injury, he came to her hospital bed with a notepad to haggle over the divorce.

That's the story. Nowhere does the daughter deny any of this. Next time a Gingrich says something isn't true, perhaps the media will actually look into the story before taking him, or his daughter, at their word.


TOPICS: History; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: divorce; gingrich; newt
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To: SeekAndFind; ozzymandus; rashley; forgotten man; txrangerette; crz; Georgia Girl 2; ...
But of course, she denied something that wasn't even the story.

This is a lie.

The story has always been that Newt blinsided Jackie Battley with divorce papers in the hospital where she was dying of/being treated for cancer. The correct story (if you hate Newt enough to continue harping on it) is that Newt Married Jackie Battley (his HS geometry teacher) when he was 18 and she was 26. Eight years and two children later, the two had grown apart and began discussing a split. Divorce was her idea. The two went over the papers while she was recuperating from the removal of a benign tumor. The two have since reconciled, though Gingrich has, of course, remarried twice. Not quite as interesting as the story his opponents love to tell, but the truth rarely is. Should Gingrich win the nomination, I can't wait for some automaton like Scot Pele to ask him about his personal life, so he can put this one to rest, once and forever. Battley is a private person, and does not give interviews, but I have no doubt she will make an exception for a presidential election.

None of this excuses Newt's historical lack of respect for the Sacrament of marriage, but, as a Christian, I take him at his word of a recent epiphany. If he is not a different man, he's doing a wonderful acting job.

21 posted on 11/14/2011 4:49:10 PM PST by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does.)
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To: presidio9

Thanks for the truth.


22 posted on 11/14/2011 6:30:25 PM PST by Venturer
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To: forgotten man

Fox News is out to make sure that it’s Romney or Nobama.


23 posted on 11/14/2011 10:20:19 PM PST by af_vet_rr
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To: Captain Kirk

Don’t worry, Romney research is already in the bag of MSM. It will all surface if he becomes the nominee. The democrats preferred nominee is Romney. Just read all leftist blogs.


24 posted on 11/15/2011 12:34:43 AM PST by federal__reserve (Obama Vs Perry presidential debates are my worst nightmare! Those will get huge audiences.)
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To: presidio9

Newt’s personal life does not bother me as much as his stands on various issues such as he was for cap and trade, his partnership with Sharpton on education reform, his Partnership with Hillary Clinton to advocate health-care IT legislation, and worst of all he was for healthcare mandates.

However the democrats and MSM is another matter because they will make a huge brouhaha about Newt’s personal life shenanigans.


25 posted on 11/15/2011 12:39:55 AM PST by federal__reserve (Obama Vs Perry presidential debates are my worst nightmare! Those will get huge audiences.)
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To: federal__reserve

You are absolutely right. Come August, if Romney is the nominee, he won’t know what hit him! In any case, I suspect that Romney will be toast anyway because there will not only be one but perhaps two third party candidates taking votes from him.....that is unless he appeases conservatives, a la McCain/Palin, but running Bolton for veep, or something.


26 posted on 11/15/2011 8:50:20 AM PST by Captain Kirk
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To: presidio9

Thanks, presidio; I did not know those details, though I have heard that the story is far less ugly and damaging than the media would have us believe.


27 posted on 11/15/2011 6:56:22 PM PST by rashley (Rashley)
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