Gingrich is unelectable. His personal life has ruined any electability he might have. Do I think he’s conservative...yes. Do I think he’s electable....no.
If anyone is naive enough to think this won’t be huge, bitter, and frequently mentioned in a campaign, then think again.
This is what is said by the leftstream media about Gingrich’s divorces:
In 1981, Newt dumped his first wife, Jackie Battley, for Marianne, wife number 2, while Jackie was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment. Marianne and Newt divorced in December, 1999 after Marianne found out about Newt’s long-running affair with Callista Bisek, his one-time congressional aide. Gingrich asked Marianne for the divorce by phoning her on Mother’s Day, 1999. [Source: New York Post, July 18, 2000, Newt’s Ex Wife Aiming to Pen Book by Bill Sanderson, available on lexis].
Newt (57) and Callista (34) were married in a private ceremony in a hotel courtyard in Alexandria, Va. in August, 2000. Here’s a fuller description, from a commentary by Doug Sanders of the Cato Institute published by the Copely News Service on August 21, 2000:
“Gingrich’s misbehavior goes back years. Fidelity was apparently never his strong point. After marrying his high school math teacher, Jacqueline Battley, even he admits: ‘’In the 1970s, things happened.’’
“As a congressional candidate, he conducted an affair in 1977, a year before enlisting Jackie to write a letter attacking his opponent for planning to leave her family in the district: ‘’When elected, Newt will keep his family together,’’ declared one unintentionally hilarious campaign ad. Gingrich ended his 19-year marriage shortly after his victory.”
“He famously visited Jackie in the hospital where she was recovering from surgery for uterine cancer to discuss details of the divorce. He later resisted paying alimony and child support for his two daughters, causing a church to take up a collection. For all of his talk of religious faith and the importance of God, Gingrich left his congregation over the pastor’s criticism of his divorce.”
“Soon thereafter, Gingrich married Marianne Ginther, whom he had previously met at a political fund-raiser. He called her ‘’the woman I love’’ and ‘’my best friend and closest adviser’’ in his first speech as House speaker, in January 1995... Yet, his relationship with Bisek, a House employee, apparently extended back to 1993 while he was talking of reforming the corrupt welfare state and promoting society’s moral regeneration. Rumors of his relationship with Bisek, more than 20 years his junior, did not stop him from writing his political testament, in which he criticized sex outside of marriage, promoted traditional family life and opined that ‘’any male who doesn’t support his children is a bum.’’
“In May 1999, however, Gingrich called Marianne at her mother’s home. After wishing the 84-year-old matriarch happy birthday, he told Marianne that he wanted a divorce.”
And from “Newt’s a Beaut” by Mickey Porter published in the July 25, 2000 edition of the Akron Beacon Journal:
“Gingrich’s most recent ex-wife says he ditched her eight months after finding out she had multiple sclerosis. Marianne Gingrich, 48, shopping a book proposal “both personal and political” about how women are treated in D.C., says the ex-speaker of the House told her on Mother’s Day 1999 that he wanted a divorce, after learning she had a neurological condition that could lead to MS. In 1981, the former congressman told his other ex-wife, Jackie Battley, that he was dumping her, after she had been hospitalized with cancer. Newt, 57, will wed ex-congressional aide Callista Bisek, 34 — with whom he had an affair while still married to Marianne — on Aug. 18. “
Newt has got some serious immorality baggage.
Hmmmm. Ann Coulter needs to write a snarky book about liberal pols and their divorces and love histories.
As you say, Marianne Gingrich was shopping a book idea along those same lines in 2000, when one of the stories you cite and quote was written. I wonder if she ever finished it -- but it would appear there is a vein to be mined there.
Oh, why not? Let's find out what our liberal friends think is appropriate interpersonal private behavior.
Level the playing field -- hey, they've been all over Gingrich, Henry Hyde, Ronald Reagan, and Sarah Palin. Why not?
They won't write up the closet gays, though. Oh, no. Unless they're conservative Republicans.