NewT's been joined at the hip more than once in his career..
2005.. Health Care .. Washington Rally
Posted on 11/05/2011 1:37:42 PM PDT by bkopto
My father, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, has been in politics as long as I can remember.
And as long as I can remember, media coverage about him has contained misstatements of facts. The vast majority are simple mistakes that are easily corrected, understood and rewoven into an ongoing storyline.
But one of them seems to have taken on a life of its own, and simple corrections have not sufficed to set the record straight. Why does this happen? I can't be sure, but I suspect that the narrative created by these untruths proves to be so much more compelling and more dramatic than what actually happened that it proves irresistible.
I'm talking about the story of my father's visit to my mother while she was in the hospital in 1980.
For years, I have thought about trying to correct the untrue accounts of this hospital visit. After all, I was at the hospital with them, and saw and heard what happened. But I have always hesitated, as it was a private family matter and my mother is a very private person. In addition, for the four people involved, it was one of a million interactions and was not considered a defining event by any of us.
My mother and I have both recently run into quite a few people who hold an inaccurate understanding of this hospital visit. Many think my mother is dead.
So, to correct the record, here is what happened: My mother, Jackie Battley Gingrich, is very much alive, and often spends time with my family. I am lucky to have such a "Miracle Mom," as I titled her in a column this week.
As for my parents' divorce, I can remember when they told me.
It was the spring of 1980.
I was 13 years old, and we were about to leave Fairfax, Va., and drive to Carrollton, Ga., for the summer. My parents told my sister and me that they were getting a divorce as our family of four sat around the kitchen table of our ranch home. Soon afterward, my mom, sister and I got into our light-blue Chevrolet Impala and drove back to Carrollton.
Later that summer, Mom went to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for surgery to remove a tumor. While she was there, Dad took my sister and me to see her.
It is this visit that has turned into the infamous hospital visit about which many untruths have been told. I won't repeat them. You can look them up online if you are interested in untruths. But here's what happened:
My mother and father were already in the process of getting a divorce, which she requested.
Dad took my sister and me to the hospital to see our mother.
She had undergone surgery the day before to remove a tumor.
The tumor was benign.
As with many divorces, it was hard and painful for all involved, but life continued.
As have many families, we have healed; we have moved on.
We are not a perfect family, but we are knit together through common bonds, commitment and love.
My mother and father are alive and well, and my sister and I are blessed to have a close relationship with them both.
My sister and I feel that it is time to move on, close the book on this event and focus on building a great future. We will not answer additional questions or make additional comments regarding this meaningless incident, which occurred more than three decades ago.
As I said, my mother is a private person. She will not give media interviews. She deserves respect and should be allowed to live in peace.
I've reposted the article, as Newt is rising in the polls. I didn't know that Gingrich's first divorce was misrepresented in the media.
Although Newt has many warts, at least this rumor about him divorcing his dying wife needs to be adequately debunked.
This should have been put out long ago.
Thank you for the post. Doesn’t hurt to remind freepers as some may have missed it.
Thanks for posting. There are many who have been misinformed about what happened. For years I’ve seen the false information posted. I didn’t know any better and thought it was the truth until just this week.
This (absolutely) needs to be debunked publicly.
I thought it was true, until just now.
PING
It was.
He’s remarried twice since then and is on wife number 3.
Newt cheated on his wife and therefore is not POTUS material.
Why split hairs?
Unrebutted, these stories stick, and I am sorry to say that I have repeated them.
This is an exceptional rebuttal for several reasons.
#1.
The daughter is a witness, and has no antipathy known to either party.
#2 The mother is still alive, so she wasn’t on her deathbed.
Okay, Newt, you aren’t gonna be included in Butlers anytime soon, but my estimation of you has risen a notch.
I thought the ‘filed for divorce while his dying wife was in the hospital’ version was true.
Wow. How can something like that get such wide distribution, when it’s false?
This really should get more attention. I be a lot of people think that’s what happened.
I would take Newt in the WH over any of the other candidates...they’re a bunch of dwarves.
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So Newt wouldn't ask his daughter to tell his version of the story?
So she's calling her own mother a liar to advance her father's career.
Newt's ex-wife told the Washington Post in a Jan. 3, 1985, profile:
"He walked out in the spring of 1980 and I returned to Georgia. By September, I went into the hospital for my third surgery. The two girls came to see me, and said Daddy is downstairs and could he come up? When he got there, he wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while I was recovering from the surgery ... To say I gave up a lot for the marriage is the understatement of the year." Comment: #3 Posted by: Jim Brown Fri May 13, 2011 8:02 PM
He still cheated on her, which is what was the case. I’m sorry, what he did to her was wrong, and this article by his daughter doesn’t change this.
NewT's been joined at the hip more than once in his career..
2005.. Health Care .. Washington Rally
This is the first account I have ever read that Newt's wife is alive and well. I have always held the belief that the wife's hospital bed/cancer/divorce papers/death would be the political death of Newt if he ever ran for office again.........
It looks like the MSM did an excellent job in that propaganda campaign.......
Well a couple of hugh details in the daughter’s version:
1) Newt’s first wife is alive.
2) Newt’s first wife is the one who filed for divorce.
Those need wider exposure.
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