Newt is not going to trash Marianne (or get into a futile and unwinnable "he said/she said" exchange), he is likely to just defuse it the way he did before - by chalking it up to the "past mistakes in personal life that I regret" and moving on with campaign - but there is no reason why she can't be exposed here for who she is. Newt's children (two daughters) from first marriage are now in SC and may gently provide some "color" to the story, if necessary.
Her (not verbatim) line meaning "Newt said that I was a Jaguar and he needed Chevy (Callista)" is all about flattering herself and trying to taunt and hurt Callista. This woman is plain mean, cruel, pugnacious and hateful; I would doubt that Newt we know expressed anything so stupid (except, possibly, trying to flatter Marianne that she is much better than what he deserves) but it only shows that Marianne isn't very bright, and to what depths she would go to deliberatly hurt others. This definitely puts to rest any questions whether Newt is better off without her, even though the divorce cost him a lot of grief in personal and political life.
Marianne has been bitter even before she lost her meal ticket (in Newt). Threatening (including publicly, to a reporter, in 1995) to undermine his political future ("Marianne Gingrich has said she could end her ex-husband's career with a single interview") was essentially a blackmail - it was her way of trying to hold onto him and his earnings as her gravy train. They have been separated since 1987, and lived apart for six years (she lived in their house in Georgia, he lived and worked in D.C., 1987-1993) well before he met Callista (in 1993, so she couldn't have been a "home-wrecker" as many described her). Yet Newt has supported Marianne financially and kept most of his assets and money from his lectures and books in the accounts in Marianne's name until the divorce (partly because of that, most of his assets went to her). "No good deed goes unpunished."
In 1994 Newt embarked on and put all his efforts into the taking over the Congress and upon accomplishing that, after becoming Speaker, into pushing Contract With America and fighting Congressional Democrats who filed unprecedented 84(!) unfounded frivolous bogus ethics complaints against him, and getting stabbed in the back by envious and spiteful Republicans who grew comfortable in their newly found power and didn't want to "rock the boat," and instead of defending and protecting the leader chose to plot to remove him from power.
Obviously, a period of 1994-1998 had a heavy and hectic legislative and political schedule, so it was hardly a good time for Newt to be getting divorced from Marianne and getting married to Callista, whom he started dating (with intention of eventual marriage) after almost 6 years of being legally separated from Marianne.
In 1999, after the welfare reform and most of the other points of Contract With America have been passed or otherwise accomplished, and getting through the House the articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice during the Lewinsky affair investigation, tired of being a constant lightning rod for Democrats and the press, while having little support from fellow Republicans in Congress, he settled a legal filing mistake by a junior lawyer at his defense law firm (typo, miscommunication, sabotage?), resigned from Congress, finalized the divorce from Marianne (which cost Newt most of his earned assets, since they were held in accounts in Marianne's name). He married Callista in 2000 in Virginia, where they still reside. In 2009 he converted to Catholicism, Callista's life-long faith.
BTW, the chain-smoker Marianne already gave the "single" interview, to liberal Esquire magazine (Newt Gingrich: The Indispensable Republican - September 2010) and it turned out very unflattering to her. May this one, with ABC, backfire on them, as well.
Refs:
"Cain/Gingrich 2012"?" - FR, posts #64, #69, 2011 October 06
Dobson decried Callista Gingrich as 'eight-year mistress' at conservative confab - FR, post #271, 2012 January 17
Jackie Gingrich Cushman : Setting the Record Straight (about my dad's first marriage) - FR, posts #55, 56, 2011 May 15
Romney Must Get Personal Over Bain Capital Attacks - FR, posts #21, #36, #42, #3, 2012 January 12
Thanks very much for the excellent summary!
Pinging myself so I won’t lose it!
Thank you for giving me (us) the background on Newt’s history with his ex. Of course, only people who want to give him a “thumbs up” will bother to try and learn what is true. The media will never tell the real story. Just like what they did to Herman Cain, they will swallow the woman’s story and her lies will be plastered all over the news in order to eliminate another opponent who could “take Obama out.”
She clearly was a rebound marriage, and time proved it to be as erroneous as that variety of marriage often is.
Looking at the details as a trained family consultant (MS, Kansas State University, 1996), I honestly can see that Newt's first two marriages had serious flaws from the outset and really can be classified as having no basis.
I am no Roman Catholic, but I can see why the RC church found them worthy of annulment. The first was based on an illegal relationship between an older teacher and a minor; the second was a rebound from dependency to dependency.
Okay, I was wrong, so, anyway, thanks CutePuppy!