Gingrich’s ex-wife (Marianne, #2) called him on his birthday to tell him she was getting a divorce; he came home to find the house empty, all the furnishings gone. They actually ended up getting a separation, and it was during this time that Gingrich met Calista. BTW, the separation papers contained a clause permitting both parties to date other people. This is not unusual for a separation and is not an “open marriage.”
A few years later, they reconciled, I suspect because Marianne is a very needy person and Gingrich seems to have a track record of being perhaps overly responsible in making up for his errors (he married his first wife, who was his highschool teacher who seduced him when he was 16, after she had gotten pregnant; he was 19 when he married her over his father’s objections).
This reconciliation did not last very long, and they separated again and then were divorced not too much later.
Sorry I missed your post until today. I'm not assuming that; as I said to Grunthor, "The problem is that two days before the South Carolina primary, it is probably too late to rebut what she said. Furthermore, this new accusation is in line with a pattern of prior bad behavior by Gingrich."
It's now after South Carolina. Gingrich won, fair and square, and by a large margin. He deserves credit for that, and frankly, I don't have a good explanation for why the most conservative and most strongly Bible Belt parts of the state seem to have been the sources of his strongest support.
I guess my hat is off to Gingrich. He's proved -- and proved with a double digit margin of victory -- that lots of conservative Christians in a Bible Belt state are willing to vote for a three-times-married man with multiple past adulteries. I'm not sure what that says about the future of America, but it definitely does show that Gingrich has a fighting chance at winning the Republican nomination.
@ Livius (re. #327): We have no disagreement about Newt Gingrich's two ex-wives appearing to be people with serious problems themselves. The question is whether “for better or for worse” means what it says.
I think many of us in conservative Christian circles can think of fellow church members who are personally devout, successful at work, appear to have their own lives in control and children who are respectful and walking the Christian walk, but privately have spouses at home who are major problems and who would be a huge liability to them if serving as elders or deacons, or in other public positions. An apparently wonderful home life may appear that way only because the husband spends a huge amount of time trying to keep his wife happy. The stories of Gingrich's ex-wife calling him ten times per day ring true; I've heard of numerous similar situations and personally know of several.
I Timothy and Titus have clear qualifications for church office, and they're there for a reason.
I know those standards don't apply strictly to political office, but they're certainly good guides. When a wife or husband is seriously needy and causing lots of problems at home, maybe it's an indicator that the spouse needs to focus on issues at home, not public life.
The Congressional “second wives’ club” has become a public disgrace in our national government, and it's a problem in both parties, not just the Democrats. Far too many people who were able to hold troubled marriages together when serving in state legislatures have had their marriages collapse once elected to Congress following a move to Washington due to distance from home, high stress levels, and (for male Congressmen) the availability of lots of young attractive female staff members who, unlike lots of “back home wives” are intensely interested in a political career and don't mind providing a Congressman some “comfort” when he's frustrated with his wife's “inability to appreciate her husband's accomplishments” because she wants him home for their son's baseball game or daughter's piano recital.
A man with a troubled marriage is going to have massive problems in Washington and in many state capitals as well. As American society continues to fall apart, we'll probably see the same pattern with younger female Congresswomen, but at least for now we don't have sexually predatory Congresswomen hunting the halls for available interns and staffers.
But then again, I need to leave for my county courthouse soon to get the papers on a woman in her twenties who got arrested Saturday for statutory rape of a 15-year-old (sounds like Newt Gingrich's former teacher) so maybe I shouldn't assume we don't have sexually predatory women in Congress already. I've heard some horror stories about attractive female elected officials in my own state government, and while they all involve consensual activities with male lobbyists and other male politicians, I suppose it's not impossible those women are also after male interns.