Not to defend Newtie, but Mother Jones might’ve exaggerated what he said. Perhaps he just realized he didn’t want to be married to a much older woman at a time he was still young and vital (and politically upwardly-mobile). Wouldn’t go well in DC. Bob Dole’s first wife didn’t want to be a DC wife and wanted hubby to go back to Kansas to be a country lawyer, and we know how that went.
Frankly, DC is a family destroyer. Most men are better off going there as singles (or divorcees). You’re going to spend more time with your staffers than your family, and often inevitably fall into bed with one.
As for Newt, the peanut gallery ignores that he was massively unpopular and polarizing just within the GOP when he abruptly quit office after running for reelection (why he bothered to do that, wasting taxpayer money in the process...). Some fools believe had he been nominated in 2012, he would’ve won. Of course, Willard (same with McQueeg) were both ringers for Zero, but the likelihood, with even a Newt running “to win”, it’s doubtful he would’ve necessarily performed better than either. As you cited, his chronic obsession with wanting to be liked by the establishment and morally bankrupt culture would’ve been his Achilles’ heel. He would’ve gone soft on Zero. We needed someone to go absolutely nuclear, and no candidate in the 2012 race who was still running in the Spring was going to be that person.
I just told my wife we have been married ten years longer than my parents were married. That speaks to us twofold. My Dad passed away after 32 years of marriage so that means I have lived several years longer than he did.