On Hardball, Jenny Sanford explains why she can’t vote for Newt Gingrich:
It does call into question his character certainly on the personal side, and as a voter, I encourage people to look at both sides. The personal side and if you’re going to overcome somebody’s moral failings or infidelities, you also have to look at where they stand ideologically and how much does their rhetoric match their reality. In my mind, Gingrich falls short on both fronts, so he wouldn’t get my vote.
We’re all so sophisticated now. The great pro-Newt meme now floating is that Christianity is all about forgiveness. Yes, it is. But isn’t there something…oh forgive me, I’m Catholic, this scripture quoting is so hard. Something about, “First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (True, it says nothing about ex-wives, a harder case.)
Truthfully, it’s not about forgiveness. Gingrich did not injure me, he doesn’t require my forgiveness. It’s a judgment about his character and trustworthiness with power that each voter will have to make.
It will be interesting to see if there is any gender gap emerging in the South Carolina vote.
I just heard the audio of Newt's answer to the "open marriage" question, for the gazillion and one time and realized that Newt said that that type of question keeps "decent" people out of politics.
Really? Really, Newt?
What you did to two marriages does not make you a "decent" person.
Actually, it is the type of person that ought to be kept out of politics.
captcha: pyrrhic victory
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"It will be interesting to see if there is any gender gap emerging in the South Carolina vote". Now there is a safe bet. You are going to have the ex-wives coalition who no matter what will side with the woman because all men are scum. Then you'll have the ex-husband group who figured they got taken to the cleaners by a vindictive shrew who will do anything to sabotage their ex-husbands life, so they'll side with the guy. Just what we need is a "choosing sides" in a public divorce--which no matter the outcome is a losing proposition. The issue should be: can Newt, today--get this country out of the mess we are in better than Romney or Santorum? As long as the focus is on a divorce a decade ago we are all losers.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a Catholic, Newt should know that while the Lord forgives him he will still have to suffer "temporal punishment", the natural consequences of sin. In this case it may very well be that he will never be the President of the United States of America.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOr God could choose to punish America by making Newt President.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTruth be told Gingrich never asked her for forgiveness, he just asked her to accept his adultery and be a willing participant in allowing it to continue. I get the impression he only seems to acknowledge it being "wrong" because he was required to convert to get married (strange that a woman he was committing adultery with required him to convert...) and because it's now out in the public and he has to deal with the fallout of his lusts.
Of course, it's also very likely that he and his conspirator were sincere in their desire to repent. In which case, if they were sincere, they'd take the sack cloth and ashes approach and withdraw from the public eye.
Back when we actually valued morality, you can imagine a person being forgiven then, just as I'm ready to accept he's forgiven now. But you move on an go about your life with dignity, not flaunting your prior character flaws before the world, insisting they overlook them and consider you redeemed, and then elevate you to the greatest position of respect in all of the world.
It's one thing to forgive. It's one thing to overlook another's moral failings. It's one thing to believe a person has sincerely changed. It's entirely another thing to then presume to elevate that person to the highest stature in the world. Let him enjoy his forgiveness out of the public eye.
The simple, and most important point is this. Newt does not strike me as one who is contrite about what he has done. But better and rationalizing. A repentant person would respond with extreme sorrow at the wrongs they have done. Their character and attitude would reflect it. Newt is excusing himself and asking the world to move along, just as he has.
I wouldn't vote for him for a variety of other reasons, as much as I admire his rhetorical capability. But putting Newt on a pedestal says a lot about the moral fiber of this society. It would be one thing if it said we valued redemption and repentance through the atonement of Christ. But I fear it's really evidence we just don't care about or see the necessity of what Christ wrought at all.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe issue here isn't forgiveness; it's decency, trust and sound judgment. We all make mistakes, but decent people don't intentionally repeat their mistakes, especially when they know those mistakes are hurtful to others. Some marriages don't work out, but the resolution is not to be unfaithful. If Newt Gingrich was willing to lie to people he cared about and to whom he made commitments before God, why should I believe he wouldn't lie in the course of his professional life if there was something to be gained from it or he believed it was justified? What he did wasn't a little white lie, it was a big black lie, and he did it twice.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBy his own admission, he cheated on two wives. But we don't know how many other women were involved. Does anyone really believe his transgressions were limited to Wives #2 and #3?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAmen and ditto. He may indeed have repented and received forgiveness from God, but it does not mean we all have to forget his infidelities and he then gets to be president. What of repentance, sackcloth and ashes? What did David do when he repented of his affair with Bathsheba? He gave himself over to lamentation and he suffered the temporal punishment for his sins.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot that I expect him to be a King David, but by any standard, Newt is shameless.
I wish there were no gender gap. In a perfect world, men and women would treat the despicable Grindgrinch with equal contempt. Cordially, Bill
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIncredible how tamely and gingerly Maggie approaches this. Can there really be any doubt that electing Newt Gingrich president - a serial adulterer, a serial divorcer, and a man who proposes to make his mistress the First Lady of the United States - would do more to undermine marriage in this country than any gay couple ever has? What kind of message would it send to the younger generation that the country knew all this about Gingrich and still felt his behavior was compatible with the highest office in the land? Seems to me that would have a heck of a lot more effect on kids' feelings on the importance of faithful, lifelong marriage than some gay couple getting married would. (What's the idea - that kids who otherwise would have grown up to be straight will instead fall in love with someone of the same sex because the government gives them the same tax breaks either way?)
But I guess for Maggie, straight serial adulterers/divorcers only deserve to have delicate questions raised - whereas a gay couple who's been together 40 years needs to be fought and stopped by any means necessary.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAny opinions on what Catherine Mann-Grandy, wife of former congressman, Fred Grandy, who knew Marianne Gingrich while Fred was in Congress, says about the former Mrs. Gingrich?
Citing a code among congressional wives, Mann-Grandy said, "We pretty much kept our lips closed, but Marianne was emotionally unstable and I particularly felt that she was obstreperous and rude."
She described Gingrich's ex-wife as "outrageous, she is headline grabbing, she has always been that kind of person...we all have character flaws, but at this moment for her to choose this and to say these things about an open marriage, I mean, hello. I mean first of all, she's probably making it all up. It's he said, she said, but he doesn't get to say, just she gets to say."
Not defending having an affair, but is it possible that Gingrich was actually very unhappy in his marriage, partly due to Marianne's behavior?
There are always two sides to a story.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat was the problem with Newt's first wife? That she got fat? Or was she mentally unstable too? Poor Newt, surrounded by all these mentally unstable women. I wonder if being married to him had anything to do with it?
Of course the admirable thing to do when you are married to one of the mentally unstable women is to carry on a clandestine affair behind her back.
Dick Armey sings a different tune about the Marianne-Newt marriage, by the way.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't know if wife one and wife two were unstable, but they both were sick and then both were gone. Apparently for Newt, it's only the health part and not the sickness part of the vow that's worth following.
I guess Calista better be hitting those health supplements and heaven help her if she gets sick. Who knows, there might be another wife to be waiting in the wings.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDidn't Newt's first wife (Jackie) tell HIM that SHE wanted a divorce in the hospital for a benign tumor that was removed without incident when Newt brought his daughter there for a visit?
And wasn't his 2nd wife only diagnosed with a 'predecessor' neurological condition that COULD potentially lead to MS and was associated with it ? And wasn't SHE the co-home-wrecker for the first marriage? And didn't Newt actually start dating Callista AFTER Marrian had already asked him for a divorce and they were separated? If he really asked for an open marriage then it was either pre-Callista, or it was after a separation and agreement to divorce.
If Newt is really bad enough that you couldn't ever vote for him then sloppily embellishing his problems and moral lapses to make them sound even worse than they really were should not be necessary.
Not that I'm much of a fan of Newt's, but being ambivalent or hostile to him does not excuse people telling what amounts to legendary tall-tale fables about his supposed evil that are loosely based on a wild misinterpretation of the facts. He's not the Pecos Bill of flaky and slippery legislators. Criticize the real actions of the man not some trumped up, dramatic, soap-opera version of them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWho knows? If Grandy is right about Marianne Gingrich, maybe there was something about that behavior that was exciting to Newt at that time in his first marriage. Eventually, what was once appealing became repelling.
I haven't been able to find any comments from Armey about the Marianne-Newt marriage. Could you provide a link?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAccording to an article posted at the Corner yesterday, Marianne Gingrich left Newt in 1987, they signed a separation agreement, and she didn't come back until 1994. Newt's relationship with Callista began after she was gone. She doesn't, and didn't, have MS.
Newt has had a messy life, which is not surprising given his background. His mother was only 16 when she got pregnant with him, his father walked out of the marriage shortly after Newt was born. Fortunately, his mother remarried and was devoted to him. Unfortunately, she became bipolar. When he was 16, his math teacher began a sexual relationship with him, and they got married 3 years later, over his parents' objections. She was no sweet innocent, and she had Newt trapped in relationship that had been dysfunctional from the start.
There is no question that Newt has serious flaws--and they should be discussed--but as conservatives, even if we oppose him, we shouldn't be spreading media lies about
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Newt the callous serial adulterer.."
Newt's the victim here? He's out sleeping around and then asking her to be ok with it, and it's all his wife's fault?
You forgot something important though... he CHOSE to have an affair with this woman while he was married to a previous wife. So Newt was attracted to and had an affair with an "emotionally unstable woman" and then left his previous wife to marry this woman, and now you're expecting us to feel sorrow for him when it didn't work out, thereby "necessitating" a new affair?
Seriously people.... Newt's 3x the creep Herman Cain is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI agree there are at least two sides to a story... and perceptions.
But in most wedding vows there is also the phrase "for better or for worse, in sickness and in health". Life most things in life, marriages don't always go according to plan. Sticking it out is an important attribute. Making the best of difficult situations is tougher than bailing out. If she had emotional issues, was Newt there to help her deal with them, or did his behavior make them worse. I don't know.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh, well, I'm sure this is just another "embittered ex," as the greatest figure in modern politics, Sarah Palin, the American Thatcher, put it on Sean Hannity. It will just "incentivize" (quoting the brilliant wordsmith Sarah again) people to vote for Newt.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIncentivize has been in common usage since the 1970s.
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