I just watched the Nightline interview with Marianne Gingrich, Newt’s 2nd wife, where she alleges that Newt, when caught in the affair, asked her to have an open marriage, and bedded future 3rd wife Callista in her (Marianne’s) bed:
Newt Gingrich lacks the moral character to serve as President, his second ex-wife Marianne told ABC News, saying his campaign positions on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of family values do not square with what she saw during their 18 years of marriage.
In her first television interview since the 1999 divorce, to be broadcast tonight on Nightline, Marianne Gingrich, a self-described conservative Republican, said she is coming forward now so voters can know what she knows about Gingrich.
In her most provocative comments, the ex-Mrs. Gingrich said Newt sought an “open marriage” arrangement so he could have a mistress and a wife.
I was hoping for a bit more.
This is basically old news, and it wasn’t particularly squicky.
About the only thing that surprised me was that Gingrich wasn’t even man enough to deny it himself. He peddled his daughters (by his first wife) to ABC to issue the denials.
In the short term, I expect it to help him in South Carolina, because the ‘wingers there will assume that it is an artifact of some sort of liberal conspiracy, as opposed to Newt just being a contemptible hypocrite.