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Last night I, too, was disgusted and found despicable this muckraking over Newt's past.

Of course, like with Cain, it seems anyone who closes in on Romney is immediately muckraked. Which should make Rick Santorum take note. But this is all old news. So why bring it up now? For the same reason it affected Cain: to get Newt to stand down because of family affect. Just as the muckraking took its toll on Cain's wife, I presume someone thinks Newt would stand down to protect his wife and children. Well, his daughters are making it plain, and apparently so is Collista, that nobody in their family stands down. Now let's look at the charges, shall we? And let's begin with the first marriage. Jackie Battley was born in 1936 (Newt was born in 1943). According to reports: "Gingrich had a crush on his high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, and vowed to his high school friends that he would marry her. He made good on his intentions. He was a teenage student at Emory University in Atlanta, where Battley had taken a college teaching position, when he married her." [Source: Monica M. Ekman. "Ten things you didn't know about Newt Gingrich" USNews.com. 2/23/2007] When Gingrich was 19 he married his former high school geometry teacher, Ms. Battley, to the chagrin of his parents who felt she was too old for him. The two were married in 1962 and separated in 1980 and eventually divorced in 1981. The story floating around is that Newt went to Jackie on her hospital bed after she had undergone surgery for uterine cancer and pestered her about the terms of the divorce: "The most notorious incident in Gingrich's marriage ... was when he cornered Jackie in her hospital room where she was recovering from uterine cancer surgery and insisted on discussing the terms of the divorce he was seeking. Shortly after that infamous encounter, Gingrich refused to pay his alimony and child-support payments. The First Baptist Church in his hometown had to take up a collection to support the family Gingrich had deserted. Six months after divorcing Jackie, Gingrich married a younger woman, Marianne, with whom he had been having an affair." [source: Stephen Talbot. "Newt's Glass House." Salon.com. 8/28/1998.] Oddly enough, the supposedly deserted daughters of this first marriage disagree with the story as given by Salon and other media outlets. There is no animosity between mother and daughters. So their recounting has increased credibility: For years, I have thought about trying to correct the untrue accounts of this hospital visit. After all, I was at the hospital with them, and saw and heard what happened. But I have always hesitated, as it was a private family matter and my mother is a very private person. In addition, for the four people involved, it was one of a million interactions and was not considered a defining event by any of us. My mother and I have both recently run into quite a few people who hold an

inaccurate understanding of this hospital visit. Many think my mother is dead. So, to correct the record, here is what happened: My mother, Jackie Battley Gingrich, is very much alive, and often spends time with my family. I am lucky to have such a 'Miracle Mom,' as I titled her in a column this week... It was the spring of 1980. I was 13 years old, and we were about to leave Fairfax, Va., and drive to Carrollton, Ga., for the summer. My parents told my sister and me that they were getting a divorce as our family of four sat around the kitchen table of our ranch home. Soon afterward, my mom, sister and I got into our light-blue Chevrolet Impala and drove back to Carrollton. Later that summer, Mom went to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for surgery to remove a tumor. While she was there, Dad took my sister and me to see her. It is this visit that has turned into the infamous hospital visit about which many untruths have been told. I won't repeat them. You can look them up online if you are interested in untruths. But here's what happened: My mother and father were already in the process of getting a divorce, which she requested. Dad took my sister and me to the hospital to see our mother. She had undergone surgery the day before to remove a tumor. The tumor was benign. [source: Townhall, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, May 8, 2011, Setting the Record Straight] Contrary to what the media and liberal bloggers have tried to portray, this wasn't a woman on her deathbed being harassed for terms of a divorce. SHE requested the divorce. And I would think a thirteen-year-old would know if Dad had given Mom grief. Thank God the tumor wasn't malignant. Now that we have that settled, let's turn our attentions to the allegations made by one Marianne Ginther Gingrich. Oh where to begin? Perhaps we should begin by pointing out that yes, Newt did have an affair with another woman while married (but separated) from Jackie Battley. And guess who that was? None other than Ms. Marianne Ginther. The woman who puts herself up as the beacon of propriety. What is it they say to women on Jerry Springer who are having affairs with their bff's guy? If he'd cheat WITH you, he'll cheat ON you? Before Ms. Battley judges Newt's behavior, she probably should take a closer look at her own. At any rate, the two met at a Republican fundraiser in Ohio in 1980. Battley was with the CIA as a personnel clerk. Their marriage made it seven years before they ended up separating in 1987 after which they lived in separate residences for the next six years before attempting a reconciliation in 1993. That reconciliation

didn't last very long. The divorce was finalized in 2000. It was during the 1990's that Newt began his affair with Calista Bisek, the present Mrs. Gingrich. It began in 1993 in fact. When Newt met Calista. So he wasn't cheating on his wife, they were separated at the time. But he didn't break it off with Calista apparently, either. No wonder the reconciliation failed. Now the question is: does any of this indicate that Gingrich is unfit to be President? I suppose had he had these affairs at a time when he held an office that could compromise the security of our country, like oh, say President, then yes, this could pose a problem. But wait- that was another guy. Or, if any of this was new news, or hidden, or somehow not already out there, and if Gingrich lied and denied it as President. But wait- that's another guy too. And if I recall this was the response to the other guy having had affairs while in the Oval Office: Judging by all available indicators, President Clintons affair with Monica Lewinsky has had a very selective effect on aggregate public opinion. Over the past nine months the American public has substantially changed its view of Clinton as an individual but barely readjusted its perception of President Clinton as a political leader. In the latter respect for example, Americans evaluations of how President Clinton is ". . . handling his job as president" are remarkably stable during 1998. Data from eleven major polling organizations surveying in 194 separate national samples over the first ten months of 1998the period following the revelation of the affair between the President and Ms. Lewinskyshow that more than six Americans in ten offer a positive assessment of the Presidents job performance. [source: Richard Brody, Nov. 16, 1998, The Polling Report, The Lewinsky Affair and Popular Support for President Clinton] Brody was correct. For the most part, American's followed the Lewinsky scandal as one would follow the Desperate Housewives saga: addicted but not influenced. It should be noted here that Newt's parents disapproved of his first two marriages. With Jackie (wife #1) it was the age difference. And with wife #2, Marianne? But they had no problems with Calista. What was it that Mom and Dad saw that Newt apparently did not? The bottom line is that this woman, Ms. Battley, has a lot of nerve to be passing judgment on the man with whom she, herself, had an affair. I wonder, though, since we're bringing up pasts, why ABC hasn't bothered to look into Ms. Mariannes' relationship to a gun dealer, a familiarity which caused the FBI to take a closer look at her? From what Newt says, he has had an epiphany. Before running for President, he changed his faith to Catholic (that of his wife, Calista) and determined to change. His ex, Marianne, says that he has yet to ask her forgiveness. Does he have to? He went to God. Somehow, I think God trumps it all.

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