Family man
I have to be honest here, to me this isn't much of a story. Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, a
jerk? You don't say? But I guess we gotta do this thing, so here goes. The latest episode of
Newt Gingrich is a liar and all-around scummy guy:
Newt Gingrich claims that it was his first wife, not Gingrich himself, who wanted their divorce in 1980, but court documents obtained by CNN appear to show otherwise. [...]
On the "Answering the attacks" page of his campaign website, Newt.org, which "(Sets) the Record Straight: Newt's Positions on the Issues and His Record," the campaign discusses Gingrich's first divorce.
"It was (Jackie Gingrich) that requested the divorce, not Newt," the campaign website said, referring readers to an online column written by Gingrich's youngest daughter, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, last May.
The daughter was 13 at the time of this divorce. Apparently Newt believed in child labor even way back then, since he tasked her with remembering all the details of his divorces so that he wouldn't have to talk about them himself, later.
Anyway, CNN dug up the documents in question and, lo and behold, Newt's campaign is once again misremembering things. Go figure.
Newt Gingrich filed a divorce complaint on July 14, 1980, in Carroll County, saying that "the marriage of the parties is irretriebably (sic) broken."
Jackie Battley Gingrich, the congressman's wife and the mother of Jackie Gingrich Cushman, responded by asking the judge to reject her husband's filing.
"Defendant shows that she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce, but that she does not desire one at this time," her petition said.
Then they interviewed people who knew of the divorce, who confirmed Newt was lying. Oh, and that Newt had been stiffing his own children:
"Despite repeated notice to plaintiff and requests by defendant, plaintiff has failed and refused to voluntarily provide reasonable support sufficient to include payment of usual and normal living expenses, including drugs, water, sewage, garbage, gas, electric and telephone service for defendant and the minor children," she said in court documents. "As a result, many of such accounts are two or three months past due with notices of intent to cut off service and gas and electricity."
That's certainly a jackass move, but it's still just in the realm of normal family-values-Republican-refuses-to-support-own-family sort of stuff (cough Joe Walsh cough). No, what we need here is some added touch, something that is just so perfectly jerkish, so spectacularly assholish that it screams "Newt Gingrich." Something profoundly offensive that shows just how devoted Newt is to making sure Newt comes first, and screw everybody else.
Leonard H. "Kip" Carter, a former close Gingrich friend, backed the contention that it was Newt Gingrich who wanted the divorce.
"He (Gingrich) said, 'You know and I know that she's not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of a president,' " Carter, who now lives in South Carolina, told CNN recently, relating the conversation he had with Gingrich the day Gingrich revealed he was filing for divorce. Carter served as treasurer of Gingrich's first congressional campaigns.
Ah. Yep, that'll do it.
3:00 PM PT: For more discussion, see the recommended diary by Craig Hardegree.