By now, everyone's heard that Newtie's ex-wife is gonna finally spill that Newt wanted a formal "open marriage," rather than go on the DL for his side nookie.
This won't affect any sane person's opinion of Newt. Anyone who's paying attention knows that Newtie wants a de facto open marriage anyways. But it will kill Newt for the same reason that Cain's affair killed him.
Conservatives are often accused of not understanding consent. I disagree. They understand it just fine; they're just opposed to it. As long as Cain was accused of violent sexual assault, he was supporting the Patriarchy, and the voters loved him. But as soon as he entered into a loving and relatively equal long-term relationship, that was the end of him.
Newt's going to have the same issue. Nobody cares if he sleeps around, as long as he keeps up the most minimal of appearances. But the moment Gingrich treats his wife with respect, and tries to work with her in an open, honest fashion . . . yeah, no. The problem isn't that Newt wanted an "open marriage." The problem was that he was willing to let his wife decline the invitation.
But one thing that won't happen, under any circumstances, is an open, honest conversation about how adult human beings who love one another can work together to get each other's needs met. Conservatives are simply too inherently disposed to cruelty and lies to be willing to participate.