Newt Gingrich's Ex Speaks Out

Newt Gingrich's Ex Speaks Out, And It's Ugly
Amoral, bigoted Newt Gingrich is the subject of a new Esquire profile in which his second wife (he's on the third now) dishes about their 2000 divorce. Shorter version: Newt Gingrich is a special kind of asshole.

Gingrich finally admitted what everyone already knew, a couple of years ago: He had been having an affair on his second wife, Marianne, during the Clinton impeachment hearings, while speaking out about Republicans being the party of family values. Newt had also cheated on his first wife and discussed divorce terms with her while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery.

Marianne Gingrich agreed to be interviewed for this new Esquire feature about Newt's life, which is pretty rare. Apparently Newt had asked her to "tolerate" the affair he'd been having. Ugh:

He wanted to talk in person, he said.

"I said, 'No, we need to talk now.' "

He went quiet.

"There's somebody else, isn't there?"

She kind of guessed it, of course. Women usually do. But did she know the woman was in her apartment, eating off her plates, sleeping in her bed?

She called a minister they both trusted. He came over to the house the next day and worked with them the whole weekend, but Gingrich just kept saying she was a Jaguar and all he wanted was a Chevrolet. " 'I can't handle a Jaguar right now.' He said that many times. 'All I want is a Chevrolet.' "

He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.

He'd just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he'd given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.

The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, "How do you give that speech and do what you're doing?"

"It doesn't matter what I do," he answered. "People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live."

Yeah, divorce was probably a good idea. Even the whole cheating/asshole aspect aside, who'd want to be married to someone who uses a car-fucking metaphor to describe anything?