Eye On Newt

"Unlike a subpoena, divorce papers aren’t typically “served."  Wash Post's Paul Farhi "Aspects of Gingrich divorce story distorted" revising the oft-repeated tale of how Newt Gingrich slapped his then-wife, Jackie, with divorce papers while she was recovering from cancer surgery at a DC hospital in 1980. Newt had already met wife #2 Marianne in January 1980.

Really?  I love the 1980s story about another congressional spouse served divorce papers hand-delivered by the husband's press secretary who pressed the envelope into the lady's hand claiming it was her boss's weekend schedule.

Dorian Gray Newt unveiling Official Portrait in 2000.

Newt, elected to Congress in 1978, and Jackie's marriage fell apart shortly after they moved to DC.  In 1984 Newt's press secretary, Lee Howell, told Mother Jones' David Osborne:  "Newt came up there with his yellow legal pad, and he had a list of things on how the divorce was going to be handled. He wanted her to sign it. She was still recovering from surgery, still sort of out of it, and he comes in with a yellow sheet of paper, handwritten, and wants her to sign it.  . . . Newt can handle political problems, but when it comes to personal problems, he's a disaster. He handled the divorce like he did any other political decision: You've got to be tough in this business, you've got to be hard. Once you make the decision you've got to act on it. Cut your losses and move on."

Newt and Callista

The Newt divorce spin machine began working full tilt boogie earlier this year to soften the Jackie story.  No matter the spin, it happened just like Howell said. It took two more marriages before Newt landed the perfect political wife while still married to wife #2 to whom he broke the divorce news by phone on Mother's Day 1999 a few months after she got out of the hospital.

Marianne lasted 18 years.

Wash Post's Farhi also wrote a 1999 piece on Newt blindsiding his second wife, Marianne.  Last year hell hath no fury Marianne dished to Esquire.











Update: Newt's addressing the above and other fables on a new website, prompting a Jim Rutenberg NYT piece:

NYT