Well, I’m behind the curve again — when Politico posted this:
Callista Gingrich moves to spotlight
The first word from Newt Gingrich at his announcement last week that he would explore a presidential campaign was “Callista.”
Callista Gingrich is, literally, in the foreground of her husband’s new campaign website, over which her beaming blonde visage looms as large as his. The former speaker’s wife co-signs his organization’s e-mails, produces his movies, appears beside him on Fox News, and even reads his work for audio-book adaptations – but she has maintained such a low profile over a decade in their marriage that she remains an enigma even to some of his closest supporters.
She is, ironically, simultaneously the most public and the least known of the political partners bracing for the scrutiny of a presidential campaign. In eleven years of marriage, Callista Gingrich has never been the subject of a profile. Gingrich’s aides declined to make her available to POLITICO for an interview, to talk about her or the marriage on the record or on background, or even to suggest friends who might offer a glimpse of the would-be First Lady….
… I’m like, Callista? Wasn’t she that chick on that TV show I never watched, the one that everyone talked about being so disturbingly thin?
Apparently not.
But who she IS is a matter of some concern, especially since it looks like Newt’s going to be the latest candidate offering us a “twofer” (which, whether it’s Bill and Hillary or Mark and Jenny or whatever, generally tends to make me uncomfortable, seeing as how one of them isn’t actually elected) and so little is known about her.
For instance, is she Wife 3? Or Wife 4? With Newt, you need a scorecard.
Since she is … let me check … as much younger than Newt as my oldest child is than I (was that last bit grammatically correct? hey, don’t ask me to diagram it), she will no doubt invite comparisons to Jeri Thompson (not to be confused with Mick Jagger’s Jeri, for whom he foolishly overthrew Bianca), who as it happens was born the same year. Although I think she actually looks more like Cindy McCain.
OK, that’s more musing than I usually do on candidates’ wives. But I wanted to get something up for running to some meetings, so there…
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Brad, you always like to talk about what a great thing bipartisan cooperation would be. Here’s a great example of bi-partisan cooperation that has really created a serious, and unnecesary stink. This is an excerpt from an article about the decision not to allow Frank Buckles to lie in state:
“Buckles and his generation deserve the last extraordinary sign of respect that was suggested in a House resolution authored by Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. House Speaker John Boehner took the initial heat for denying Buckles that honor, but he has been joined by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. It could be called a bipartisan example of narrow thinking. Boehner, R-Ohio, and Reid, D-Nev., are seeking Pentagon permission to conduct ceremonies in the amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, where Buckles will be buried. They need no one’s permission to honor Buckles and his generation in the Rotunda.”
Newt is playing the new political game where you announce an exploratory committee, dupe a.bunch of idiots to donate, spend all the money promoting yourself, lose badly (if you run at all), then go back to Fox News. At least Romney is willing to spend his own money.
Gingrich has ZERO chance of being president.
Here’s a Slate article on Callista.
http://www.slate.com/id/2287191/pagenum/all/
In it: According to Newt’s first wife, to whom he was married when he met the second Mrs. Gingrich, he brought up divorce terms while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery.
Ouch!
Per Wikipedia
“Personal life
Gingrich has been married three times. In 1962, he married Jackie Battley, his former high school geometry teacher, when he was 19 years old and she was 26.[87][88] They had two daughters. In the spring of 1980, Gingrich left Battley after having an affair with Marianne Ginther.[89][90] According to Battley, Gingrich visited her while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery to discuss the details of their divorce. However, Gingrich disputes the account.[69] Six months after the divorce was final, Gingrich wed Ginther in 1981.[91][92]
In the mid-1990s, Gingrich began an affair with House of Representatives staffer Callista Bisek, who is 23 years his junior; they continued their affair during the Lewinsky scandal.[93] In 2000, Gingrich married Bisek shortly after his divorce from second wife Ginther. He and Callista currently live in McLean, Virginia.[94]”
Doug, I think you’re right about Newt’s chances. I suspect that he’s still talked about because he has done such a good job rehabilitating himself among what George Will is pleased to call the “chattering classes.” And since those are the MSM gatekeepers, we keep hearing about Newt. Out in the regular public, he’s made less of an impression, but I get the sense that among “players,” he’s been successful at becoming known, since leaving office, as a thoughtful commenter on the passing parade.
I went to that link that Ralph provided, and was interesting to see that The Washington Post went ahead and sewed Hester Prynne’s big, red “A” on Newt, including this phrase in the LEDE of a profile: “… an admission of adultery….”
Hmmm… I had thought it was the SECOND wife whom he dumped on her hospital bed. Shows how little effort I put into keeping up with the gossip.
OK, so this is his THIRD wife. Now we know the score.
On the upside, I find from that same Wikipedia article, Callista got him to convert to Catholicism.
So it’s all cool now. I mean, to convert, you’ve gotta go to confession at least ONCE. With Newt, the confessor could have Googled him ahead of time, and instead of Newt bringing the laundry list, the priest would have been in a position to say, “Hold on; you’re forgetting item No. 5 back in the mid-90s…”
I probably shouldn’t speculate about what went on in the confessional… but what do we converts know?
Actually, this whole line of inquiry is unseemly. I just don’t know why these spouses have to be thrust to the fore, anyway. I guess it’s a function of both public expectations and the kind of women (and men, but this is mainly a wife phenomenon — political husbands seem to usually, although not always, fade into the background) who marry politicians.
If I were crazy enough (which is how my wife would characterize it) to run for office, she’d probably tell me I was on my own; she wouldn’t want to have anything to do with it. It’s impossible for me to imagine her sitting up there on a platform with the obligatory Stepford Wife grin…
Is it sweeps week in the blogosphere?
I think that everyone has long since operated under the impression that Newt is a dirtbag, no? Sadly, Kathryn brought up something I didn’t care to know: Newt had been having sex with his high school teacher – and then married her. Surely that sent him off in the wrong direction; is it any wonder that he just wanted out of that later on?
I feel like I need to be fumigated now – thanks y’all!
Doug, you are so right! I don’t think I’ve ever said that.
Brad, Nancy Reagan has the patent on the adoring gaze. Ask your wife to practice it. (Let me know how that works out for you.)
Hey, if I’d been having sex with one of my teachers in high school (that is, if it were one of two or three I have in mind, such as that young blonde substitute I persuaded the other guys in my class to refer to as “Hotlips”), I would have been really insufferable. The quarterback of the football team would have seemed like a shy, retiring wallflower compared to me. That is to say, I’d have been even MORE insufferable than I actually was at that age.
So maybe that helps to explain Newt.
Wow, that Sistine Chapel thing is WAY cool. Ha! I’ll bet the protestants don’t have an app for THAT.
And was Tama our quarterback? I confess I never went to any football games, and I don’t think I knew him. I’m sorry to hear of his untimely demise — and not just because he was one of us. (Here he is back when we graduated, folks, thanks to Burl’s Virtual Yearbook.)
I WAS familiar with the starters on our state-champion basketball team (the “Skinny Haoles,” as they were called by a trash-talking representative of Kamehameha before the big game). I actually thought about citing, say, Jim Van Ness for my hypothetical BMOC comparison, but then Burl would be the only one to have gotten it…
Speaking of high school quarterbacks:
http://obits.staradvertiser.com/2011/03/02/tama-kavika-isaia-2/
And speaking of the Catholic Church (use your mouse to navigate):
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html