Newt Gingrich’s Next Wife?

The volatility of our national election process  – all the reins of which are in the hand of God – was on display once again at Thursday night’s CNN Debate.  Newt Gingrich,  before any other candidate had a chance to speak, won South Carolina in the first 48 seconds of that debate, by excoriating left-wing CNN propagandist John King about his use of the ABC hit-piece interview with Newt’s former (2nd) wife, broadcast earlier the same day.

By Friday, he had surpassed Romney’s formerly strong lead. Saturday he won a 13 point plurality. It was testimony to a spectacularly well-graven image.

Ironically, Newt has just done to the South Carolina voters what he had previously done to Jackie Battley and Marianne Ginther and Callista Bisek. And now, will the Republican Party be  Newt’s fourth wife?

He is brilliant.

Republicans from Point Barrow to Key West stood up and cheered as Gingrich exposed the blatant intervention of CNN, the Washington Post, and ABC to manipulate the Republican nomination process. I did so myself and  not for the first time this year. But Newt Gingrich by his handling of the issue, turned devastating facts crucially relevant to his character upside down to actually help him win a significant primary. Resoundingly.

Newt has entered the Sanctuary of Absolution.

Just the Facts

1962: Newt marries Jackie Battley on June 19. Within 4 years he has two daughters.
1980: Newt meets Marianne Ginther in January.

Choir of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

1980: Jackie and Newt separate in April.
1981: Jackie Battley and Newt Gingrich’s divorce is finalized in February.
1981: Newt marries Marianne Ginther on August 8.
1987: Marianne and Newt separate in June.
1993: Newt and Callista Bisek begin their affair in November.
1993: Marianne and Newt reconcile in late 1993/early 1994.

1997: Newt avoids a full investigation of Congressional ethics violations by a plea bargain where he is merely censured by the House of Representatives.

1998: Newt resigns from leadership and the House on November 5, under Republican pressure.

1999: May: Marianne discovers Newt’s 6 year affair with Callista Bisek and they separate again.

1999: Marianne and Newt reach a divorce settlement.
2000: Marianne and Newt’s divorce is finalized in April.
2000: Newt marries Callista in August.

2000: Newt begins attending mass at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C to hear his wife sing in the choir. She is a paid cathedral musician.

2007: Anticipating possible entry into the 2008 Presidential race, Newt gives a radio interview to James Dobson in March penitently admitting to cheating on his first two wives.

2009: Newt is confirmed a Roman Catholic and claims the experience has made him “a different man.”

2011: Exactly four years to the month after the Dobson interview, anticipating possible entry into the 2012 Presidential race, Newt gives a taped interview to Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcast Network penitently admitting to cheating on his first two wives.

From the Dobson interview:

“There were times when I was praying and when I felt I was doing things that were wrong. But I was still doing them…”

“There are things in my own life that I have gotten on my knees and turned to God and prayed about…”

From the CBN interview:

“And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn’t trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them,” Gingrich said. “I found that I felt compelled to seek God’s forgiveness.”
Please note that in the Dobson mea culpa Newt simply says there were “things” that he “prayed about,” but Dobson obligingly concluded that he had “repented” of his adulteries. In the CBN mea culpa Newt says he felt “compelled” to seek “God’s forgiveness,” but does not actually claim to have done so.

Newt does not, in either interview to the Evangelical Media Giants, to Dobson or to CBN make any mention of Catholic influence in his pursuit of spiritual amnesty.

Callista Bisek Gingrich, Newt’s announced “guide” into Catholicism, his second known adultery and third wife, told CBN,  ”I have always been a very spiritual person…I start each day with a prayer, and pray throughout the day, because I am grateful for the many blessings that God has bestowed upon us.” This “always” presumably includes the six years during which she carried on secret adultery with Newt and on Sundays sang at Mass.

I’m sure Callista has a beautiful voice. I’m even more sure it cannot possibly match the levels of political skill Newt displays in his personal re-inventions.