Golden Oldies: Newt and the “cancer bed divorce” myth

[paperview]

I had a friend make the usual observation, via urban legend as to the infamous 'cancer bed divorce'. he said he read it at Salon.com....well, as usual the story its a bit more complicated and not quite as cut and dried as that pejorative blurb makes it sound.

Newt has political issues in several areas, and he will have to answer for them, but, their daughter doesn't seem to see this issue he way say Salon, abc cbs nbc cnn msnbc et al let on.

*shrugs* her account;

For years, I have thought about trying to correct the untrue accounts of this hospital visit. After all, I was at the hospital with them, and saw and heard what happened. But I have always hesitated, as it was a private family matter and my mother is a very private person. In addition, for the four people involved, it was one of a million interactions and was not considered a defining event by any of us.

My mother and I have both recently run into quite a few people who hold an inaccurate understanding of this hospital visit. Many think my mother is dead.

So, to correct the record, here is what happened: My mother, Jackie Battley Gingrich, is very much alive, and often spends time with my family. I am lucky to have such a “Miracle Mom,” as I titled her in a column this week.

As for my parents’ divorce, I can remember when they told me.

It was the spring of 1980.

I was 13 years old, and we were about to leave Fairfax, Va., and drive to Carrollton, Ga., for the summer. My parents told my sister and me that they were getting a divorce as our family of four sat around the kitchen table of our ranch home.

Soon afterward, my mom, sister and I got into our light-blue Chevrolet Impala and drove back to Carrollton.

Later that summer, Mom went to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for surgery to remove a tumor. While she was there, Dad took my sister and me to see her.

It is this visit that has turned into the infamous hospital visit about which many untruths have been told. I won’t repeat them. You can look them up online if you are interested in untruths. But here’s what happened:

My mother and father were already in the process of getting a divorce, which she requested.

Dad took my sister and me to the hospital to see our mother.

She had undergone surgery the day before to remove a tumor.

The tumor was benign.

As with many divorces, it was hard and painful for all involved, but life continued.

Setting the Record Straight by Jackie Gingrich Cushman on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

hat tip Hot Air for the title

Marianne Ginther Gingrich was visiting her childhood home in Ohio in early May to celebrate her mother's 84th birthday when her husband phoned. After offering birthday wishes to his mother-in-law, Gingrich asked to speak to his wife. Virginia Ginther soon found her daughter in tears.

"I said, 'Marianne, what's wrong?'‚" Ginther recalled yesterday. She said Marianne replied: "He doesn't want me as his wife anymore."

There was a second jolt soon after. Newt Gingrich, now 56, informed his wife that he was having an affair with a congressional aide, a woman 23 years his junior, Ginther said.

"I was totally shocked," Marianne Gingrich, 48, said yesterday in an interview from her home in Marietta, Ga. "I had no idea."

Washingtonpost.com: How and What Newt Told Marianne

Debunk this.

Oops.

Oops is right.

The bumpy marriage relationship of Newt and Marianne was first noticed when the couple separated in June 1987. After having separate residences for six years, Newt and Marianne reportedly reconciled.

"He [Thomas Browning] said the Gingriches maintained separate residences for six years before reconciling in late 1993 or early 1994."
Source: AP. "Gingrich reveals 6-year separation in latest filing for his divorce." Marysville Journal-Tribune. Marysville, Ohio. 8/31/1999. pg. 3.

Marianne and Newt separated again on May 10, 1999 and Newt filed for divorce on July 29, 1999.

Doesn't sound like much of a surprise to me................

Marianne Ginther and Newt Gingrich Marriage Profile -- Marriage of Newt Gingrich and Marianne Ginther

That was the second wife he was cheating on.

Let's not get all his affairs mixed up now...

 

[AmericanFirst]

Well, with any luck this story won't prevent Newt from getting the nomination.

Yeah because we need some sense in the white house, unlike the nonsense in there now.

America will not elect a corrupt pasty faced fat toad president. We're not that insane yet.

You elected a big eared lying socialist kenyan. You are that stupid.

 

[paperview]

That's because it is fact. Newt's daughter can't change that fact.

You really have to be kidding me..... Read your sources.. Look at who you are depending on for truth. And then call his daughter a liar?

"according to Esquire." Esquire? Really? They know more than someone who was there?

Super fail.............

His daughter is calling her mother a liar.

That's pretty shitty.

 

[Lakhota]

That's because it is fact. Newt's daughter can't change that fact.

You really have to be kidding me..... Read your sources.. Look at who you are depending on for truth. And then call his daughter a liar?

"according to Esquire." Esquire? Really? They know more than someone who was there?

Super fail.............

His daughter is calling her mother a liar.

That's pretty shitty.

The daughter has visions of the White House... like her daddy... so what's a little lie...

 

[paperview]

You really have to be kidding me..... Read your sources.. Look at who you are depending on for truth. And then call his daughter a liar?

"according to Esquire." Esquire? Really? They know more than someone who was there?

Super fail.............

His daughter is calling her mother a liar.

That's pretty shitty.

The daughter has visions of the White House... like her daddy... so what's a little lie...

This new revision by his daughter (and what wingers have been pulling out of late) goes against the history of what happened, and the fact that all these years Gingrich has not denied what his wife has said.

Jackie: "He can say that we had been talking about it [divorce] for 10 years, but the truth is that it came as a complete surprise."
Source: Gail Sheehy. "The Inner Quest of Newt Gingrich." Vanity Fair. 9/1995. Pbs.org.

He's very good at enlisting the help of his family, even as he stabs them in the back.
Not to be forgotten is the fact this family values guy was a deadbeat dad.

[FONT=times, times new roman] "In his make-or-break 1978 race, Gingrich enlisted Jackie to attack his female opponent, who had announced that if elected she would commute to Washington and allow her family to remain in Georgia. At Gingrich's instigation, Jackie wrote a campaign letter declaring that Newt was a fine husband and would take his family with him, although his top aides already knew Gingrich was having affairs and the marriage was falling apart. [/FONT]

[FONT=times, times new roman] The most notorious incident in Gingrich's marriage -- first reported by David Osborne in Mother Jones magazine in 1984 -- was when he cornered Jackie in her hospital room where she was recovering from uterine cancer surgery and insisted on discussing the terms of the divorce he was seeking. [/FONT]

Shortly after that infamous encounter, Gingrich refused to pay his alimony and child-support payments. The First Baptist Church in his hometown had to take up a collection to support the family Gingrich had deserted[FONT=times, times new roman]. [/FONT]"
​

[FONT=times, times new roman]
[/FONT][FONT=times, times new roman][FONT=times, times new roman][SIZE=+2]Newt's glass house [/SIZE][/FONT][/FONT][FONT=times, times new roman]
[/FONT]

 

[paperview]

I think the deadbeat dad part is the most disgusting part of Newt's history.

Quote:
"The divorce turned much of Carrollton against Gingrich. Jackie was well loved by the townspeople, who knew how hard she had worked to get him elected-as she had worked before to put him through college and raise his children.

To make matters worse, Jackie had undergone surgery for cancer of the uterus during the 1978 campaign, a fact Gingrich was not loath to use in conversations or speeches that year. After the separation in 1980, she had to be operated on again, to remove another tumor While she was still in the hospital, according to Howell, "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," Howell says, "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."

People in Carrollton were particularly incensed by the fact that Jackie was left in difficult financial straits during the separation, after her surgery.

According to Lee Howell, friends in her congregation had to raise money to help her and the children make ends meet, and Jackie finally had to go to court for adequate support, before the divorce decree. In his financial statement, Gingrich reported providing only $400 a month, plus $40 in allowances for his daughters. He claimed not to be able to afford any more. But in citing his own expenses, Gingrich listed $400 just for "Food/dry cleaning, etc."—for one person. The judge quickly ordered him to provide considerably more. When an article on the hearing appeared in the local paper, many in town were incensed. On election day, a few weeks later, Gingrich's winning margin in Carroll County fell from 66 percent in 1978 to 51 percent."
Newt Gingrich: Shining Knight of the Post-Reagan Right | Mother Jones

There's no way you can spin that, wingnuts. That's part of public record. And it puts him in with the lowest of skanks

 

[geauxtohell]

Regardless of when, where, who and how, divorces are always troubling. It's not like getting a divorce is a thing that doesn't happen in America often, every day. Why is Newt's divorce even an issue in the political world? Everybody has skeletons in their closet. I'm just sitting back waiting for Romney's to start rattling the doors.

Because the right has made people's personal lives fair games.

You guys should shed yourselves of the religious right and then get back to us on your high horses.

As it stands, no one is buying your outrage that only follows party lines.

I hope you're joking.... Both fucking sides behave like the Morality Police - until it's one of their team that gets caught.

I've lost count of the times that each side has mocked the other for the same behavior they defend from their own. Hence both side make me cringe.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho6pZqUNtko]Faith No More - We Care A Lot - Live in London 1990 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[California Girl]

Never called the woman a liar, but there are always two sides to every story. Though the basic facts may be the same, the stories are different.

Ask two troops what happened during a firefight they were in and only 20 feet apart from each other and I promise you will get 2 different stories, add a third troop to the mix and you will get a third version.

People will always look at things differently and will always see things more the way they want them to be.....

You should know this rdean you are an expert at believing that the truth is what you want it to be......

There are always at least three versions of any story. Yours, mine, the truth. People see things differently, remember things differently.

Do I care whether what happened between Newt and his ex-wife? No. Do I care that he's part of a dishonest and corrupt political system? Yes.

 

[JoeB131]

Newt Gingrich’s Second Wife Dishes Hard To Esquire: His Money Woes, His Philandering, His Meltdown

By Megan Carpentier

Before marrying Marianne, Gingrich presented his first wife, Jackie Battley, with the terms of their divorce as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from surgery for uterine cancer. Gingrich had pursued Marianne from nearly the moment they met at a January 1980 fundraiser:

She told him about the local economic decline, he said somebody needed to save the country. She said that he couldn’t do it alone, he asked about her plans for the future. Even then, he was making rash pronouncements that reasonable people made fun of, such as that he would be the next Republican Speaker of the House.

They kept the conversation going on the phone, often talking late into the night. Although he was still married to Jackie, Gingrich told Marianne they were in counseling and talking about divorce.​

Of course, they weren’t. In April 1980, only one day after Jackie’s surgery, Newt went to her room to present her with the terms of the divorce. That summer, he introduced Marianne to his parents, according to Esquire. By October, he was already refusing to pay alimony or child support. Marianne admits she knew little of that at first.

At first, she had no idea that the wife he was divorcing was actually his high school geometry teacher, or that he went to the hospital to present her with divorce terms while she was recovering from uterine cancer and then fought the case so hard, Jackie had to get a court order just to pay her utility bills. Gingrich told her the story a little at a time, trusting her with things that nobody else knew — to this day, for example, the official story is that he started dating Jackie when he was eighteen and she was twenty-five. But he was really just sixteen, she says.

More: Newt Gingrich’s Second Wife Dishes Hard To Esquire: His Money Woes, His Philandering, His Meltdown | TPMMuckraker

I love when people who defend serial rapist bill Clinton are SOOOOOOO Upset that Newt got two divorces.

Half the marriages in this country end in divorce... Sorry, it just happens that way.

I don't want a guy who's going to be a great husband, I want a guy who is going to take on and fix the problems.

And that guy is not Obama or Romney, tools of Wall Street.

 

[JoeB131]

I think the deadbeat dad part is the most disgusting part of Newt's history.

There's no way you can spin that, wingnuts. That's part of public record. And it puts him in with the lowest of skanks

NO, it just means he had a contentious divorce.

I've seen guys who've been absolutely taken to the cleaners by "that woman you never should have married to start with". And they all pour on the waterworks at trial. It's an awful system that screws over the men, really.

Point is, he won in 1982 (which was actually a bad year for Republicans overall) and he won the 8 elections that followed before stepping down after the GOP lost some seats in 1998.

 

[Trajan]

I had a friend make the usual observation, via urban legend as to the infamous 'cancer bed divorce'. he said he read it at Salon.com....well, as usual the story its a bit more complicated and not quite as cut and dried as that pejorative blurb makes it sound.

Newt has political issues in several areas, and he will have to answer for them, but, their daughter doesn't seem to see this issue he way say Salon, abc cbs nbc cnn msnbc et al let on.

*shrugs* her account;

For years, I have thought about trying to correct the untrue accounts of this hospital visit. After all, I was at the hospital with them, and saw and heard what happened. But I have always hesitated, as it was a private family matter and my mother is a very private person. In addition, for the four people involved, it was one of a million interactions and was not considered a defining event by any of us.

My mother and I have both recently run into quite a few people who hold an inaccurate understanding of this hospital visit. Many think my mother is dead.

So, to correct the record, here is what happened: My mother, Jackie Battley Gingrich, is very much alive, and often spends time with my family. I am lucky to have such a “Miracle Mom,” as I titled her in a column this week.

As for my parents’ divorce, I can remember when they told me.

It was the spring of 1980.

I was 13 years old, and we were about to leave Fairfax, Va., and drive to Carrollton, Ga., for the summer. My parents told my sister and me that they were getting a divorce as our family of four sat around the kitchen table of our ranch home.

Soon afterward, my mom, sister and I got into our light-blue Chevrolet Impala and drove back to Carrollton.

Later that summer, Mom went to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for surgery to remove a tumor. While she was there, Dad took my sister and me to see her.

It is this visit that has turned into the infamous hospital visit about which many untruths have been told. I won’t repeat them. You can look them up online if you are interested in untruths. But here’s what happened:

My mother and father were already in the process of getting a divorce, which she requested.

Dad took my sister and me to the hospital to see our mother.

She had undergone surgery the day before to remove a tumor.

The tumor was benign.

As with many divorces, it was hard and painful for all involved, but life continued.

Setting the Record Straight by Jackie Gingrich Cushman on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

hat tip Hot Air for the title

I posted the entire thing a few days ago. It can't be posted enough. It is important that the truth be told. Important to those seeking it, that is....

sorry AA, I tried searching newt cancer and didn't see it.my bad.

 

[Seawytch]

That was the second wife he was cheating on.

Let's not get all his affairs mixed up now...

A program...we need a program. How can you keep all the players straight without a program?

Remember, it was all because he's so patriotic that he had to cheat. Newt and his patriotic penis strikes!

 

[NYcarbineer]

I'm literally on the edge of my seat, on pins and needles, in anticipaton of what Newt is going to look like when the makeover is finished!!!

This should be a show on Bravo!

 

[JoeB131]

That was the second wife he was cheating on.

Let's not get all his affairs mixed up now...

A program...we need a program. How can you keep all the players straight without a program?

Remember, it was all because he's so patriotic that he had to cheat. Newt and his patriotic penis strikes!

That was a dumb thing to say.

So was Obama's comments about "bitter clingers".

They're politicians. They are all a little sociopathic. The sane people get weeded out of politics in HS and College Student Councils. Only the real psychoes keep doing it.

But I ask again, to paraphrase what you guys said about Clinton. How does his personal life really effect his ability to do his job?

 

[Truthmatters]

I had a friend make the usual observation, via urban legend as to the infamous 'cancer bed divorce'. he said he read it at Salon.com....well, as usual the story its a bit more complicated and not quite as cut and dried as that pejorative blurb makes it sound.

Newt has political issues in several areas, and he will have to answer for them, but, their daughter doesn't seem to see this issue he way say Salon, abc cbs nbc cnn msnbc et al let on.

*shrugs* her account;

For years, I have thought about trying to correct the untrue accounts of this hospital visit. After all, I was at the hospital with them, and saw and heard what happened. But I have always hesitated, as it was a private family matter and my mother is a very private person. In addition, for the four people involved, it was one of a million interactions and was not considered a defining event by any of us.

My mother and I have both recently run into quite a few people who hold an inaccurate understanding of this hospital visit. Many think my mother is dead.

So, to correct the record, here is what happened: My mother, Jackie Battley Gingrich, is very much alive, and often spends time with my family. I am lucky to have such a “Miracle Mom,” as I titled her in a column this week.

As for my parents’ divorce, I can remember when they told me.

It was the spring of 1980.

I was 13 years old, and we were about to leave Fairfax, Va., and drive to Carrollton, Ga., for the summer. My parents told my sister and me that they were getting a divorce as our family of four sat around the kitchen table of our ranch home.

Soon afterward, my mom, sister and I got into our light-blue Chevrolet Impala and drove back to Carrollton.

Later that summer, Mom went to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for surgery to remove a tumor. While she was there, Dad took my sister and me to see her.

It is this visit that has turned into the infamous hospital visit about which many untruths have been told. I won’t repeat them. You can look them up online if you are interested in untruths. But here’s what happened:

My mother and father were already in the process of getting a divorce, which she requested.

Dad took my sister and me to the hospital to see our mother.

She had undergone surgery the day before to remove a tumor.

The tumor was benign.

As with many divorces, it was hard and painful for all involved, but life continued.

Setting the Record Straight by Jackie Gingrich Cushman on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

hat tip Hot Air for the title

The first wife is on record saying it.

She has not retracted the statement.

Newt just draws attention to his failed marriages when we lies like this

 

[Seawytch]

That was the second wife he was cheating on.

Let's not get all his affairs mixed up now...

A program...we need a program. How can you keep all the players straight without a program?

Remember, it was all because he's so patriotic that he had to cheat. Newt and his patriotic penis strikes!

That was a dumb thing to say.

So was Obama's comments about "bitter clingers".

They're politicians. They are all a little sociopathic. The sane people get weeded out of politics in HS and College Student Councils. Only the real psychoes keep doing it.

But I ask again, to paraphrase what you guys said about Clinton. How does his personal life really effect his ability to do his job?

What was a dumb thing to say? That you need a program to keep track of Newt's multiple wives or that Newt blames his infidelity on patriotism?

Both are true...

I do believe that Bill Clinton's infidelity affected his ability to do his job...mostly because the patriot Penis Newt tried to impeach him over it.

(it also speaks to his integrity..both Clinton's and Newts)

Of course, if Hillary knew about Bill's multiple affairs...well, that's a horse of a different color.

 

[Full-Auto]

A program...we need a program. How can you keep all the players straight without a program?

Remember, it was all because he's so patriotic that he had to cheat. Newt and his patriotic penis strikes!

That was a dumb thing to say.

So was Obama's comments about "bitter clingers".

They're politicians. They are all a little sociopathic. The sane people get weeded out of politics in HS and College Student Councils. Only the real psychoes keep doing it.

But I ask again, to paraphrase what you guys said about Clinton. How does his personal life really effect his ability to do his job?

What was a dumb thing to say? That you need a program to keep track of Newt's multiple wives or that Newt blames his infidelity on patriotism?

Both are true...

I do believe that Bill Clinton's infidelity affected his ability to do his job...mostly because the patriot Penis Newt tried to impeach him over it.

(it also speaks to his integrity..both Clinton's and Newts)

Of course, if Hillary knew about Bill's multiple affairs...well, that's a horse of a different color.

They were after the Savings and Loan culprits. The fact some would sit in jail rather then talk was quite revealing. Bill appreciated it.

 

[Truthmatters]

Newt will have to get his Ex wife to say she lied all those years ago to get traction on this one.

Aint going to happen.

He highlights his infidelity every time he brings this subject up.

 

[SFC Ollie]

A program...we need a program. How can you keep all the players straight without a program?

Remember, it was all because he's so patriotic that he had to cheat. Newt and his patriotic penis strikes!

That was a dumb thing to say.

So was Obama's comments about "bitter clingers".

They're politicians. They are all a little sociopathic. The sane people get weeded out of politics in HS and College Student Councils. Only the real psychoes keep doing it.

But I ask again, to paraphrase what you guys said about Clinton. How does his personal life really effect his ability to do his job?

What was a dumb thing to say? That you need a program to keep track of Newt's multiple wives or that Newt blames his infidelity on patriotism?

Both are true...

I do believe that Bill Clinton's infidelity affected his ability to do his job...mostly because the patriot Penis Newt tried to impeach him over it.

(it also speaks to his integrity..both Clinton's and Newts)

Of course, if Hillary knew about Bill's multiple affairs...well, that's a horse of a different color.

Oh come on now, Hilary was billed as the smartest woman in America, she had to know.

 

[paperview]

That was the second wife he was cheating on.

Let's not get all his affairs mixed up now...

A program...we need a program. How can you keep all the players straight without a program?

Remember, it was all because he's so patriotic that he had to cheat. Newt and his patriotic penis strikes!

Many politicians saaaay they love this country, but few have the strength to admit to the U.S. they want to take it in the back room, hike up its redwhite&blue skirt, grab those majestic mountains and spill liberty all across her fruited plains.