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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Open Thread: Mrs. Newt’s Ambitions

Open Thread: Mrs. Newt’s Ambitions

by Anne Laurie|  January 20, 20124:42 pm| 167 Comments

This post is in: Election 2012, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity

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(Matt Davies via GoComics.com)

Is it just me, or does it seem that Marianne Gingrich’s discussion with ABC of her ex-husband’s “grandiose” ambitions may just possibly have some relationship to the recent media-fluffing of her replacement? The traditional political media, as per the New Yorker’s recent article on “The Good Wife“, can’t seem to decide whether Callista is Lady MacBeth, as played by Joan Collins in her highest-camp Dynasty mode…

… “Newt does things for her,” Rick Tyler, a former Gingrich campaign spokesman, told me. “He never played golf before Callista was around, even though that’s what you do as a politician, but he plays now, because she does. You would never find him at the Kennedy Center at the opera, but now he’s a member.” In New Hampshire, Gingrich described having his wife on the campaign trail as “extraordinary—it’s like everything else about hanging out with her.” He added, “If she wasn’t with me, who would fix my hair in the morning?”…
__
According to current and previous staff members and friends, Mrs. Gingrich wields a great deal of decision-making power. Of the notorious Greek cruise, one former Gingrich strategist told me, “She said, ‘Either go on this vacation or we’re done.’ ” There were rules, he said, about “how many nights he could be away and what time he had to be home for dinner—which led to a huge abuse of private planes which we could not afford. There’s a sense that, I’m not gonna have a third failed marriage.”

… or just a devout Christianist tootsie from America’s Heartland(tm), a throwback to a simpler time:

… In the unlikely event that Callista Gingrich did become First Lady, she would be unusually well suited for the position. She is good with children, bending down to touch their hands in Manchester, hoisting them onto her lap to meet her elephant at Mount Vernon. She told me that if she were First Lady she would focus on promoting music education—precisely the kind of uncontroversial passion that plays well with everyone, like Laura Bush’s crusade against illiteracy. She has an old-fashioned politeness that borders on primness, and she ends many interactions with the words “God bless.” Throughout his political career, Newt Gingrich has tried to summon voters’ nostalgia for a bygone and probably imaginary America; he has spoken longingly of the kind of small Midwestern town where “a lot of Norman Rockwell still exists.” Callista is from that place.
__
She does not seem like a forty-five-year-old, or at least not like a forty-five-year-old of this era. She has the style and smile of an astronaut’s wife, even in her downtime. Once, in Cedar Rapids, I happened to run into her in the women’s bathroom at the airport. In her suit and pearls, with her stiff coiffure, she looked as if she had just exited a beauty parlor in 1962…

That particular reference did jog an image loose in my memory, though — and it may even have something to do with the question as to why Gingrich has perservered despite all setbacks with a campaign that most political observers assumed was just an elaborate scam for expensing his latest book tour and the Gingrich brand. Callista, gods help us all, wants to be Jackie Kennedy. She sees herself in a tasteful Chanel-knockoff suit, standing with a ladylike Mona Lisa smile just behind and to the right of her First Gentleman, improving the tone at the White House with refined PBS-style classical concerts (where, unlike that spoilt rich kid Zhack-leen, Callista can perform her own French horn solo). Even her peculiar hairstyle — that well-lacquered “swoop” over one eye — is an interpretation of Jackie’s famous early-1960s hairdo.

Well, it’s an ambition that fits nicely with the overall theme of her husband’s, and his fellow Republicans’, campaign. Kennedy’s election, at the time, was marketed as a “New Frontier” where the country was going to discard its old prejudices and work to enfranchise all Americans. The current batch of Republicans, with Newt honking at the front of the mob, pretends we’d all be happier if we could just reverse fifty years of social progress and return to a mythical era when straight white upper-middle-class GOP daddies ruled the globe, and the rest of us knew our place. Let’s hope that getting shellacked harder than Callista’s hair-helmet will end the widespread public fluffing of that particular ugly little fantasy…

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167Comments

  1. 1.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 20, 2012 at 4:46 pm

    I’ve got news for Callista. A Disney anamatronic Jackie Kennedy would be a lot more lifelike than her.

  2. 2.

    Kathy in St. Louis

    January 20, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    I love that the article on Callista makes her out to be just a simple girl from the midwest with the manners and interests like days of old. That would all play pretty well if she hadn’t been sleeping with someone’s husband for years on end. I also am not so sure that she wants him home by a certain hour and so few nights apart because she loves him so much as the fact that she knows him and that he’s probably stray if she didn’t keep her eye peeled.

    I don’t care about this guys number of marriages. I’m more interested in exactly when it got to be okay to go after someone else’s husband and then play the vestal virgin to an eager media.

  3. 3.

    Brachiator

    January 20, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    And since Newt seems to enjoy retrograde race baiting, this little tidbit on the Lovings is a wonderful alternative.

    When Mildred and Richard Loving married in Washington, D.C. in 1958, they didn’t think they were breaking the law. Both were from the small town of Central Point, Virginia. Mildred was of African-American and Native American decent and Richard was white. They did know it was illegal for them to marry in their state-as well as 15 others–which is why they left to tie the knot. Within a month of returning home, police burst into their bedroom in the middle of the night and arrested them under the state’s anti-miscegenation law. They were sentenced to a one-year in prison term that could be suspended if they left Virginia….
    __
    In 1965, Life Magazine sent photographer Grey Villet to photograph the Lovings and their three children. Writing for the New York Times, Villet’s widow Barbara recalled that he approached the assignment with the aim of creating a tender family portrait, not an overtly political statement. “He chose as he did in every essay…to seek out the literal heart of the matter: a love story.” However, the images were utterly groundbreaking exactly because of the intimate and emotionally transparent way they portrayed a taboo subject.
    __
    Filmmaker Nancy Buirski rediscovered Villet’s photographs while making a documentary for HBO called The Loving Story. Twenty of the images are on display at the International Center of Photography in New York City from January 20 through May 6, 2012. The Loving Story will debut on February 14.

    The yahoo news story features a touching photograph of the couple.

    I was also struck by this particular comment from a poster.

    I remember holding hands with a white female student in grade school in the mid 1960’s and was dragged out and told to stand with my face against the wall for the better part of a half hour. She faced no reprocussions, it’s good to know we have come along way since then! P.S. I am Asian.

    And yet, people like Newt would be very happy with a return to these “quaint” old ways.

  4. 4.

    Alex

    January 20, 2012 at 4:53 pm

    Open thread!

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/01/romney-leaves-florida-nbc-debate-uncertain-111667.html

    NBC is denying reports that it plans to cancel this Monday’s GOP debate in Tampa Bay, Florida, because Mitt Romney has not yet committed to participating.

    “Preparations for the NBC News, National Journal, Tampa Bay Times debate continue,” NBC spokesperson Erika Masonhall told me. “We fully intend to proceed with this long-planned event and we hope and expect all the qualifying candidates will participate.”

    But as of this afternoon, NBC has left the standard Monday program listings in place — “Fear Factor” at 9 p.m. and “Rock Center” at 10 p.m. — a decision the network attributs to an abundance of caution. The network says those listings will be updated with more timely information as it becomes known.

    Campaign sources say they are unaware of any cancellation, but Romney’s unwillingness to commit could leave the debate’s status in question until after tomorrow’s South Carolina primary, if the candidate waits until then to decide.

    “There are too many of these,” Romney campaign strategist Stuart Stevens told Byron York in the CNN debate spin room last night. “We have to bring some order to it. We haven’t accepted Florida…It’s kind of like a cruise that’s gone on too long.”

    Looks like someone is scared!

  5. 5.

    kindness

    January 20, 2012 at 4:56 pm

    Clue Callista: Newt likes to trade in his used things for newer, younger ones.

    Just sayin’.

  6. 6.

    geg6

    January 20, 2012 at 4:57 pm

    Yeah, that sweet, French horn playing, good Catholic, old fashioned Calista.

    You know, the one who was banging and French horning a married guy in his wife’s bed for six fucking years before he told disabled wife #2 to take a hike if she didn’t like it.

    She’s not fit to file Jackie Kennedy’s calluses off her feet, let alone BE a GOBP version of her.

  7. 7.

    jibeaux

    January 20, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    @Alex: Is there REALLY another GOP debate scheduled for Monday? As in, THIS Monday? I mean, I know it’s been a joke, but how the fuck many of these are there? And who would skip Downton Abbey for such a thing?

  8. 8.

    DanielX

    January 20, 2012 at 5:05 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Oh, Callista is lifelike enough; the question is what form of life. No animatronic figure ever made could have eyes that crazy, unless possibly they’ve made one of Charlie Manson that I don’t know about.

  9. 9.

    feebog

    January 20, 2012 at 5:07 pm

    She is good with children, bending down to touch their hands in Manchester, hoisting them onto her lap to meet her elephant at Mount Vernon.

    Calista keeps an elephant at the former home of George Washington?

    Who knew?

  10. 10.

    Alex

    January 20, 2012 at 5:07 pm

    @jibeaux: Monday and Thursday! Monday is on NBC (as in the channel that isn’t showing Community) and Thursday’s is on CNN.

    Romney has yet to commit to either of the Florida debates.

  11. 11.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    January 20, 2012 at 5:08 pm

    I didn’t find that article to be all sweetness and light. I thought the lines from Callista’s hairdresser that no one else wanted the same look to be subtly catty.

  12. 12.

    Beauzeaux

    January 20, 2012 at 5:09 pm

    “in a tasteful Chanel-knockoff suit”

    Surely you jest. Callista wears nothing (sniff) “knock-off.”

  13. 13.

    jl

    January 20, 2012 at 5:09 pm

    Ok, look people, if there is evidence that Callista is eeviiilleee and ambitious, go with it.

    But, for G sake, let’s keep the French horn out of it. Like this stuff:

    “French horning a married guy”

    I will not have it.

    For shame geg6, for shame!

    And, no, I did not play French horn, just a watching out for my musical instrument playing brethren.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    January 20, 2012 at 5:12 pm

    @Brachiator:
    Do you have a link to that story on the Lovings?

  15. 15.

    TG Chicago

    January 20, 2012 at 5:12 pm

    So to be considered good with children, all you have to do is “bend down to touch their hands” once in a while?

  16. 16.

    abo gato

    January 20, 2012 at 5:13 pm

    This woman scares the crap out of me. Those eyes. That hair. The fact that she is only like 45 and dresses and acts like she wants everyone to think she is 65. What the fuck?

    Plus, sleeping in his wife’s bed and listening to him tell her he loves her every night is way below average.

  17. 17.

    Schlemizel

    January 20, 2012 at 5:13 pm

    When I had the PET scan before radiation the DR. said “You have a bulge on your bladder, you should have it looked at when we are done.” I mentioned that on Tuesday he said I had a partial blockage of the ureter & I should see the urologist ASAP. I saw him yesterday afternoon. He walked in & said “I remember you from when the radiologist sent the scan over – I have never seen anything like this in my life.”

    He showed me the scan. I have a large bulge – baseball to softball size. He if afraid the blockage may be scar tissue caused by the scrap metal holding my pelvis together. On the third of Feb he is going to go up my urethra and see if he can fix all that. and check on the thing he was really excited about.

    I have some sort of thing in my abdomen, its bigger than a football, it goes from my diaphragm down into my bowels & they have no idea what it is except its not cancer & it is fluid. Soon enough they are going to cut me open to take it out.

    Everyone familiar with the story of Job? In a dick measuring contest God allows the Devil to fuck Job over all he wants just to see which of them had the bigger tool. Unless, like Morty & Randy Duke they also had a buck riding on it. I am wondering if they have a buck riding on me.

  18. 18.

    jl

    January 20, 2012 at 5:13 pm

    And anyway, French horn has a pretty severely tapered conical bore, so not a good example for that kind of thing. Trumpet and Trombone would work, and good tie ins with Trombone for other crude jokes ( so I have been told by vulgar, and I assure you, slight, acquaintances).

  19. 19.

    beltane

    January 20, 2012 at 5:15 pm

    At the risk of sounding catty, I’d like to point out that Callista is not so much Jackie Kennedy redux as she is a cheap knock-off of Cindy McCain.

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    January 20, 2012 at 5:16 pm

    @efgoldman:
    To parts unknown, apparently, but I was told in another thread that South Carolina is to blame.

  21. 21.

    beltane

    January 20, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    @TG Chicago: Look, she’s not gnawing on their bones or anything (that we know of). What more do you want from her? Sheesh, you people are hard to please.

  22. 22.

    Palli

    January 20, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    To paraphrase Sen. Lloyd Bentson speaking to Quale at the VP Debate October 5, 1988:

    “…I served with Jackie Kennedy, I knew Jackie Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy was a friend of mine. Callista, you’re no Jackie Kennedy.”

    I came to this conclusion when i compared photographs of Calista: that’s careful reconstructive surgery modeled after the Jackie look.

  23. 23.

    Mnemosyne

    January 20, 2012 at 5:21 pm

    Holy shit, she’s only 45? She looks much, much older than that.

  24. 24.

    Martin

    January 20, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    Spouses are off limits – they’re just along for the ride. And there’s nothing that need be said about them that couldn’t find a suitable parallel in the candidate. You don’t need her willingness to have an affair with a married man as ammunition when the married man having the affair is fair game and more relevant, so just leave her out of it.

  25. 25.

    Southern Beale

    January 20, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    I think Marianne Gingrich’s interview has everything to do with the Republican Establishment’s efforts to crush Newt (they hate him anyway) because they’ve already decided that Mitt is their guy.

    It’s just too convenient that after ALL THESE YEARS she will speak out now … before the South Carolina debate/primary. You know, “family values” state and all.

    And it’s just too convenient that this piece of ratfucking should emerge in activists’ e-mail boxes right before the primary, too. I’m reminded of the Bush campaign spreading lies about John McCain’s “illegitimate black child” before the South Carolina primary, too. Bet it was the exact same person. Karl Rove, maybe.

    Seriously, this is the kind of shit you can expect from the “family values party.” Anyone who thinks Republicans have any ethics or morals needs to have their head examined.

    But you know, “both sides do it.”

  26. 26.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 5:26 pm

    Lacquered hair and a love of classical music? Okay, but beyond that I’m not seeing any similarities to JBK. I think you’re trying too hard, AL.

    On the other hand, the third Mrs. Gingrich does remind me a lot of Cindy McCain.

  27. 27.

    kay eye

    January 20, 2012 at 5:26 pm

    The Callista-Newt marriage has been misinterpreted. If Newt were 45, and if Newt had a lacquered blonde wig, an aggressive makeup stylist, and a nice Chanel suit, Newt would be Callista.
    Newt has finally married the girl of his dreams.

  28. 28.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 20, 2012 at 5:27 pm

    @Schlemizel: Yowza. Hang in there, man.

  29. 29.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 20, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    @shortstop: But Cindy McCain only put on that look for the 2008 election. She glammed up for the occasion. Before that she was almost butch, and I don’t mean that in a bad way, either.

  30. 30.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    January 20, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    I’m not getting “jackie O” from that description, i get, “senator and Mrs John Blutarsky” she is the Mandy Pepperidge to Newt’s bluto.

  31. 31.

    jl

    January 20, 2012 at 5:30 pm

    @Southern Beale: Hate to seem biased, but the email things is the type of thing you would expect to see used on any subpopulation that is thoughtless and gullible enough to believe conveniently timed charges that show up in junky emails (and before internets, anonymous flyers that appear in the dark of night).

    Scary and sad that this crud is SOP for a major political party in the US.

    Sad and scary that there are enough voters who fall for it over and over again to make it work.

  32. 32.

    buckyblue

    January 20, 2012 at 5:32 pm

    Ok, now I know it’s all good to, shall we say, bang on Newt. But how much credence do we give someone who had the judgement to marry Newt Gingrich as the second wife.

  33. 33.

    Martin

    January 20, 2012 at 5:33 pm

    @kay eye: So, are you suggesting Newt should be allowed into the Girl Scouts?

  34. 34.

    Mark K

    January 20, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    That article made me want to vomit. God, what horseshit! This woman is the third wife of a hideous, amoral sociopath. How is that in anyway a good thing? The person who wrote this should be executed.

    and about this debate…where the hell is Tampa Bay, Florida? Are they going to have the debate on a sandbar or in a boat? This stupid stenographer needs an atlas. There is no such thing as a city called “Tampa Bay”. Its either Tampa (where I grew up), St. Petersburg, or Clearwater.

  35. 35.

    kdaug

    January 20, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    @Kathy in St. Louis:

    and then play the vestal vestigial virgin to an eager media.

    FTFY.

  36. 36.

    beltane

    January 20, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    Newt Gingrich’s marital saga makes me nostalgic for Rudy Giuliani and his three wives.

  37. 37.

    smintheus

    January 20, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    Had a thought about Newt’s complaint that Marianne wasn’t willing to “share” him with Calista. His then wife interpreted that to mean he wanted an open marriage, but why would he be asking her for that? He already had been cheating on her for a long time, what was to be gained by bringing his adultery into the open? Could he have meant more simply that he was looking for a threesome? And how would that play with all those forgive-the-sinner right wingers in SC?

  38. 38.

    kth

    January 20, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    Callista Gingrich thinking she is going to be Queen of America is more like Marilyn Monroe (allegedly) believing JFK was going to divorce Jackie for her, than like Jackie herself.

  39. 39.

    vtr

    January 20, 2012 at 5:36 pm

    Yeah, I got about a page into that NYer article and quit. Did anyone read far enough find out whether it pointed out how much Mrs. Gingrich MK III looks like Edgar Winter in drag?

  40. 40.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 5:37 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Not sure what you’re referring to — her brief short-hair period? Other than the publicity shots of her traveling the globe with the American Voluntary Medical Team, I don’t think it’d be easy to find a photo of any era in which she’s not fully made up, expensively dressed and carefully coiffed.

  41. 41.

    jl

    January 20, 2012 at 5:39 pm

    @smintheus: These mysteries may or may not be revealed some day during our lifetimes, or perhaps after the Apocalypse or at Judgment Day.

    I try to avoid entering a hall of mirrors, whenever possible, which is what pursuit of the real truth turns out to be in this type of story.

  42. 42.

    Citizen Alan

    January 20, 2012 at 5:40 pm

    @Martin:

    Spouses are off limits – they’re just along for the ride. And there’s nothing that need be said about them that couldn’t find a suitable parallel in the candidate. You don’t need her willingness to have an affair with a married man as ammunition when the married man having the affair is fair game and more relevant, so just leave her out of it.

    Oh fuck that noise! Fuck it sideways with a chainsaw! I have never in my life seen any level of hatred directed towards a Republican First Lady remotely comparable to what Michelle Obama has had to face in the last four years and what Hillary Clinton had to face back in the 90’s. And I’m supposed to lay off any discussion of the morals and character of a self-admitted homewrecking tramp?!?! Bull-fucking-shit! I only wish we had comparable dirt to dish on the wives of Santorum, Romney, and Paul because I’m sure in their own way, they’re all as loathsome as Callista “The Borg Queen” Gingrich.

  43. 43.

    The Moar You Know

    January 20, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    That’s all nice. When will the media delve into the fact that she’s a whore who stole another woman’s man?

  44. 44.

    GregB

    January 20, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    Callista Gingrich has responded to this story.

    She stated:

    Ack ack ack! Ack! Ack!

  45. 45.

    kc

    January 20, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    She’s only 45, for real?

  46. 46.

    Mark S.

    January 20, 2012 at 5:45 pm

    Being a straight man, I don’t usually comment on things like this, but

    Fire your fucking hairdresser, you freak!

  47. 47.

    The Moar You Know

    January 20, 2012 at 5:47 pm

    You don’t need her willingness to have an affair with a married man as ammunition when the married man having the affair is fair game and more relevant, so just leave her out of it.

    @Martin: Same way the Republicans have left Hillary and Michelle alone? Bullshit. Just bullshit. No, on second thought, that’s too weak. Let’s try this on for size: fuck you.

    These people are pimping themselves as being some kind of Christian moral paragons who deserve to occupy the White House. None of those things are true. The cold facts: She seduced another woman’s man to claim him as her own. He left yet another woman behind for younger/cuter/tighter. They are both moral black holes, hideous human being the two of them, and she is not and should not be off limits for anything.

  48. 48.

    muddy

    January 20, 2012 at 5:47 pm

    I found this http://sparklepony.blogspot.com/search/label/Callista which is delightful. I like the post where they show with an overlay that both Newt and Callista have perfectly spherical hairdos.

  49. 49.

    Southern Beale

    January 20, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha … hey, Fox News! Bill Clinton wants this justification!

    I may have spoken too soon when I declared Sarah Palin’s “dumb arse media” the totally ridiculous wingnut spin of the day, because Fox News contributor Dr. Keith Ablow has come up with an even more howlingly insane rationalization for Newt Gingrich’s sleazy personal life: Newt Gingrich’s Three Marriages Mean He Might Make A Strong President — Really | Fox News.

  50. 50.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    January 20, 2012 at 5:49 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    for what its worth i think the only reason wrong paul runs for office so much, is that it gets him out of the house.

    I think his wife beats him, every time he speaks, he is crying about not getting a turn, or apologizing for being there.

  51. 51.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 5:50 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Or, put another way, if candidates have problems with the public making judgments about their spouses, they can refrain from fucking trotting them out and using them as props all day long. If wives and husbands are suitable for promoting candidacies and trolling for votes, they’re also fair game for criticism.

    And they’re even more fair game when their own history of conduct is in direct contradiction to what the candidate continually insists is the only proper form and role of marriage in the U.S.

  52. 52.

    middlewest

    January 20, 2012 at 5:50 pm

    Wow, flower shop owners in Cranston, RI are refusing to deliver flowers to an atheist teenager who won a first amendment lawsuit. The pettiness of these people is astounding.

    http://ffrf.org/news/releases/florist-shops-violate-rhode-island-public-accommodation-statute/

  53. 53.

    Oaklakeman

    January 20, 2012 at 5:51 pm

    The more I see of Callista the more I wonder if somehow, some way, she’s related to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeknVqdDAGA

  54. 54.

    Southern Beale

    January 20, 2012 at 5:55 pm

    @middlewest:

    Wow. Well, surely Cranston RI has more than one flower shop. Let’s the petty fuckers out of business, find the progressive florist and give them tons of orders. Free hand and all that. Fuck the fuckers.

  55. 55.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    @Southern Beale: Slightly off topic, what is the deal with Sarah Palin continually using language that no other candidate would purposely utter in public? Is she so isolated in arctic crackerville that she doesn’t understand that candidates for high office really don’t talk like this on TV?

    I say this fully acknowledging that my own vocabulary could use a hosing down with strong lye soap. However, I’ve so far managed not to swear in job interviews, while on the radio or while speaking into microphones. No one really had to explain this to me.

  56. 56.

    smintheus

    January 20, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    @middlewest: I know several schoolmates now living in Cranston. Pettiness and spitefulness appear to be additives in the city drinking water.

  57. 57.

    Mark S.

    January 20, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    Ok, my brains are oozing out my ears after reading that.

    Conclusion: When three women want to sign on for life with a man who is now running for president, I worry more about whether we’ll be clamoring for a third Gingrich term, not whether we’ll want to let him go after one.

  58. 58.

    middlewest

    January 20, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    @Southern Beale: They went to a neighboring town and found a florist who fill the order, but then the owner got so many threats he backed out. They ended up going to Connecticut. All over flowers for a 16 year old girl.

  59. 59.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 20, 2012 at 6:10 pm

    @shortstop: OK, I guess I misremembered.

  60. 60.

    DFH no.6

    January 20, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    Annie Laurie:

    Let’s hope that getting shellacked harder than Callista’s hair-helmet…

    No! If that means (as it does to me) an expectation that Newt will get shellacked in the SC primary.

    I hope the hell not.

    I want Newt to keep this going for months yet.

    I’d much prefer that he get the nomination over Willard (unlikely as that is).

    Obama would destroy Newt. Romney’s an even match (the media will carry every drop of his water).

    Go Newt!

  61. 61.

    Redshift

    January 20, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    @buckyblue:

    Ok, now I know it’s all good to, shall we say, bang on Newt. But how much credence do we give someone who had the judgement to marry Newt Gingrich as the second wife.

    More than I give to someone who had the judgment to marry him as the third…

  62. 62.

    General Stuck

    January 20, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    I bet Calista chases Newt around the house in a Candy Striper dress and a buggy whip. Newt falls on his bloated ass, and wails “don’t whip me, sister”. Then they both go have sex with somebody else.

  63. 63.

    Mackenna

    January 20, 2012 at 6:12 pm

    If successful (LOL) Newt plans on making Sarah Palin his VP. Probable subtext: He is looking for wife number four. Bonus, Palin brings grifting to the table.

  64. 64.

    g

    January 20, 2012 at 6:14 pm

    @Brachiator: Link, please, to the article about the Lovings?

  65. 65.

    beltane

    January 20, 2012 at 6:14 pm

    @Mark S.: Based on these criteria the Republicans should draft Silvio Berlusconi to be their nominee. Better yet, instead of debates they should hold tests of virility with the candidate able to get off the most times in a 24 hour period being given the nomination.

  66. 66.

    DFH no.6

    January 20, 2012 at 6:15 pm

    @Mark S.:

    You know, except that it’s Fox News, I’d surely call “Poe’s Law” on this.

    “Poe’s Corollary”, I suppose.

  67. 67.

    Rick Massimo

    January 20, 2012 at 6:16 pm

    She is good with children, bending down to touch their hands in Manchester …

    Wow! She’s like Our Lady of Lourdes!

    She told me that if she were First Lady she would focus on promoting music education—precisely the kind of uncontroversial passion that plays well with everyone, like Laura Bush’s crusade against illiteracy.

    As opposed to that highly charged, controversial stuff like getting kids to eat right and exercise.

  68. 68.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 20, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    Playing amateur psychologist, I get the sense from gNewt that he’s uncomfortable in his own skin, and uses other people to climb the ladder, which perhaps points towards the way he upgraded his spouses, with intervening bouts of staff-banging. Social climber, political self-aggrandiser.

    Anyway, ten years of Callista.

  69. 69.

    WereBear (itouch)

    January 20, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    There were rules, he said, about “how many nights he could be away and what time he had to be home for dinner—which led to a huge abuse of private planes which we could not afford. There’s a sense that, I’m not gonna have a third failed marriage.

    You know who else was determined to not let his third marriage fail? Phil Hartman. Despite his wife’s drug problems and mental illness, Hartman was determined to not let it “fail” which led to his murder and her subsequent suicide. Which just goes to show all marriages are not made in heaven.

    My point is that these things are too important to screw with over appearances and yet that is what the church or the publc can demand. Republcans should learn that.

  70. 70.

    Kathy in St. Louis

    January 20, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    @kdaug: Thank you. I will remember that. By the way, she’s neither.

  71. 71.

    David Koch

    January 20, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    Meh.

    The big story is how Mitten lost a 20 pt lead in S.C. in 10 days.

    He outspent Gingrich by 4 to 1, and he had the media momentum of winning New Hampshire, and he STILL lost.

  72. 72.

    General Stuck

    January 20, 2012 at 6:18 pm

    None of these women can hold a candle to Newt’s decades long love affair with himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them caught him in bed with a lifesize Newt doll sporting white hair and a vagina.

  73. 73.

    cmorenc

    January 20, 2012 at 6:20 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    @Martin: Same way the Republicans have left Hillary and Michelle alone? Bullshit.

    True, but the question you should ask is whether there is anything to be gained by dems who go feral on the GOP candidates’ wives. All Republicans really got out of going feral on Hillary and Michelle was to increase their own quotient of already hateful bile, without really persuading anyone not already of similar mind to also pile onto these women.

    Yes I too find Callista a very unattractive person in multiple ways to be prospective first spouse, but what’s infinitely more important are the reasons her husband Newt Gingrich is a repulsively dangerous person in multiple ways as a prospective President of the United States. I doubt you have to worry too much about Callista being the sort of woman who will charm many undecided women over into voting for her husband Newt Gingrich.

  74. 74.

    Mark S.

    January 20, 2012 at 6:21 pm

    @beltane:

    President Peter North!

  75. 75.

    beltane

    January 20, 2012 at 6:21 pm

    @General Stuck: Isn’t Callista a lifesize Newt doll with white hair and a vagina? Am I missing something?

  76. 76.

    Linda Featheringill

    January 20, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    @Schlemizel:

    I’m sorry you’re having such a rough time of it.

    [[hugs]]

  77. 77.

    lamh35

    January 20, 2012 at 6:24 pm

    Hey DougJ, wherever you are,

    I know it’s probably already been posted, but in honor of Ms. Etta James passing this morning, here’s my favorite Etta James song right now! My all time favorite is “At Last” whch will be played at my wedding if I ever get married “at last”…lol. But this one has a hold on my ears right now!

    Somethin’s Got A Hold On Me

  78. 78.

    Mark S.

    January 20, 2012 at 6:24 pm

    @General Stuck:

    Jesus, General! You’re coming up with some disturbing imagery tonight.

  79. 79.

    General Stuck

    January 20, 2012 at 6:25 pm

    @beltane:

    Isn’t Callista a lifesize Newt doll with white hair and a vagina?

    She’s gettin’ there, but the cheeks are all wrong, not stay puft enough.

  80. 80.

    General Stuck

    January 20, 2012 at 6:26 pm

    @beltane:

    It’s a disturbing topic, No?

  81. 81.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 20, 2012 at 6:26 pm

    @lamh35: Particularly poignant that she died just days after Johnny Otis…

  82. 82.

    WereBear (itouch)

    January 20, 2012 at 6:27 pm

    And what gold-plated nerve the woman has, saying as potential FLOTUS she would work on “children’s musical education” which got ripped out of the schoolbudgets at the behest of her own party.

    It proves that self awareness is not an autonomic function or they would all be dead.

  83. 83.

    Mark S.

    January 20, 2012 at 6:27 pm

    @beltane: @General Stuck:

    Ugh, they do bear a passing resemblance. It’s good my brains already oozed out of my head, or I’d be bleaching them tonight.

  84. 84.

    Kay Shawn

    January 20, 2012 at 6:28 pm

    What I noticed during the Marianne interview was the aside that Gingrich allegedly said to her, “Callista doesn’t care what I do.” Uh………..WTF! Was he saying Callista’s a non-possessive slut, so why can’t you be? This was supposed to be persuasive??

  85. 85.

    Martin

    January 20, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    @cmorenc:

    All Republicans really got out of going feral on Hillary and Michelle was to increase their own quotient of already hateful bile, without really persuading anyone not already of similar mind to also pile onto these women.

    Yeah, I don’t get it. Dems win the gender gap at least in part because Republicans can’t help but hate on first ladies. So to those defending attacks on Republican first ladies, do we also benefit by calling black Republicans shiftless niggers and latino Republicans lazy spics?

    I mean, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right? And maybe Democrats would be taken more seriously by the electorate if they hit back just as hard.

  86. 86.

    beltane

    January 20, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    Why is it that we don’t see more Republicans aspiring First Ladies aping the Mamie Eisenhower look?

  87. 87.

    g

    January 20, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    Spouses are off limits – they’re just along for the ride.

    I get what you’re saying, but frankly (channeling my inner-Gingrich) in this case it’s far more fair to criticize Callista – but not for the sex.

    Callista is a full partner in Gingrich Productions, the corporate entity whose mission it is to spread their Conservative politics and values, through the books, DVDs, speeches and various other vehicles. Her title is President of the company. She’s fully involved in Newt’s political money-making activities, as no other presumptive First Lady has ever been, not even Hillary Clinton, who they used to brag about you’d get “Two for the price of one.”

    I think it’s perfectly fair to criticize Callista’s political activities.

    While I often wonder what made a young girl from Iowa decide to become the mistress of an odious yet powerful egomaniac, it’s pretty clear that she’s a whole-hearted partner in the Gingrich grift con-game.

  88. 88.

    Redshift

    January 20, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    If Callista really does want to be Jackie Kennedy, then she’s a perfect match for Newt. I would say it’s not so much that Newt has always wanted to be president but that he’s always believed he deserves to be president.

    Washington Monthly reports that according to the WSJ, “a year into his first full-time teaching job, Newt Gingrich applied to be college president.”

    There’s ambition, and then there’s delusion…

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    January 20, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    @g:
    @Amir Khalid:

    Do you have a link to that story on the Lovings?

    Sorry. I thought I had provided a link. Odd edit problems today.

    Let’s try again here.

  90. 90.

    Martin

    January 20, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    @beltane:

    Am I missing something?

    Yeah. Proof that Newt doesn’t have a vagina.

  91. 91.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    @beltane: I know! I mean, that look is at the top of every guy’s wank bank, ain’t it?

  92. 92.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:34 pm

    Only thing that matters:

    Front page of CNN right now

    What a huge fuck up for his campaign

  93. 93.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:34 pm

    There has got to be some fucking screaming going on at Rove HQ right now

  94. 94.

    Martin

    January 20, 2012 at 6:34 pm

    @g:

    I think it’s perfectly fair to criticize Callista’s political activities.

    I agree. And I wasn’t critiquing Anne Laurie’s post, which I think is fine, but instead the commentary following which is almost exclusively devoted to how she looks.

  95. 95.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 6:36 pm

    @Martin: Wait! Is that the kind of joke you really want Democrats to make? I mean, we win the gender, gay and transgendered gap because we don’t say stuff like that, right?

  96. 96.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:36 pm

    Romney now has the chance to run as the first one of his kind to lose the South Carolina primary, ever, in the history of that primary

    Or extremely weird billionaires pay and pay big for Gingrich to win

  97. 97.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:39 pm

    Gingrich had a point in that the media tried to slop him with that story and if you give Gingrich the moral upper hand you’re already practically kissing the shotgun

  98. 98.

    General Stuck

    January 20, 2012 at 6:41 pm

    Well, I think Callista looks just fine. She can’t help it she’s married to a mean, twisted, cold hearted sumbitch of the highest order.

  99. 99.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:41 pm

    I will freely admit my fear and awe concerning Newt Gingrich; if he gains executive power, even as VP, he will wreck the country

  100. 100.

    beltane

    January 20, 2012 at 6:41 pm

    @AA+ Bonds: What’s interesting is that Huntsman’s supporters in the business community are throwing their support to Gingrich. But you know what, it’s no big deal because Jesse Jackson also won the South Carolina primary.

  101. 101.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:42 pm

    And clearly BJ is intimidated by him as well . . . just saying

  102. 102.

    Svensker

    January 20, 2012 at 6:42 pm

    @Schlemizel:

    Good grief. Big hugs and best wishes. Criminy!

  103. 103.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 6:43 pm

    @AA+ Bonds: What does “of his kind” mean?

    I did read the other day that SC has picked every nominee since Reagan’s first term. Ooooeeeee. Lots of hair getting torn out at Romney HQ tonight.

  104. 104.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:43 pm

    @beltane:

    But you know what, it’s no big deal because Jesse Jackson also won the South Carolina primary.

    LOL, are Romney’s people actually saying that

  105. 105.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 6:44 pm

    @shortstop: GOP nominee, that is. Where is the edit button?

  106. 106.

    Martin

    January 20, 2012 at 6:44 pm

    @shortstop: You know, my son once asked me after some show reported on some guy cheating on some actress spouse why he would do that when he had such a hot wife. I told him “Eventually you’ll discover that it doesn’t matter how hot your wife is if she’s not into you. If she’s into you, you’ll think she’s the hottest thing on earth no matter how she looks. Your challenge is figuring out how to find that person without getting too distracted along the way.”

    So, don’t judge. For someone out there, Mamie Eisenhower is gonna be white hot.

  107. 107.

    Emma

    January 20, 2012 at 6:44 pm

    @Schlemizel: There are times when the usual I’m sorry doesn’t cut it. I guess all I can say that if prayers help, you’ve got mine.

  108. 108.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:45 pm

    @shortstop:

    his kind = the Republican convention’s candidate for President

  109. 109.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:46 pm

    @shortstop:

    And where you have read it may have been my posts about it every other day on here since November or so

  110. 110.

    k488

    January 20, 2012 at 6:46 pm

    So, Callista’s goal is to promote music education? I’ve spent my life in music, as has my wife; we’ve both been teaching music for a long time. This is not a happy development. Yikes!

  111. 111.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    Again: SC has no established causal connection to the Republican nomination but the correlation is seen as significant in their circles and Romney had insane poll numbers there because that is where they drowned people in money

    Losing it is something they have to manage, INCREDIBLY carefully, in front of Republican donors

  112. 112.

    beltane

    January 20, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    @AA+ Bonds: Not yet, but they will be saying it 24 hours from now.

  113. 113.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 20, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    @lamh35:

    She was one of the best Blues vocalists. ‘At last’ has a vibe that makes the song and the vocalist, immortal.

  114. 114.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    Losing SC would be a huge fuckup of gigantic proportions

  115. 115.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:50 pm

    @beltane:

    I think the differences in the South Carolina primaries are a good example of why on the whole the Democrats are still simply not as bad as the Republicans

  116. 116.

    Martin

    January 20, 2012 at 6:53 pm

    @shortstop: Not just there, but in all GOP circles. Newt’s national approval rating is down at Cheney levels. The guy is a fucking disaster for the general, everybody hates him including legislators of his own party, and he’s surging toward the nomination.

    This is fucking awesome.

  117. 117.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 20, 2012 at 6:54 pm

    @shortstop:

    South Carolina hosted its first GOP presidential primary in 1980, and no Republican candidate has ever won the contest and lost the nomination. Can it continue that tradition?

    http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/filler-south-carolina-always-picks-the-gop-nominee-1.3467739

  118. 118.

    Boots Day

    January 20, 2012 at 6:54 pm

    One thing no one else has mentioned: I have no idea what Mrs. Romney or Mrs. Paul or Mrs. Santorum looks like, but I must have seen a hundred photos of Callista Gingrich. I can’t remember any other political spouse who has so thoroughly inserted themselves into a race.

    I suspect she’s just as ambitious and self-absorbed as Mr. Gingrich, which is why she was willing to wait six years for him to divorce his wife.

  119. 119.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:54 pm

    For the Republicans, continuing past South Carolina is fairly unusual and will make them extremely uncomfortable, and is definitely not at all what I had predicted would happen this year

    It may also mean more money given and spent by Gingrich than anyone in the history of American politics depending on how the extremely wealthy come down, the gathering-evidence-that-Clinton-is-a-Soviet-spy clique

  120. 120.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 6:56 pm

    I am pretty stunned at how this is turning out, I guarantee you Fox News is too

  121. 121.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 6:57 pm

    @Martin: Did you seriously just tell me not to make lighthearted fun of Mamie Eisenhower’s look? This definitely falls into the category of reflexive contrarianism.

    I will gently note that Mamie Eisenhower was, by all accounts, 100 percent “into” DDE and never failed to let him know it. Paging Kay Summersby. Ms. Summersby to the courtesy phone.

    But this reminds me of a little story. A long, long time ago, I spent a couple of hours in an AOL (yes, I did; this was the early ’90s and although I was already actively sneering at AOL, I had a free disk) political chatroom. People kept coming in and saying, “What’s the topic?” This irritated individuals who didn’t think we should all have to stop our pointless arguing to tell someone something they could figure out in 10 seconds if they’d just shut up and read. So a couple people started answering,”Sexual fantasies. You first.” Usually the individual would call everyone perverts and stomp out in high dudgeon, but one guy immediately responded, “Well, I’ve always dreamed of taking Mamie Eisenhower on a pile of berber carpets.” I thought that was pretty quick thinking, not to mention a hilarious visual. He and I remain friends today.

  122. 122.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    Gingrich is a scary dude, and not in the horse race sense, he is scary in that the popular vote could come down like LBJ and Goldwater but the damage to the public discourse would be immense, and not like Goldwater

  123. 123.

    Martin

    January 20, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    @AA+ Bonds: Well, the best part is we’re out the pandering to racists phase of the primary and going onto the pandering to old people/Israel phase as we roll into Florida, which is always fun. The Medicare/Social Security policy fights should be epically fun next week especially if Ron Paul can keep himself up on stage, as will the name-that-tune style bidding on who will drop the most nukes in the fewest days after entering office on Iran.

  124. 124.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    Really, I can’t say “seckshual fantasies” here?

  125. 125.

    kay

    January 20, 2012 at 7:02 pm

    The best part of that article is how Mr. and Mrs. Gingrich made enemies among their former campaign staff in, what, 2 months?
    They’re going to be going thru a lot of people if they maintain that rate.
    Must be great people to work for, the Gingriches.
    Callista is “the most self-centered person (former staffer) has met in politics”?

  126. 126.

    ericblair

    January 20, 2012 at 7:02 pm

    @k488:

    So, Callista’s goal is to promote music education? I’ve spent my life in music, as has my wife; we’ve both been teaching music for a long time. This is not a happy development. Yikes!

    Don’t sweat it. What do you think she’d do? Push for more local or even federal funding for K-12 arts education? Develop new performance venues, or push for money for music therapy? Or make some vague noises about how music is nice and smile while Preznit Sta-Puft guts the education department?

  127. 127.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 20, 2012 at 7:04 pm

    @Redshift: Newt just clearly thinks he’s better than everybody else, a superior being of some sort, an Ubermensch.

  128. 128.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 7:05 pm

    @AA+ Bonds: Really? I didn’t read any of them.

  129. 129.

    JPL

    January 20, 2012 at 7:06 pm

    @ericblair: Laura Bush must be her role model then.

  130. 130.

    Mark S.

    January 20, 2012 at 7:06 pm

    @ericblair:

    As long as the music doesn’t cut into the kids’ janitorial duties, I think Newt will be on board.

  131. 131.

    shortstop

    January 20, 2012 at 7:06 pm

    @Martin: Don’t think he has either the money or the organization to get much further. Ah, well, let’s enjoy the moment.

    Maybe it wasn’t “seckshual fantasies” that put me in moderation. Could it have been “prevert” or “ber.ber carpets”?

  132. 132.

    harlana

    January 20, 2012 at 7:06 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    I only wish we had comparable dirt to dish on the wives of Santorum, Romney, and Paul

    google karen santorum and abortion

  133. 133.

    JoyceH

    January 20, 2012 at 7:09 pm

    @abo gato:

    Plus, sleeping in his wife’s bed and listening to him tell her he loves her every night is way below average.

    You’re talking about a woman who used to sit in the House gallery and listen admiringly while the man she was having an affair with castigated the president for having an affair. With every bleeping person there knowing exactly who she was and what she was to Newt. And this article talks about ‘primness’?! I don’t think that word means what they think it means. Think they meant ‘shamelessness’.

  134. 134.

    LanceThruster

    January 20, 2012 at 7:12 pm

    What I actually enjoy about the GOP primaries, is that Mitt shows that Mormons can be as big of lying schmucks as anyone, and that Newt is convinced that “Family Values” are for the ‘little people’ but not for those whose importance puts them at the lofty heights that breathes the rarified air that the rest of us most assuredly don’t.

  135. 135.

    ET

    January 20, 2012 at 7:18 pm

    Two things:

    1. For some reason when I when I think back to when the Newt/Callista affair came out, that Callista wasn’t quite as “groomed” as she is now.

    2. I saw a photo of her on TPM the other day and I could only think of the faces on the Soundarden “Black Hole Sun’ video with their weirdly stretched smiles and fixed faces.

  136. 136.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:22 pm

    @shortstop:

    Pity, you’d have been informed right now

  137. 137.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    I mean it is cute that the press notices everything practically after it happens, and then blogs follow the press, that never ceases to amaze

  138. 138.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:24 pm

    There was a time perhaps when reporters considered likely future stories? and checked them out? maybe this is a fantasy

  139. 139.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    A lot of people put money and time into Romney on the express promise that he would win South Carolina. Who were those people, what was their money doing in South Carolina, etc.

  140. 140.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:30 pm

    Instead CNN runs a front page story that is practically an Ivy League secret society hazing, repeating Romney’s campaign’s preemptive damage control to mock him

  141. 141.

    MikeJ

    January 20, 2012 at 7:31 pm

    @k488:

    So, Callista’s goal is to promote music education?

    First ladies often choose causes that hit close to home. The poor lady has to live with a Rpeublican. She’s seen tone deafness up close.

  142. 142.

    Yutsano

    January 20, 2012 at 7:32 pm

    @shortstop:

    Where is the edit button?

    Tunch eted it.

  143. 143.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:37 pm

    Post dangerously

  144. 144.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:38 pm

    Anyone can look like Callista Gingrich by the way, you just have to have servants, kill the rich and take their things

  145. 145.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:38 pm

    Then you’re rich!

  146. 146.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    No, shit, let’s talk about the President’s wife some more, that’s healthy

  147. 147.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 20, 2012 at 7:45 pm

    I understand Michelle Obama married the person we elected President, I have great interest in her [[ATTRIBUTE]]

  148. 148.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 20, 2012 at 7:55 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    Well, surely Cranston RI has more than one flower shop.

    The girl’s house is apparently being guarded; the florists didn’t want reprisals. Local radio blowhards have also been stirring the pot, and you’ve got this cavalcade of glory from a bunch of people, many of whose Twitter accounts no longer exist.

  149. 149.

    PurpleGirl

    January 20, 2012 at 7:56 pm

    @g:

    While I often wonder what made a young girl from Iowa decide to become the mistress of an odious yet powerful egomaniac, it’s pretty clear that she’s a whole-hearted partner in the Gingrich grift con-game.

    I’ve had the idea that at some point they made a deal of some sort — she’d [continue to] have sex with him and he’d stay in politics in some way so he could go high enough (the presidency!) and make her the First Lady.

  150. 150.

    WaterGirl

    January 20, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    @Schlemizel: I hardly know what to say. It’s well past time for you to catch a break, yet it all just keeps piling on.

    Sounds like you may know more in 2 weeks, which sounds like it’s soon, but probably feels more like an eternity. What can we do to help?

  151. 151.

    g

    January 20, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    the question you should ask is whether there is anything to be gained by dems who go feral on the GOP candidates’ wives.

    Of course there’s not. I don’t think any Dem politician or elected official is going to go feral on the Republican wives.

    What private citizens can do in a comments section is another story.

    While anonymous commenters everywhere make horrible and vile comments about both Democratic and Republican First Ladies, I am not aware of a single example of a Democratic elected official or active politician saying vile things about a Republican spouse. Prove me wrong if you can.

    But it seems since Hillary became First Lady, Republican journalists and pundits have felt free about insulting her, and now that Michelle Obama is First Lady, even Republican elected officials feel perfectly fine saying the most vile and disgusting things about her.

    It’s a big difference, and a terrible lack of respect – and definitely racism.

  152. 152.

    Schlemizel

    January 20, 2012 at 8:15 pm

    @WaterGirl:
    You know its just so nice to be able to come here & dump out whats going on, its more help than you probably know. It has to be wearing on my family & I try not to complain because they have to share this crap. Typing it out & just having people acknowledge that this sucks makes me feel better.

    Just to whine a bit more – one of the reasons the ureter thing is so concerning is because I was born with only one kidney so I have no back up if this thing goes south.

  153. 153.

    Chuck Butcher

    January 20, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    The thing that puzzles me in regard to wife 2 v wife 3 is that wasn’t there something real similar about wife 2 v wife 1 ? I guess I’m confused about the current morality play…

  154. 154.

    Chuck Butcher

    January 20, 2012 at 8:39 pm

    @Schlemizel:
    I hope this works out ok and you can have some peace over the next couple weeks of waiting.

  155. 155.

    k488

    January 20, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    Oh, I get it now; there’s a tie-in with Disney: music ed + janitorial duties = “Whistle While you Work.” Synergy!

  156. 156.

    Rome Again

    January 20, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    Note to Callista: if you want to be Jackie Kennedy, the first thing you have to do is marry a Democrat. :P

  157. 157.

    Rome Again

    January 20, 2012 at 8:51 pm

    @Chuck Butcher:

    As I understand it (and I read it from somewhere, posted by someone who I have no idea if they have the real scoop) is that Newt left wife #1 and was separated when he started his affair with wife #2, while Newt had a six year affair with wife #3 before wife #2 found out and was still living in matrimony.

  158. 158.

    Chuck Butcher

    January 20, 2012 at 9:43 pm

    @Rome Again:
    I don’t have details and don’t care, but re:2, met 4 mos before separating from 1 and 1 family seem to regard 2 as home-wrecker.

    I don’t give a rat’s ass, what I was getting at is these morality plays are usually full of holes filled with shit. I guess I could’ve been clearer.

  159. 159.

    Chuck Butcher

    January 20, 2012 at 9:49 pm

    I’ve been faithfully married for over 20yrs (I’m not excluding occasional lecherous thoughts) and I claim no moral high ground for that. I’m somehow naturally monogamous, even across nearly 2 decades of bachelorhood. More than one romance in my life confuses the hell out of me and makes me extremely uncomfortable.

  160. 160.

    Rome Again

    January 20, 2012 at 9:50 pm

    @Chuck Butcher:

    Met or started having an affair? There IS a difference.

  161. 161.

    Chuck Butcher

    January 20, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    Doing what is comfortable doesn’t strike me as qualifying for “virtue” – where’s edit?

  162. 162.

    Rome Again

    January 20, 2012 at 9:56 pm

    @Rome Again:

    The second wife was a mistress as well.

    Apparently there’s a lot of misinformation out there, which doesn’t seem surprising considering there seems to be a dispute between the first wife and one of her daughters about when the divorce was discussed. Confusing family.

  163. 163.

    Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs!

    January 20, 2012 at 10:43 pm

    I’ve had the idea that at some point they made a deal of some sort—she’d [continue to] have sex with him and he’d stay in politics in some way so he could go high enough (the presidency!) and make her the First Lady.

    Bingo!

    I remember reading an account of Newtie’s first divorce from one of his friends in Crackerville Georgia, or wherever the fuck he lived… Newt’s big excuse for dumping her that Wife #1 wasn’t pretty enough to be a first lady.

    You can safely bet the farm that Newtie’s entire relationship with wives number two AND three has been based upon mutual delusions of him being Prez and them being first ladies.

    So, yeah, Calista and her weird looks and weird delusions is totally fair game.

    WTF, Valerie Plame was fair game, and so was Teresa Heinz Kerry— and neither one of them ever sought the spotlight!

    Wake up and smell the coffee— Republican mockery of Dems and liberals in general is one of their most powerful weapons with uninformed voters… why the fuck should we concede them their gains from this tactic by being too polite to retaliate?

  164. 164.

    WaterGirl

    January 21, 2012 at 12:07 am

    @Schlemizel: I can see why that would be worrisome.

    I was thinking earlier, but forgot to say, that your urologist sounds like he could use some work in the bedside manner department. “I have never seen anything like this in my life.” Thanks a lot, doc.

    In high school, my doctor said he had never seen such a bad case of strep throat in his life, but at least he waited to say that until I was over it!

  165. 165.

    WereBear

    January 21, 2012 at 6:58 am

    @Schlemizel: Sorry to hear about this further development. IT MASSIVELY SUCKS.

    The only “good side” I could see to this is that once this mysterious, but seemingly massive thing is eliminated, it might take with it other threats to your health.

    Wishing you some kind of upside by the end of this thing!

  166. 166.

    DanielX

    January 21, 2012 at 10:44 am

    @Schlemizel:
    True dat. A LOT of them could use some refresher training in the bedside manner department, particularly the specialists. I got a lot of that when my daughter was delivered at thirty weeks – “most unusual”, “textbook case”, etc, from the neonatologists, whom one would expect to be a little more sensitive. Right, doc, if I hear that once more there’s gonna be a textbook case of a surgeon removing my foot from your ass.

    In all seriousness, here’s hoping you get the right person to do the body and fender work and that you recover quickly and without complications.

  167. 167.

    Lori

    January 30, 2012 at 8:45 am

    I always think it is the one breaking the commitment who is doing wrong. Newt was the one breaking his marriage fidelity vows (twice), the other women never promised anything to Newt’s wives. That said, it’s not a very nice thing to do, and we like to think of our first couple as being inspiring people. Also the fact that she quit her career to become the sort of prostitute that gets a marriage license, jewelry, and vacations doesn’t inspire me either. That’s beyond the really important stuff: both of them support policies that would hurt this country, and the most vulnerable populations in our country. Just a few include removing child labor protection laws, weakening social security and medicare, and removing financial regulations that could plunge the country into terrible troubles again. That’s the important stuff, not how Calista applies her makeup.

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