The myth and fact behind Newt Gingrich’s 1980 divorce
On Friday, Newt Gingrich’s phoenix of a presidential campaign unveiled a new area of its website dedicated to countering the areas of the former U.S. House speaker’s life – personal and professional – likely to become fodder for his rivals.
His criticism of U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, one-time support for mandated health insurance, statements on climate change, the 1995 government shutdown, and his extramarital affair during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton are all topics.
Perhaps the oldest piece of unwanted luggage in Gingrich’s career has been the story of his conduct during the dissolution of his first marriage with Jackie Battley.
The campaign includes a link to a column written last May by Gingrich’s daughter, Jackie Gingrich Cushman:
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.
Cushman states what didn’t happen, but – perhaps naturally enough — doesn’t say much about what did. The Washington Post this morning expounds on both the myth and the facts:
Most significantly, Battley wasn’t dying at the time of the hospital visit; she is alive today. Nor was the divorce discussion in the hospital “a surprise” to Battley, as many accounts have contended.
Battley, not Gingrich, had requested a divorce months earlier, according to Jackie Gingrich Cushman, the couple’s second daughter. Further, Gingrich did not serve his wife with divorce papers on the day of his visit (unlike a subpoena, divorce papers aren’t typically “served”).
And yet:
According to the first published account of the visit — a story by David Osborne in Mother Jones magazine in November 1984 — Gingrich went to Battley’s room with a yellow legal pad on which he had written a list of items related to the handling of the divorce.
Osborne attributed this anecdote to Lee Howell, Gingrich’s former press secretary, whom he quoted as saying, “He wanted her to sign [the list]. 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.”
Here’s a link to that 1984 piece in Mother Jones.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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117 comments Add your comment
DannyX
November 19th, 2011
8:21 pm
“So you were off by nearly 3 years and I was off by 2 months.”
How so genius? Obama has been in office 2 years and 10 months.
Bush and the Republicans destroyed the economy. How fast is the economy supposed to heal? Every single economic indicator except real estate is on the rise. Fact is NOTHING can be done to straighten out the Bush real estate crash quickly. Maybe you have an idea on how it should have been repaired in 2 years and 10 months, do tell.
So far you have NOTHING RGB except empty rants, lets hear it! More tax cuts? Another useless war? Another socialist Medicare program?
DannyX
November 19th, 2011
8:24 pm
Barney, why did Republicans fire Newt from his Speaker of the House job?
honested
November 19th, 2011
8:28 pm
Repgnicans and teapottys…
We tried their policies and they failed….
Miserably….
So what do they do…..
Call for more of the same….
After all, they are just blindly being the ToolsEnablingAristocrats…
If they pucker up long enough the 1% will grow to like them….
They only want you to shine their shoes!
honested
November 19th, 2011
8:30 pm
So to all the repugnican defenders…
If we continue the shrub tax cuts into infinity…
How many generations will it take before they ‘kick in’ and the economy starts to improve?
I thought so….
That was never the plan….
The 1% got what they wanted….
To the gallows for the rest of us!
DannyX
November 19th, 2011
8:34 pm
RGB said “Obama is purposely ruining the country”
How so? The stock market is way up, job growth is way up a far cry from the Bush disaster when we were shedding 700,000 jobs a month, and unemployment is down. In the news today is word that Georgia companies have gained back what was lost during the Bush Great Recession. Obama has many foreign policy victories.
How is Obama purposely ruining the country RGB????
@left1
November 19th, 2011
8:57 pm
It seems liberals only have morals when vetting Republicans. They overlook presidents taking advantage of young women and politicians from North Carolina who impregnate photographer staffers while having wives at home with cancer. Oblama has not been properly vetted thanks to liberal media. No telling what we might find out. Frankly, we know enough and need him replaced with someone who doesn’t need a prompter and knows how to live within the government’s means.
@left1
November 19th, 2011
9:02 pm
Fifty percent or more marriages end in divorce. People who live in glass houses…
SallyForth
November 19th, 2011
9:47 pm
I don’t recall ever hearing anyone say that his first wife was dead – thank goodness that her cancer surgery worked! But the fact still stands that Newt flew in from DC and went to the hospital where Jackie was just coming out of cancer surgery. While she was still trying to get over the anesthesia, Newt set right in on trying to get her to sign divorce agreement details.
What he did was a no-class and inhumane thing to do – there’s no way to put lipstick on that pig. This episode was just one in the series of Newt’s womanizing for the last 30+ years, and just a symptom of this man who will do anything to get what he wants, no matter who and what he has to trample.
Trishelle
November 19th, 2011
9:55 pm
I’m cool with the divorce thing, been there done that. But understating the fees he received from Freddie Mac by a factor of 8. Not cool at all.
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November 19th, 2011
11:00 pm
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Jackson Baer
November 20th, 2011
2:02 am
Just keep speaking the truth and you’ll continue to rise Mr. Paul. He’s the only consistent candidate running and the only one that you can take his word on something.
http://www.whatthehellbook.com/the-book/
Blake
November 20th, 2011
12:52 pm
The most disturbing thing to me about the Washington Post article retelling the truth of the story is that Newt’s first wife was his high school math teacher, they started “dating” after he graduated from high school, and they got married when he was 19. How much do you want to bet they were “dating” before he turned 18? Sick woman, sick man.
JustPlainOldBob
November 20th, 2011
2:21 pm
Newt in 2012
Newt in 2012
Newt in 2012
This country can not afford 4 more years of Obama’s lack of leadership and incompetence.
Chris Yates
November 20th, 2011
3:50 pm
Jim is a prolific and spot on journalist. If more were like him.
Vote for your favorite GOP candidate for president at http://nationalsponsor.com
Also highly recommended is an article on the Chinese Naval build-up and what it means to the world and region.
M. C. Xiques
November 20th, 2011
5:28 pm
Well, speaking of ethics Obama has tried the gay stuff. His partner has accused him. Of course the “holy one” won’t let anyone see anything about his history. I guess boys will be boys to some people.
liberalefty
November 21st, 2011
1:56 am
@M.C.XQUIES
u must br another insecure white boy with penis issues,lol!
Newt A.k.A Boss HoGG
November 22nd, 2011
12:02 pm
Republicans – be honest, let’s address the issue. The Do Nothing Congress(majority republicans)…… is ran by corrupted lobbyist named Grover Norquist aka leprechaun. He made all republicans sign the pledge, never to raise taxes(on the rich). History has shown us that you can cut spending and raise taxes to balance the budget. Republicans say they want less government in our lives. We all do, but regulations have to be put in place. I rather trust an inmate than any corporation in America to do the ethical thing. Oh, that’s right, we gave them a chance. It was called the housing market and wall street. You republicans say Unions are the enemies of America. Unions have their problems, no doubt about it. But corporate greed and lack of accountibility is a bigger issue. Last week you guys loved Herman Cain, a week before it with Mitt, or was it Bush 2.0, now it’s newt. Boss Hogg cannot argue with President Obama, Pres. Obama will eat him alive. Newt needs to worry about his charge account at Tiffany’s and his next wife(s). Newt had to step down from his last job because of ethics. All this hatred for President Obama shows me is that the republicans(party of no)have no one, I mean no one that can debate or beat President Obama in the race.
Thank your boy Texas Clown Bush for destroying the republican party, no, republicans destroyed the republican party
WMD’s………….Mission Accomplished……..sike