It’s 1:00 AM, Do You Know Where Newt Is?

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5438131274/">Gage Skidmore</a>/Flickr

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Newt Gingrich, as you might have heard, has tied the knot again: between himself and a presidential campaign. As of today, he is officially a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. One issue he will have to confront—perhaps repeatedly—is his less-than-family-values past: three wives and two messy divorces. The story is well known: he left wife No. 1 for wife No. 2. Then, while he was Speaker of the House and leading the impeachment crusade against President Bill Clinton, he trysted with congressional aide Callista Bisek, whom he later married, after leaving wife No. 2 (Marianne).

None of this is a secret, and Gingrich hopes to defuse this story line by placing Callista in the limelight. Yet, his jump into the presidential pool will likely produce a series of tales and news reports about Gingrich’s bad-boy days, for as long as he remains in the race. In a presidential contest, biography matters much. And fresh details—even about well-known episodes in a candidate’s past—are much valued, at least by reporters and cable news viewers. Thus, Gingrich may find it tough to escape the tawdry escapades of his earlier decades.

To wit: this morning, as news of Gingrich’s pending announcement spread, a fellow I know sent the below email.

A long time ago in a place far, far, away I was a military escort officer at [NATO] Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), assigned to meet, brief, escort, and coordinate the visit of then-Speaker of the House Gingrich and a [congressional] leadership CODEL of some 6 others and spouses in Europe. Bosnia was the “Iraq” of the day and that was one of the focused points of interest. We based out of Rome with day trips to various US military Headquarters in Europe and “down range” trips to several of the bases in Bosnia….Also on the trip were Bob and Bonnie Livingston. In that it was a “Leadership” trip, the chairs of several committees were also along.  And the wives were traveling in number as well…

After a day trip and audience with the Pope, the entire group returned to the hotel, and I placed myself in the hospitality room to be available for questions about the rest of the trip.  Around 11 PM Gingrich came in and started to shoot the bull. We talked mostly about military readiness, the lack of spare parts (a huge issue in those years), the strain of Bosnia on the deployed forces (nothing compared to today) and general stuff. He called it a night about 1 AM and I closed up shop long with some of the other military personnel.

The next morning the traveling Marine [with the congressional delegation] pulled me aside to rip me a new backside for keeping the Speaker up until 4 AM.  I told him 4 AM was bunk, that he was in bed at 1, and it was his choice to stay up and talk not mine. Turns out that Marianne Gingrich had found the Marine escort and chewed him out for the Speaker not coming to bed until 4 AM. Seems there were three missing hours…And now for the rest of the story…Also on the trip and traveling as staff was…Gingrich’s current wife, presidential spouse aspirant and then congressional staffer Callista. Seems that the then-Speaker scheduled himself a traveling “storm in any port.” I never discussed it with him but only after the fact did I fully realize what was going on. None of us knew what would be public information later on…That was also the trip that I spilled an entire bottle of red wine on Gephardt, but that’s another story.

This episode doesn’t truly say anything new about Gingrich, for it’s known that he was sneaking around with Callista while Speaker of the House. But it does show Gingrich explicitly (comically?) in non-family-friendly mode. More important, there must be dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of stories like this one. Many will seep out, as long as Gingrich is a candidate for the highest office in the land. Positioning a smiling Callista by his side will not stop that.

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate