Gingrich’s Divorce Papers Contradict His Claim About His First Divorce

I've noted before the hypocrisy of the "family values" Christianist crowd that are supporting thrice married serial adulterer Newt Gingrich. Their truth and veracity about actually supporting family values is about as flawed as Gingrich's untruthful accounts surrounding his divorces. Now, information has come out from the actual divorce court papers that make it pretty clear that Gingrich has been lying to the simple minded morons of the Christian Right who have "forgiven" him for his past adultery and whoring around. The reality is that Gingrich cares about the sanctity of marriage about as much as Benedict XVI cares about protecting children and youths from predatory priests - i.e., not at all. Or at least not until caught. A New York Daily News story delves into the true facts of Gingrich's first divorce as opposed to the lies and fiction Gingrich has been peddling. Here are highlights:

One of Newt Gingrich’s messiest political problems resurfaced Monday when CNN posted papers from his first divorce that contradict his claims his wife sought the split.

A confidant of the former House speaker also told CNN that Gingrich said he dumped Jackie Battley — his one-time high school geometry teacher — in 1980 because she wasn’t “young enough or pretty enough” to be First Lady.

The thrice-married Gingrich, who is clinging desperately to front-runner status as the first caucus and primary votes loom, has been dogged by gossip about the divorce for years.

On his campaign website, he denies the much-retold story that he served his first wife divorce papers in the hospital where she had just had cancer surgery.

[N]ewly revealed 30-year -old court papers posted on CNN’s website appear to contradict that. In the papers, Battley asks the judge to reject her husband’s request for a divorce. “Defendant shows that she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce, but that she does not desire one at this time,” her petition said.

CNN said it was initially told the divorce documents were sealed, but then a reporter found the folder stashed in a court clerk’s drawer in Carroll County, Ga.

Clerks said Gingrich's file had been moved from the public records room in 1994, when he became a controversial national figure, out of fear of theft.

In one of her only public comments on the divorce, Battley told the Washington Post in 1985 that “it came as a complete surprise.” She described being in the hospital after her third cancer surgery when he came to visit. “He wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while I was recovering from the surgery,” she said. “To say I gave up a lot for the marriage is the understatement of the year.”

CNN interviewed Newt Gingrich’s former pal and early congressional campaign treasurer Leonard Carter, who said their friendship ended over the ambitious pol’s callous treatment of his wife. “Gingrich said, ‘You know and I know that she’s not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of a President,’” Carter told CNN.

When Gingrich left Battley, he was seeing a young congressional aide, Marianne Ginther, whom he married in 1981. He divorced her 19 years later after an affair with another young congressional aide, Callista Bisek, who is now his third wife and main campaign strategist.

To say that Gingrich is a nasty, sleazy ego maniac would seem to be an understatement. And as for honoring marriage, the man's past actions speak far louder than his obviously disingenuous words.