Is Newt's Ex-Wife About to Drop a Bomb?

As is no doubt clear to even casual readers, I find Newt Gingrich abhorrent. He's the an egotistical, unethical blowhard who has played the Washington insider game to the max and yet has the audacity to spin yarns to the idiots of the GOP base that he's an outsider. If Newt's a Washington outsider, then I'm Cleopatra reincarnated. Add to Newt's otherwise sleazy behavior his documented history of serial adultery and three marriages. I've always maintained that if a politician will lie and cheat on his wife (or several wives and girlfriends in Newt's case), what kind of idiot voter doesn't get the message that he's going to lie to you too? Now, ABC is poised to air an interview with Newt's second wife this evening on "Nightline" which some suspect may drop some bombs on the bombastic and truth challenged Gingrich. Frankly, I hope Marianne Gingrich drops a couple of 50 megaton bombs on Gingrich. Besides taking him down, and salacious tidbits will underscore the hypocrisy of those in the Christianist and Tea Party camps for backing such a sleaze bag. Why not simple find a prostitute off the streets and run her/him for president? They'd have about as much moral fiber as Gingrich - or maybe far more. Here are highlights from the Washington Post on what may be about to come down:

As far back as the ’90s, Marianne Gingrich has been saying she could end her ex-husband Newt Gingrich’s political career with a single interview. So has she finally dropped that long-threatened bomb, just when the former speaker and GOP presidential hopeful is rebounding in polls?

ABC reportedly has interviewed his second wife at length, and plans to air the interview on Thursday’s “Nightline,” just ahead of Saturday’s crucial South Carolina primary. The Gingrich campaign must be nervous, because it issued a preemptive statement from the candidate’s two daughters from his first marriage . . . . A Gingrich aide prophylactically pinned the tried-and-true tag for ex-wives on her, saying she was still “probably very bitter.”

What is it Gingrich is afraid his wife of 18 years is going to remember incorrectly? And what could be so bad that it would eclipse all that many Christian conservatives have forgiven and forgotten about his history already?

Just as interesting to me is ABC’s reported internal back-and-forth about whether to air the interview right before the primary. Does that mean they have legitimate questions about her credibility? Or that an ex-wife is by definition an iffy source? Or maybe they just fear the heat they’d take for giving voters even rock-solid negative information so soon before an election. (If the latter is the case, I hope they do air it, because I never understood the worry that we can’t give voters information they might actually take into account.)

In an Esquire interview in 2010, Marianne Gingrich already painted an unflattering and highly detailed portrait of her ex. Here are just a few of the lowlights from that outing, in which Marianne Gingrich was described as chain-smoking Benson & Hedges while spilling that:

1. Newt actually started seeing his geometry teacher, the first Mrs. Newt Gingrich, when he was only 16. . .

2. That early in their marriage, she had to take over the budget “because it was too stressful for Newt.’’ . . .

5. That he has lost his way and wants more than anything a lifestyle that’s “opulent” or “self-indulgent.” Class warfare, anyone?

6. That he begged her to “tolerate” his affair with Callista, his third and current wife. . . .

7. That his conversion to Catholicism “has no meaning.’’ . . .

Whatever this new revelation is, it’s got to be worse than all of these. And for Marianne Gingrich’s sake, I hope she’s got proof.

As I said, a couple of huge bombs would be ever so entertaining and it would be ever so delicious to see Gingrich and his moronic Christian Right supporters utterly humiliated. Not that it's easy to humiliate an ego maniac like Gingrich.