The Catholic candidate in Political Neverland
Well, it had to come out sometime. The current front-runner in the Republican presidential primary race, Newt Gingrich, is a Catholic. He used to be a Lutheran. Then he was a Southern Baptist. He converted to share his third wife’s Catholicism in 2009.
Seatbelts, everyone. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Why? Well, Gingrich has been talking about moral issues lately. You know, abortion, embryonic stem cell research. And moral values in general.
Did I write that correctly? Did I say his third wife?
Oh, well, the story has been around for a while. Gingrich married his former high school geometry teacher in 1962. He was 19. She was 26. They had two children. Their marriage lasted about 18 years, crashing on the rocks during his affair with Marianne Ginter, whom he married directly after the divorce. That second marriage lasted until Gingrich began an affair with Callista Bisek, a House committee staffer a generation his junior, whom he married following his second divorce.
Gingrich’s first affair, leading to his second marriage, continued while he was Speaker of the House and leading the investigation of President Bill Clinton. You know, the Lewinsky thing. Gingrich’s third marriage, coming from his second affair, took place in 2000.
This may be getting confusing, but it’s Washington…
Now, I often like what Gingrich says about moral values, and marital stability is not the only measure of a man’s mettle. Still, there are issues.
What does society expect of its leaders? [more]