NY Times Newt Loves Callista By _MAUREEN DOWD_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/maureendowd/index.html?inline=nyt-per) Published: June 11, 2011
Newt Gingrich used to get in trouble for cheating on wives and dumping them. Now he’s notorious for being uxorious. At a moment when powerful men are self-destructing by betraying their wives, Gingrich is self-destructing by honoring his. The Georgian bomb-thrower’s whole career was about blowing stuff up, and suddenly, in the most spectacular conflagration of all, he has blown up his own presidential campaign. Not even at the height of Watergate did we see such a mass resignation as the one this past week with Gingrich’s campaign. He lost two dozen disgruntled aides and his entire Iowa operation. And it was all because he loved not wisely, but too well. Only a month after he announced his bid for the White House, Gingrich deserted the trail for a different odyssey: a two-week vacation, including a Greek cruise, with his Greek-named wife. Callista, meaning “most beautiful,” is derived from Callisto — in Greek mythology, an Arcadian nymph who metamorphoses into a she-bear. And, indeed, that is how the candidate’s staff saw his lacquered blond wife. As Jeff Zeleny and Trip Gabriel reported in The Times, Gingrich advisers begged him not to go on the idyll in the isles of Rhodes and Mykonos. But Mrs. Gingrich, perhaps needing a sea change after learning that diamonds are not always a girl’s best friend, wanted the vacation. “We have a spouse who controls the schedule,” an aide groused. The 67-year-old Gingrich, who preached the gospel of frugality when he was House speaker, spent lavishly on Tiffany diamond jewelry for his 45-year-old wife. He continued profligate spending in the fledgling campaign, ponying up $40,000 on a chartered jet for an Iowa swing, even though traditional donors were refusing to support his run. As everything crashed Icarus-style, Gingrich rationalized that he had needed to cruise the Aegean to “get away and think.” He said he was writing policy speeches while sailing, which is believable. He prides himself, after all, on being a man of ideas. It is rarely mentioned that the ideas are mostly chuckleheaded. This was the nub of the conflict with his staff: He wanted to talk about his ideas. They wanted him to shut up and campaign. Gingrich’s reputation as an intellectual, taken as an article of faith in Republican circles and much of the news media, is nuts. He is far more famous for his emotional bursts — from pouting and shutting down the government after he was seated in the back of Air Force One away from his man-crush Bill Clinton, to dismissing Paul Ryan’s proposal to privatize Medicare as “ social engineering” — than his intellectual bursts. His staff confronted him last week, telling him he had to start focusing on the unglamorous parts of campaigning and stop spending his time promoting documentaries that he makes and hosts with his wife. There’s an inane one on American exceptionalism called “A City Upon a Hill,” in which the former history professor pollutes history while Callista poses stiffly in different primary color suits. There’s another on Pope John Paul II. Gingrich converted to Catholicism after he married the churchgoing, choir-singing Callista. After his annulment from his second wife came through, he and Callista renewed their marriage vows in the House chapel with the Catholic House chaplain, Father Daniel Coughlin. The conversion Mass of the thrice-married and serial-philandering Gingrich was performed by 10 Catholic clergymen, including the archbishop of D.C., with a party afterward at the tony Cafe Milano that included Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. All this proves once again that church leaders have a fuzzy grasp on right and wrong. This supposed leader of men is easily led, from his budget tango with the more astute Bill Clinton to his relationships with women. The son of a teenage single mother who was passed off as his sister, Gingrich has always been guided by women. His first wife, Jackie, was his former high school geometry teacher. The family-values pol cheated on her and left her when she was fighting uterine cancer. He then married his mistress, Marianne, and worked on books and politics with her until he cheated on her and left her when she was fighting multiple sclerosis. He then married his mistress, Callista, and now he produces agitprop with her. His favorite phrase is “Callista and I,” his Web site is all about “Newt & Callista,” and he has happily spent a fortune adorning his adored one. Funnily enough, none of his sexual transgressions — even when he was pushing Clinton’s impeachment while he himself was cheating with Callista, then a 20-something aide on the House Agriculture Committee — landed him in as much political trouble as being loyal to his wife. He thought his devotion to Callista would bring him political redemption. Instead, it has brought him political reduction. His campaign now boils down to the two of them -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
