Newt Gingrich for Open Marriage?

Somewhere along the fierce and somewhat entertaining series of the Republican presidential campaigns, a new topic is on fire: the accusations of Newt Gingrich, a major Republican presidential candidate, wanting an open marriage.

It’s really not a surprising matter – hearing that yet another famous politician has been disloyal to his spouse. And the timing is not all that startling either, because these scandals usually arise amidst a huge political event, like the Republican primaries.

The accusations come from Gingrich’s second and ex-wife, Marianne Gingrich. She claims that Mr. Gingrich offered to stay married to her only if she allowed him to have an open relationship with his former congressional aide. Of course, Mr. Gingrich denied such claims, and was infuriated that he would even be asked about it during a presidential debate. While other candidates Rick Santorum and Ron Paul seemed to allude to ‘forgiveness,’ Mitt Romney avoided the topic as a whole – saying they should focus on the real issue of political debates.

Romney pulled the right card here – discussing someone’s private life on national television during a presidential debate is what some would call mudslinging or dirty politics. This is, after all, about their performance as politicians and presidential candidates. Whatever goes on in their home and family should not be a focal point, or even a relevant subject, of a presidential candidate’s proposed policies and agenda.

On the other hand, how somebody is in their home can reflect a lot on the character of the person. Both time his first and second wives were diagnosed with illnesses, Mr. Gingrich left them. The congressional aide with whom he supposedly asked his wife’s permission to have an open relationship is now his third wife. Ironically, he was disloyal to his wife while he was trying to impeach ex-President Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Obviously, Marianne Gingrich succeeded in distracting the nation during this key point of Mr. Gingrich’s presidential bid. Now, it’s up to Mr. Gingrich – whether he can graciously save himself from further humiliation and accusations against him, or he will fall into the trap that Marianne so calculatingly set up, and stumble along the primaries putting in time and effort to steer the attention away from it.

You can read the full article on Gingrich and the accusations on TIME: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/20/gingrich-and-the-open-marriage-question-how-newt-can-spin-things-to-his-advantage/?xid=healthland-daily