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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

Newt Gingrich's attacks on marriage

Posted on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 08:10 AM

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Newt Gingrich has a hell of a lot of nerve.

The man who wants to be our next president told the press this week that his many episodes of adultery were in fact driven by his work ethic and his love of the United States of America.

To wit: illicit sex is now your patriotic duty. Unless it's gay sex of course, in which case, presumably, it's treasonous.

But what, one wonders, did he tell all of his conquests? To lie back and think of America?

"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate," this paragon of righteousness brought low by his own country said this week.

"What I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them," he said. "I found that I felt compelled to seek God's forgiveness. Not God's understanding, but God's forgiveness."

There'll be neither understanding or forgiveness from this epic hypocrite for his fellow gay Americans, of course. His experiences didn't teach him compassion.

Gingrich, for the record, cheated on his first two wives. He informed the first one he was divorcing her when she was recovering from uterine cancer. His second wife had just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when he gave her the chop.

This is the man who now says with a straight face that he wants to protect marriage. But haven't his own actions proved a greater threat to marriage than anything his gay neighbors could have dreamed up?

We're at a time when the do as I say not as I do rhetoric of the GOP has reached its nauseating nadir. We're at the moment when hypocrisy boils over and turns into something else: stupidity.

Newt wants to legislate against gay unions. He still wants the United States Constitution to ban them (years after Bush gave up on that quest). He'd do better to take an inventory of his own life.

If marriage is a scared bond between one man and one woman, I have to ask, what does the word "sacred" actually mean to him? Which one of his multiple marriages was the most sacred to him?

How can this man even show his faces in public? God may forgive him, but voters shouldn't.

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maloney | Mar 17, 2011, 11:32 PM EDT

Gingrich, Giuliani and Romney aren't considered conservative enough for us Tea people, seano. Wait till you see who's running. You'll love it. We don't like the regular bunch any more than we like obama.

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seanomelbourne | Mar 16, 2011, 06:49 PM EDT

I hope you take the hint BURR go holiday in Haiti or Disneyland.On second thoughts you sound like you live in Disneyland.

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armaghabu | Mar 15, 2011, 08:57 PM EDT

BurrRobson if you can't stand the idea that other people think differently to you don't visit Ireland; if fact never leave your own home. People that narrow minded don't play well with others.

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seanomelbourne | Mar 15, 2011, 07:19 PM EDT

I never justified Edwards actions!! this is not a gotcha game it is about Gingrich and Giuliani's hypocrisy and their maudlin defence of principles they cannot keep.

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maloney | Mar 15, 2011, 03:24 PM EDT

seano...what is it about the right? What about John Edwards? That's right, back in your hole seano.

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adoptgal | Mar 15, 2011, 01:28 PM EDT

We need a serial adulterer in the White HOusek--we've had everything else!

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BurrRobson | Mar 13, 2011, 10:32 PM EDT

I keep toying with the idea of vacationing in Ireland but this Ireland email I keep receiving makes me HATE the country. What business is it of yours to cut down America? It must be lovely to live in such a perfect country that you have no choice but to find fault only with other countries. Oh right, you all are such wonders that the whole country is going broke. Look to yourselves hypocrites.

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mayoman | Mar 13, 2011, 09:02 PM EDT

You nailed it, Cahir. Well done.

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mellett117 | Mar 13, 2011, 07:21 PM EDT

I think it is a succinct summing up of the real character of Newt Gingrich. It is also an indictment of the real Republican party of 2011, the party of NO and the party of smears and nasty inferences regarding our President. Gingrich is the poster boy for what their party has become.

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seanomelbourne | Mar 13, 2011, 06:09 PM EDT

What is it about the right?Both Gingrich and Giuliani left their spouses when their wives were seriously ill.

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SingleDonald | Mar 13, 2011, 05:11 PM EDT

It sure was sad how Newt Gingrich left his 2 wives-as they were going through health crises. We see that more and more now, with women leaving their husbands/boyfriends as often as men leave their wives/girlfriends, during health problems. Newt's 1st wife was his high school geometry teacher, and 8 years older than him. Nothing wrong with that, despite what some "politically correct pundits" would say. To the best of my knowledge, he was 18 when they began going out. I can't help but wonder, though, if she thought the following, as she was recovering from uterine cancer: "This is what I get, for taking up with, and marrying a kid!"

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armaghabu | Mar 13, 2011, 02:15 PM EDT

Discriminating against people you don't like isn't a demonstration of your "moral code," its a demonstration of your lack of one. You want to see someone in a successful marriage with a moral code that stands against discrimination look at our president. You couldn't look at Newt Gingrich and say his life has been an example of anything but selfishness and odious hypocrisy.

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seagreen | Mar 13, 2011, 10:40 AM EDT

John Edwards life is in shambles, he is under indictment for misuse of funds. He no longer has a family, and is probably a suicide candidate. Gingrich is a dog that cannot stop eating. A liar, a cheat, and a lowlife. Wave a flag and praise the lord. That ought to absolve him in the eyees of the mental midgets He still looks like Benny Hill

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vincem13 | Mar 13, 2011, 10:04 AM EDT

Cahir: Do you have a proofreader for your drivel? Get one, please. It's "your' not "you're". Since you are SO much into exposing hypocrisy in Political figures, you will, of course, be writing a full expose on John Edwards, who had an affair AND fathered a child while his wife was dying of cancer. Oh, that's right, if Democrats err, that's OK, since they don't make a habit of standing for absolute right and wrong. But Republicans! Since they do stand by a moral code, they can be taken to the woodshed.

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beyondthepale | Mar 13, 2011, 08:34 AM EDT

By the way, as long as the GOP bash gays in a pathetic quest for votes from bigots, anyone who is gay or anyone who respects and loves the gay community should make it their business to call the GOP out on their hypocrisy and b.s.

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