Can Newt Gingrich Defend Marriage?

Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump had a lot to talk about since each had been married three times. But only Newt Gingrich is running for president, so I will only talk about Newt. (Newt and Donald did decide Donald will hire 11 poor children to become "apprentii." Newt had previously said poor children should be janitors at their schools and mop floors and clean toilets.)

Newt Gingrich met his first wife, Jackie Battley, while he was still in high school. Battley was his geometry teacher, and seven years his senior. (According to Gingrich's second wife Marianne Ginther, the age difference was actually nine years--Gingrich was 16 when the student-teacher courtship began). Their secret relationship included nighttime dalliances in the back of a car. The pair married in 1962, and had two children before splitting in February 1980. (So, Battley would have been a pedophile.) According to Esquire, Gingrich served Battley with divorce papers while she was in the hospital recovering from uterine cancer.

Gingrich met Marianne Ginther, the 28-year-old daughter of an Ohio mayor, at a political fundraiser in 1980. They began a relationship while Gingrich was still married to his first wife; he told Ginther that they were in marital counseling and considering divorce. Ginther met Newt's family that summer, and they married in August 1981, six months after his divorce from Battley was finalized. "He asked me to marry him way too early," Ginther told Esquire. "And he wasn't divorced yet. I should have known there was a problem." Their marriage was over by 1999, after Ginther had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She was in Ohio visiting her mother for Mother's Day when Gingrich called, saying he needed to talk in person. She says she intuitively knew that he was having an affair (with his soon-to-be third wife, Callista Bisek).

Callista Bisek was working as a congressional aide when she met Gingrich. Gingrich and Callista married August 18, 2000. Callista was 34 and Gingrich was 57. Gingrich converted to Catholicism in March 2009 for his third wife. Along with his conversion, Newt formally requested that the Catholic Church nullify his marriage to Ginther.

Newt seems to burn out on his wives after 13 years and finds a new wife by 18 years into a marriage. With this pattern, Newt will be looking for a new wife by the time the 2012 elections roll around. I don't think this country can survive another Lewinsky situation dominating the news.

Can Newt really help with the Defense of Marriage platform issue? I don;t think so. With Newt, marriage is not a real serious thing.