Eye of Newt

Last night the eye of Newt was on CNN's John King. The setting was a debate among four candidates for the 2012 Republican nomination for president, just two days before the South Carolina primary. King was the moderator. After the candidates introduced themselves to the audience, King posed the first question to Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich is an intriguing political figure. A long-time (two decades) Georgia congressman, he served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for four years in the 1990s. He holds degrees in history, including a Ph.D. from Tulane University. He has written numerous books, mostly in the realm of public policy. His role in the Republican takeover of the House after four decades of Democratic control, and his collaboration with President Clinton to rein in federal budget deficits and reform the welfare system are well known, at least among those who follow public affairs.

And yet Gingrich is also known (perhaps too well) for private affairs. He has been married three times, and there have been many news stories about how infidelity marked the transitions between the marriages. In a nation in which one of the most publicized societal statistics is that 50% of marriages end in divorce, and there are frequent magazine cover stories about the prevalence of adultery, this is hardly shocking. But for a leader in a party that emphasizes private virtue and family values, this is trouble.

Gingrich was raised a Lutheran but later embraced Catholicism, formally converting about three years ago. He says he has repented his sins, sought God's forgiveness, and is firmly committed to his third marriage. Voters who care about his private life will make up their own minds about his sincerity.

In a 2010 interview with Esquire magazine, Gingrich's second wife, Marianne, said that in the late 90s Newt admitted he was having an affair with the woman who would later become wife #3. She claimed he hoped she would accept the existence of that relationship, but she would not, and the second marriage ended in divorce. In an interview, on camera, with ABC News the day before this presidential debate, Marianne said Newt was asking for an "open marriage." The timing of that interview - on the eve of a primary the pundits all say Gingrich really must win to gain momentum and have a real shot at the nomination - is remarkable, to say the least.

And then last night John King (which means CNN) decided to pose the very first question of the debate to Gingrich and to make Marianne's interview the subject of that query. As the camera alighted on Newt's visage, he remained calm until King finished referring to the news story and asked Gingrich if he would like to talk about it.

It was then that the eye of Newt - well, both eyes - fixed upon John King as he issued his response. In Shakespeare's phrasing from MacBeth, King's "charm of powerful trouble" unleashed a "hell-broth" that surely did "boil and bubble." Newt said it was "despicable" that CNN would choose to begin the evening's debate with that question, declaring that it was emblematic of the sort of "vicious" media attacks that keep decent people from choosing public service.

In the TV audience there were surely some who thought Newt deserved the question and that he should not include himself, an admitted adulterer, among the "decent" people who might be reluctant to enter public life because of journalists' propensity to pry into private lives.

But the fact that this was the very first question of the evening was nevertheless shocking, and Gingrich's tongue-lashing of King, CNN, and the news media drew a thunderous standing ovation from the audience in Charleston.

His relationship with Marianne began as an adulterous affair during Newt's first marriage. Some would say she should hardly have been surprised at what happened 15 years later. Surprised or not, she was surely bitter and clearly still is. In the words of Zara, in William Congreve's play The Mourning Bride (1697), "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."

I am not the least surprised that Marianne, thus scorned, remains deeply bitter these many years later. I am surprised, however, that CNN would use this story to bait Newt Gingrich, who is the conservative movement's pit bull, famous for attacking the media for biased reporting and all manner of yellow journalism. Newt called CNN's decision despicable. I couldn't agree more.

John King, on behalf of "The Most Trusted Name in News," threw this pitch right down the middle of the plate. Newt saw it coming. Like The Babe, he pointed his figurative baseball bat at the center field bleachers and knocked the ball out of the park.