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Gingrich Admits to Affair During Clinton Impeachment

There is nothing even close to Clinton's multiple serial and parallel affairs and skirt-chasing in Newt's "affair". His relationship with Callista Bisek started after Gingrich was officially separated from and was discussing divorce with his second wife, Marianne Ginther, and they haven't lived together and maintained separate residences (he lived in Washington D.C, she in Jonesboro, Georgia) for more than six years, since June 1987 until 1994 when he was well on his way to becoming a Speaker of the House as the leader of Gingrich Revolution / Second Republican Revolution, which forced Clinton to publicly concede that "the era of Big Government is over".

Obviously it was not a great time for him to be getting divorced - he was pretty busy for the next 4 years with getting the Contract With America voted on and pushing the Welfare Reform, budget reforms and other policies and not much time to settle his personal life. He and Marianne "reconciled" to maintain the appearance of the family. Still, all the while Marianne was hostile to his political success and higher ambitions:

From "Newt Gingrich: The Indispensable Republican." - Esquire, by John H. Richardson, 2010 August 10

"Back in the 1990s, she [Marianne] told a reporter she could end her husband's career with a single interview."

Spoken clearly as a threat, not like a loving wife - their marriage having been long dead - yet throughout all this Newt provided for her and they have kept all the "family" savings in Marianne's name and in her personal accounts. How many of the people who keep saying that he was the one who was at fault and mistreated her (and his first wife, Jackie Battley, who they insist he "served with divorce papers on her deathbed, dying of cancer" which we know to be a lie perpetuated by a pathetic fraudster David Corn) know or understand this?
Ref: Jackie Gingrich Cushman : Setting the Record Straight (about my dad's first marriage) - FR, post #55, 2011 May 15

BTW, in the above link to her interview in Esquire magazine - she did deliver on her threat / promise when she understood that he is running in 2012 cycle - despite her telling her story to a friendly reporter from a friendly, liberal publication, she comes across as bitter and unsympathetic while Newt seems energetic, motivated and relieved, with no ad hominem attacks on his ex-wife. It takes at least two people to make any marriage "successful"; maybe people should remember this when jumping to conclusions and automatic guilty verdict about Gingrich on his less than perfect marriages.

After "disappointing" mid-term Congressional elections of 1998 just weeks after the House voted for Clinton impeachment (which Senate Republicans completely mishandled later in 1999) the hapless GOP establishment joined the MSM in putting the blame on Gingrich. His agenda having been mostly accomplished and with the dissent in the rank-and-file and the GOP "leadership" he decided it was best for him and the party to quit the Congress and finally settle his personal life by finalizing the divorce from Marianne (which has been quite ugly as she has promised). Divorce was finalized in 1999 and in 2000 he married Callista Bisek in Virginia, where they live now.

Yet another reason for resigning Speakership immediately was also his precarious financial situation due to the obligation to personally repay $300,000 loan from Bob Dole (he could make more money and have more time for [new] family in the private sector) to pay a ridiculous fine for "ethics violation" imposed on him by House Ethics Committee to reimburse its expenses on investigations of numerous allegations filed by Democrats against Gingrich:

From House Speaker Turns To Dole For $300,000 Gingrich Takes Loan To Pay Fine - Ph. Inquirer, by David Hess and Steven Thomma, 1997 April 18

In an attempt to resolve his ethics case, House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced yesterday that he would pay his $300,000 penalty with borrowed money - with Bob Dole as his banker. Gingrich announced the surprising arrangement in an 18-minute speech to the House, with his wife, Marianne, watching from the gallery. ..... < snip >
Under terms of the loan, Gingrich has until 2005 to repay the $300,000, plus an annual interest rate of about 10 percent. But Gingrich can delay any payments until 2005, three years after the date he has said he expects to leave Congress. Christina Martin, Gingrich's press secretary, said the speaker probably would not make any payments on the loan, even for interest, until he has left public office. The interest will accrue on the loan, so that Gingrich will be paying interest on the interest as well as the principal.
If he waits until the last minute to repay the whole loan, his liability could approach $650,000. As speaker, Gingrich draws an annual salary of $171,500, but presumably could make far more out of office in speaking engagements.
In his speech to the House, Gingrich said he would repay the loan from his personal resources, rather than dipping into his campaign fund or setting up a legal defense fund. He said he had seriously considered those two options but had rejected them lest they trigger a public backlash. ..... < snip >
Dole decided to lend Gingrich the money even though the two have never been personally close. During the 1980s Gingrich referred to Dole as the "tax collector for the welfare state." More recently, Dole openly differed with Gingrich in opposing the government shutdown two years ago. ..... < snip >
Gingrich said that he and Marianne, who initially bridled at depleting the family's resources to pay the penalty, agreed after weeks of agonizing "to do what was best, what was right, morally and spiritually." In addition to his annual salary of $171,500, Gingrich apparently retains about $420,000 of the $1.2 million in royalties he earned from book sales. Most of his financial assets are held in a money-market fund and some other investments, all in his wife's name. ..... < snip >

BTW, the $500,000 credit line from Tiffany's that Callista Bisek applied for in 2005 may have been related to the repayment / refinancing of this loan (due with interest in 2005), as Marianne Ginther walked away from the marriage with the bulk of the Gingrich family assets, which were in accounts in her name. Callista and Newt had to start their married life from nearly scratch.
Ref: Newt: NBC News Owes My Wife an Apology

Both in his time in Congress and since leaving, Gingrich has made some mistakes (who doesn't?) which he has acknowledged and has done some brilliant things that were either misunderstood or deliberately misrepresented by the left / media and the right (GOP establishment, potential competitors, political hacks and their chorus of saboteurs, strategic neophytes / blunderers / screwups etc.) yet he has done more for conservatives and conservative causes than anyone except Ronald Reagan.

Gingrich's Secret Weapon: Newt Inc. - FR, post #56, 2011 May 15 (excerpt)
Gingrich's Secret Weapon: Newt Inc. - WSJ, by Neil King Jr. and Patrick O'Connor, 2011 May 09