Newt Seeks The Votes Of Stepford Wives In His Run For The Presidency

05-10-2011 • news.yahoo.com/s

As Newt Gingrich prepares at last to officially launch his White House bid Wednesday, expect one item on the former House Speaker's resume to play an especially prominent role: his marriage. As the New York Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg notes today, Gingrich's third wife, Callista, is taking on a major part of her husband's White House bid as he seeks to push back against what could be one of his key vulnerabilities in his upcoming campaign: his history as a philandering husband. As The Ticket has previously reported, Gingrich faces a tricky balancing act. On one hand, he is trying to recast his image as a happily married man--and father and grandfather, as he frequently notes. But in trumpeting his new standing as a reliable family man, he's also playing up his relationship with the woman with whom he cheated on his second wife, Marianne, who last year accused her ex-husband of trying to rewrite history in characterizing the couple's break-up. These days, Gingrich rarely makes a political move without Callista, a former Capitol Hill staffer whom the former GOP lawmaker became extramaritally involved with while he was still speaker of the House. She's a constant presence at his side, is featured prominently on his "exploratory phase" website and, as the Times notes, is frequently cited by Gingrich, who constantly begins his sentences with the phrase, "Callista and I."