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Subscribe to RSSCOLUMBIA, S.C. – Not fifteen minutes into her second campaign event of the day, Newt Gingrich’s daughter Jackie Gingrich Cushman got the question she seems to have come to expect.
“There’s been such a big fuss on the three marriages,” a supporter, who had come to meet Cushman at the Scarlet Chord coffee shop in Laurens, said. “How does he deal with the innuendo in that?”
Cushman, the daughter of Gingrich and his first wife, Jackie Battley, didn’t miss a beat.
“Most families have gone through terrible things, whether it’s divorce or tragedy. That’s life,” she said. “We’ve healed, we’ve reconciled.”
While Cushman may have healed from her parents’ divorce (she was thirteen at the time), many Republican voters still balk at her father’s infidelity and three marriages.
So Cushman seems to have taken it upon herself to tell the story of her family, and specifically her father, from her perspective – leaving no topic off-limits.
“I try to frame it in a way that makes sense and resonates with people,” Cushman told NBC News. “Like many families, we had a hard time and we’ve all moved on. And we’re all focused on helping each other.”
In fact, several times during her five-stop jaunt through South Carolina’s Upstate, Cushman chose to address the divorce issue head on, using a half/serious, half/humorous anecdote about when her father and then-boyfriend Jimmy Cushman met for the first time, at a bar.
Standing next to two other men at the bar, Cushman said she heard one say, “There’s Newt Gingrich. I heard he abandoned his wife and children.”
“I felt compelled to turn around and explain to this guy that that was not true,” Cushman told a group of supporters at a cocktail party in Greenville. “And I almost felt bad for him because obviously he was shocked and terribly embarrassed.”
He was, Cushman suggested, a consumer of misinformation, which Gingrich has been combating since his days on Capitol Hill.
“I let you know that story -- it is kind of funny -- to let you know that there are a lot of things out there that aren’t true,” Cushman said, imploring the 20 supporters gathered to visit the “answers page” at Newt.org for more information about the divorce issue.
Cushman also mentioned several times a different story dealing with a much-publicized scenario in which Gingrich visited his soon-to-be-ex wife Battley in the hospital.
Reports at the time said Gingrich demanded a divorce while Battley was on her deathbed; Cushman recently wrote an op-ed saying the divorce was already in progress and her mother was getting a tumor, which was benign, removed.
In Cushman’s anecdote, a woman who heard the hospital story said she thought Cushman’s mother was dead. “Because she had heard these terrible rumors on the Internet which are not true, she assumed that my mother must be dead,” Cushman said.
In addition to, as she puts it, “setting the record straight” about her father, Cushman also intends to show voters how Gingrich has changed since leaving the public eye. For one, his faith is deeper, she said, as a result of trying to move beyond his infidelity.
“He’s talked about how he’s made mistakes in his past. He’s talked about how he’s had to ask for God’s forgiveness. He’ stalked about reconciling with God and with others,” she said.
His professional demeanor has also changed, she said.
“Because he hasn’t been in the public eye for over a decade, when you first mention his name, many people think about the news reports that were reported when he was speaker. And he had thousands and thousands of negative articles at that time,” Cushman said.
“But in addition to being disciplined, he's now very cheerful and very optimistic and I think it’s a very good example of a happy warrior out on the campaign trail,” she added.
She also dismissed as sour grapes complaints from his former Congressional colleagues, like Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) who called Gingrich too erratic and self-centered to be president.
“He balanced the budget with President Clinton. He reformed welfare, cut spending and cut taxes. That is a level of real change in Washington and to go through that type of change, not everyone is going to feel comfortable,” she said.
Gingrich also occasionally defend her father’s recent proclamations on the campaign trail. One voter at the Spartanburg Republican Party’s Christmas party, the last event of the day, brought up Gingrich’s assertion that he would potentially subpoena “activist judges” to justify any controversial rulings.
“It’s fairly steeped in controversy right now,” said Hugh McMillan, 63, of Spartanburg.
Just as she had with the more personal issues of the day, Cushman explained her dad’s side of the story, saying that he supported abolishing entire courts, like the Ninth Circuit of Appeals, if they were found to have gone “beyond how originally they were set up in terms of our Founding Fathers."
She then, as she had for questions over the divorces, referred McMillan to Newt.org, which addresses both the personal and the political, and those instances in which the two are hard to distinguish.
But Cushman did most of the defending of her father face-to-face with voters.
This close to the holidays, Cushman said that Gingrich was nothing like the grouchy Christmas antagonist with a similar name as his: the Grinch.
“He’s my dad and he’s never stolen my Christmas,” Cushman said. “He wasn’t that person then and he’s not that person now.”
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She looks as stupid as Daddy.
I don't know IF Clinton used the back door or not. I did NOT vote for him once because I knew he was a snake oil salesman, never really saying anything but getting elected anyway. So, if I saw a lot of quasi-nothingness from Bill Clinton and did not vote for him because of that, I am glad I can see thru Newt and his self centered, ego mania, pick and choose what facts suit me persona. The only thing the man has ever cared about was himself, personal power and enrichment. As he currently earns millions from wall street bankers and investors, he peddles the Joe Avrage baloney, not rich like Mitt Romeny, been in politics one way or another my whole life, but really an outside who can change things. Yeah, whatever Bill Clinton sold, I never bought it, and his personal indiscretions almost got him impeached. That was his own fault. As for Newt, the man is a loser, and all the criticism he is catching is, guess what, his own fault. I don't feel sorry for him and I hope he goes away, forever.
The apple does not fall far from the Newt tree...even his daughter is a liar
You have more nads than your messiah!!!
Wow! Even their children lie with straight faces! SMH
Newt will just grin about this and pass it over like nothing happen. Give us a big smile Newt.
He's stolen from the American people
He's been married 3 times
He associate with other serial married ( Donald Trump)
He was charged with ethic violations and should have gone too jail..
He assumes the average American has been dumbed downed and will fall for his junk...NOT
He's an adulterer, the Church frowns on it and I frown on it too, Its says a LOT about his character and it appears his daughter lack character too...
no more garbage in the White House
50% of marriages end up in divorce!
What % of communist/socialist end up in the white house (so far only obama)
Here's really who is running the white house!!!
George Soros: Jew that hates jews and the U.S.A.
Anthony Van Jones: socialist/communist Hates the U.S.A.
Valarie Jarrett: Communist
Vernon Jarrett: Communist, Valarie Jarrett's father-in-law
Frank Marshall Davis: Communist obama mentor
Cass Sunstein: Socialist/Communist obamma tsar
Rev Wright "God Damn America"
Bill Ayres: Socialist/Communist, Weather Underground
Bernadine Van Dohrn Socialist/Communist, Weather Underground
Tony Rezco: Chicago crook
Andy Stern: SEIU
Dick Trumpka: UAW
Lil Jimmy Hoffa: That son of a bitch!
Acorn: Criminal enterprise big obama supporters
Black Panthers: Guardians of the Poll
gary: update your calendar. The 50s are over, the 'red menace' exists only in the minds of mindless obama haters like yourself.
Again vermont you are unable to point out any errors, so that would make you irrelevant???
Funny -- these Limbaugh the junkie/fox noise cultist can't come up with a reason to vote FOR any of these Republican clowns, all they can do is come up with scare tactic like Socialist/Communist, Weather Underground or criminal enterprise or Jew that hates jews and the U.S.A. -- garbage like that.
charlie you wouldn't happen to be vermont's alter ego??
Just a thought try a little fact checking on your own???????
gary K: lol, YOU have FAILED to prove ANYTHING in your post. EPIC Fail.
I'm just making fun of you obama haters and your "commie" nonsense.
you are irrelevant..well, you are a source of humor. :)
Well sir that would make you a troll with legitimate dispute?????
S/B without!!!
you see gary...unless you post obvious facts or accepted wisdom..or unless you have extreme credibility...posting "commies!" just makes you a crazy loon. :)
lets face it, your "material" comes straight from the right wing crazy web sites full of "truth". lol.
I have no dispute at all. I merely point out that you've posted a lot of nonsense randomly selected from a zillion things with zero facts proving your overall case.
i'm sure you are a "legend in your own mind" and think that everything you post is obviously right, but oddly, others here feel differently about you. :)
feel free to prove that obama and his crew are a bunch of die hard commies, using credible sources, and you might not sound like a loon. :)
Simply disassociate any of those I named from obama or name any that are not communist or socialist?
Or call me name or let those that are not a trolls check for themselves??
I post you decide!!!
gary: you really don't get it, do you?
anyone can post anything here..but the crazier it is, the better it should be backed up...or you just come off as a loon.
People screaming "commie" better prove themselves, or they will be in the "loon" category.
why should others "check for themselves"? lol, if you post "aliens have invaded new york!" is your "intelligent" idea that we should all fly to NY to check? lol
Like I said I post you decided,
I concede I have never converted an obama troll and have no desire to.
Vote soros, van jones and obama out of office in 2012!!!!
concede I have never converted an obama troll and have no desire to.
That's because the true troll are the anti American right wing haters like you. The bottom line is guys like you are the best friends liberals have. So -- keep it up.
It's not an innuendo it's a fact while her Mom was being treated for cancer her Father cheated on her and asked for a divorce and than he married #2 they got divorced when he cheated on her with an intern named Callista all the while trying to bring down a President for a bj. Question has he hired wife #4 ?
Actually, she was having a benign tumor removed. That's not exactly "being treated for cancer".
So, no it's not fact, but way to not read the article and perpetuate exactly what she was talking about.
What do you think she would say, that her father is a butt? It's ok that she's a fan of his, but like a few people have said, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. I think, based on everything I've read and heard, she may have inhierted that forked tongue of his. Hope she's not a thief too, or an adulteress or unethical like her dad.
Uhhh, serving your wife divorce papers while she is in the hospital for cancer treatment all the while having had an affair is not "INNUENDO", it is cold hard fact.
Thank God he signed a pro-family values pledge or I would think he is lying, self-absorbed hypocrite.
Try learning to read,and comprehend ....
Well good for them! They have healed and moved on: BUT, while it was GOING on he was cheating and lying about it, and that means he will cheat and lie if he gets to the White House. Of course whats the difference between him and Obama now.
NOTHING. HE lied to get to the White House, lied in his campaign speeches, Because he has NOT lived up to one promise. The exit from Iraq is NOTHING BUT POLITICAL POSTURING now that it is election time.
I am not voting for either one. They both blame other people, Like Obama is blaming the tea party if the House does not pay the tax bill that HE WANTS, so of course it has to be someone else, NOT that his is a big waste of time and money.
Ask Bin Laden if Obama lied, oh that's right, he's dead.
Not one? Bin Laden? Ending the Iraq war? Passing WSR? Passing HCR? Ending the deployment of missles in Poland (Won the Peace Prize with that one) and then,,,,,,,How about Kaddafi? The pirates he ordered taken out, Obama has KEPT 90% of his campaign promises in 3 years, How hard will it be to keep another 10% in one?
Or maybe you are thinking about promises he made to Republicans?? (There were NONE)
the exit from iraq was a timetable established years ago..who knew that bush was looking out for obama's re-election. lol.
google "obama campaign promises" and there are various sites that keep track of the ones he's done, and the one's he hasn't. Anyone who seriously thinks he has not lived up to one promise is completely deluded.
So why isn't Cushman's mother defending Newt's behavior if it was so innocuous and "just part of life"....? No matter how you slice his three marriages, it's his hypocrisy during the Clinton impeachment that really stands out in my mind - - - this is a sick, self-serving, self-righteous person! His sins are excusable because he so passionately loves the flag! Yeah, that works for me! LOL
All these reasons not to be for newt mean nothing!!! I'm against him because the republicans want to destroy AMERICA!!!! ALL REPUBLICANS!!!!
Well I like Newt and he did great things when he was speaker. He is very, very smart. We need a leader and he is the perfect candidate. Out of all the wanna be's, he's the only one with the intellect to get us back on the "right" path. Just out of curiousity to all you haters out there. What has Obama done for you? What has Obama done for any of us? There are some real stupid and mislead people on this discussion so I'll offer the answer: NOTHING!!!
Well I like Newt and he did great things when he was speaker.
What??? Newt didn't do much of anything as speaker other than get his ass handed to him by Clinton, pay the largest fine in history for ethics violations and get kicked out by his own people.
anyone who thinks obama has done "nothing", there is no point in discussing it because you'll just claim each one is 'wrong" or "bad" or blah blah blah. For example, his focus on attacking al quada worldwide has been excellent, you know, going after our real enemies and not ignoring them to storm into iraq, as just one example that makes me feel good about obama.
as far as newt, I don't trust him as president with the keys to our military. That's a huge difference between the job he did as speaker and the job he's running for now. He sounds just crazy enough to do something crazy, and he's got that bush arrogance to make him scary.
What is the "right" path? Really curious to know.
This reminds me of Liz Cheney, an out and proud lesbian, trying to explain her support of (and EMPLOYMENT BY) the gay-bashing Bush/Cheney re-election campaign of 2004. Newt is the sole financial support of his two adult daughters. They are the CEO's of two of the three money machines he has set up to keep himself rich. Callista is the CEO of the third. Newt will use anybody--even his daughters--to feed his ego and add to the tissue of lies about him.
We need Newt! I need Newt! I take money for a living, and bank accounts are fuller when Republicans are in office...Go Newt, my idol (a false one)....
Your Father is a jack-A@@@ and you have some serious issues....
Get some help, because of her fathers actions when she was thirteen, leaving the family the way he did...she has some serious mental health issues, we know for a fact she lies, and probably started making excuses as for him.
she probably blamed her mother, shes dysfunctional, shes a child of divorce. and now she is being an Adult fool.
Wake up and smell the coffee your father is an unethical crook that has robbed the American people has never had a real job. never had to punch a time clock, never had to make a payroll, he was alway there for a paycheck from the American people, never had to pay for his health care. and from the looks of his over blotted body never missed a meal...he a crook
The problem that most GOP & Newt supporters (and their media apologists) have is that they fail to recognize that the GOP claims to stand for "family values" as well as wear their religion on their sleeves, demanding that the rest of us adopt their beliefs (think: abortion, prayer, etc ). Furthermore, while they continue to bash government spending, they are more than happy to feed at the public trough (think: Bachman, Gingrich). In the light of that, most of their politicians are morally bankrupt - that's why the rest of us don't trust them!
Absolutely! Fidelity is important, just ask the Secretary of State. Remember her husband and the "Devil with a Blue Dress Stain" in the Oval office? (Among other things.)
Psuedo Moralistic liberals.
Abortion is legal and that is not going to change. Prayer in most places is illegal, unless it is a moment of silence (what the heck is that, do you day dream, do you think of nothing, who do you pray to if you do ?). A Christmas religious sign had to be taken down in a town in NJ, because one atheist objected. He felt left out. Perhaps they should have a national day for atheist. I will say to them, happy atheist day without any trouble.
Newt is a perfect example of what's wrong in America today....the man can't even manage to stay married,never mind run the country. Personally, he reminds me of everyone's "scary-troll-of-an-Uncle" that no one ever wants to invite for dinner, 'cause he just can't over his hypocritical chubby self. Nice to see republicans finally opening their eyes to see the real newt...a self-centered,one dimensional,condescending liar of a politician. Undeserving of even a single vote.
I'd like to say it's all typical right wing, good old American, god fearin', political spin. Do as I say, not as I do. Or don't question us, we are your leaders, and even though we do things you do not like, we have an inalienble right to do so, and still tell you how to live. Unfortunately, it's part of ALL politics. But because of the right wingers like the recent George W & Co, and the current in you face Tea Party, the right wing has earned a special place for getting it thrown back in their face. IF you want to preach God, country, and family and values like morality and honesty, you HAD BETTER not lying, not enriching yourself at the expense of others, not cheating on your wife, especially more than once, not throwing stones for negative ads when that's what you do, and whatever. Dick Cheney had the protection racket going. "You are with us or against us" It was trust us and we'll protect you. From who? Oh, yeah, you. Like the gang that will NOT bust your windows IF you pay them. Now it's the Tea Party and the line up of right wing self appointed know it all important people who tell us NOT to pay attention to history or facts becasue they know better, EVEN THOUGH they lie, distort facts, brush off personal behavior, and what else, the list is too long. It's almost a joke. But you get what you pay for and the Tea Party wanted true, pure conservatives. You got them. Not that Newt is the worst of them but it says VOLUMES that he is NOT.
Newt was a bomb throwing back bench hack from GA in the '80s...his bluster and in your face partisanship helped him rise to be Speaker after the '94 election where he took his brand of mud-slinging, "gotcha" politics to new heights. He ultimately eviscerated himself on his own hubristic sword, now he and his daughter want to complain about all the "nasty" things they said about the Grinch back in the 90's...LMAO
Newt deserves to be hung from the very partisan political gallows that he was so instrumental in creating.
Politics is never about the issues in this country. Politicians are the scum of the earth. It is always about how much they can scam from the tax payers. There are never bad economic times for these low life scum. Even if voted out of Office they have set them selves up for life with pensions and perks you would not believe.
Nothing will bring you closer to Jesus than to run for president.
THIS IS THE PROBLEM JACKIE
While " Hiiiiisssss Cheeeetuuuun Haaaarrrrrt " was persecuting President Clinton for infidelity, that fat teeerrrd was rackin up some frequent flyer miles with women that would not have looked at the pillsbury doughboy twice if he didnt have bribery, sorry lobbying money to shower them with.
They weren't 'persecuting' Clinton for infidelity, they were impeaching him for lying under oath to congress. A crime that currently has Roger Clemens facing a maximum of 30 years in prison.
Skup what's wrong with your memory? He did not lie, and the Republicans that were in power at the time took a beating in 98 for their treachery, they turned on Newt like the pack of backstabbing coniving rabid pigs that they are.
Don't you remember "what you mean by is"?
But of course, you have issues