Newt Gingrich
Former Speaker of the House and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich isn't a fan of monogamy or a fan of ethics. Gingrich married his first wife, Jackie Battley, who had been his high school geometry teacher, in 1962 when he was 19 and she was 26. They had two children. After almost 20 years of marriage, he left her in 1980, while she was cancer stricken and in the hospital recovering from surgery, after starting an affair with Marianne Ginther. In 1993, while married to Marianne, Gingrich began a new affair with House staffer Callista Bisek, 23 years his junior. In January 2012, Marianne alleged on ABC's Nightline that Newt suggested they have an open marriage so he could be with Callista. Marianne declined. And there's more below.
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If leaving his wife for his mistress, twice, wasn't bad enough, Gingrich did all this while criticising President Clinton for a scandal of his own. Gingrich spearheaded the attempt to impeach Clinton, while keeping his own affairs secret. Gingrich had previously called for the expulsion of the Congressmen involved in the congressional page scandal in 1983, brought ethics charges against then-Democratic Speaker Jim Wright, which ultimately led to Wright's resignation, and criticised Democratic ethical lapses in 1990. All the while, Gingrich was also found guilty of check kiting in the House Bank Scandal, and eighty-four ethics charges were filed against him during his term as Speaker, all but one of which were eventually dropped. Gingrich was so unpopular with his own party, including then-Republican conference chairman John Boehner, that was asked to step down. He resigned his position and his seat in 1998.
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