The Private Lives of Men who Would be President: Newt Gingrich

Late word that one of Newt Gingrich's ex-wives has sat for a 2-hour  interview with ABC News is causing shock waves that might just finally derail his presidential bid for good. Marianne Gingrich — who divorced The Newter in 1999 — spoke with investigative reporter Brian Ross about the former speaker's conduct during their 18-year marriage, so expect no pulled punches or genteel restraint. The interview is likely to run on Nightline (ABC, 11:35 pm) tonight, and is sure to affect Saturday's South Carolina primary.

All matters of morality or presidential fitness aside, the American public has what seems to be an insatiable appetite for "gotcha" moments like these, especially when involving matters best left behind closed and locked doors. So the question becomes: Should one's personal life be factored into the equation when it comes to judging political horseflesh, or is the bedroom irrelevant to what happens in the boardroom, cabinet meetings or when dealing with prickly foreign leaders?

Historically, it seems on the surface that a chief executive with a healthy libidinal instinct might make a better leader than one in the grips of repression. Our memories of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Bill Clinton — both of whom frequently dallied with the opposite sex — are far more savory than those of Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter. As randy Henry Kissinger once said: "Power is the great aphrodisiac (though his pursuit of blonde bombshell Mamie van Doren went awry when she got wind of his rancid socks!)."

Of course, just because a political alpha-male has an unceasing appetite for sexual trysts doesn't necessarily guarantee their efficacy as sage and sober leaders. Let's not forget that Chairman Mao Tse-tung and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (a legendary Viagra abuser) were also obsessed with women, yet "blowing off steam" did little to curb their murderous and repressive impulses when it came to their constituencies. Or looked at another way, perhaps their objectification of women is close cousin to how they treated their citizens — impersonally, as means to a selfish and sordid end.

In Europe, such a loose lifestyle hardly raises any eyebrows, though the blinding media glare after the revelation of private behavior can have chilling effects on one's political fortunes. Witness the recent scandal in France concerning the lurid life of Dominique Strauss-Kahn or Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose orgies involving teenagers have become front-page news. Guys like these make FDR and Clinton seem like prim and proper choir-boys.

And then there was Newt, whose problem doesn't just seem to be an excessive amount of sexual interest as much as his manner of dealing with the much-vaunted family values his party is so fond of stressing. Remember, this is a man whose first marriage was to his high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, with whom he had a furtive romance when he was only sixteen. Then there are the divorce papers he served her when she was in the hospital awaiting surgery. According to a former close friend of Gingrich, Leonard "Kip" Carter, the Speaker told him at the time that: "You know and I know that she's not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of a president."

Ahem. Well, folks, I'll leave the gavel in your able and wise hands. I myself don't care if the chef preparing my steak is a saint or a killer, as long as he makes sure to deliver the steer properly medium-rare. But should we expect our national leaders to behave toward their significant others in an ethical and loving manner (a la Jimmy Carter) and risk having an ineffective chief executive? Maybe a heartless narcissist is just what the doctor ordered in these troubled times. Good man, bad president or bad man, good president? If only it were that simple....