Phony e-mails say Gingrich forced abortion on ex-wife

[denem]

January 20, 2012
CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57363111-503544/phony-e-mails-say-gingrich-forced-abortion-on-ex-wife/

Newt Gingrich's campaign says a press release that appears to come the his campaign "regarding reports that he forced ex-wife Marianne Gingrich to terminate a pregnancy" is a fake.

The fake press release, which you can see above, came from an email address in which the "1" in 2012 is replaced by what appears to be a lower-case "L." A search of an online web registry shows that someone registered "newt20l2.org" (with the lowercase L) today. Their name was withheld.

The fake release, in which Gingrich is quoted as saying "I have made mistakes in my life. This was one of them," comes on the heels of a fake CNN Breaking News alert sent overnight to Republicans in South Carolina, which holds its primary tomorrow. The false email claimed that "[a] source close to Marianne Gingrich tells CNN that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich forced her to abort a pregnancy conceived during the affair that preceeded her marriage to Gingrich."

Marianne Gingrich, the former House Speaker's second wife, told ABC News and the Washington Post this week that Gingrich asked her to participate in an "open marriage." She did not allege that Gingrich forced her to abort a pregnancy.

Note to Newt: Ask John McCain about the 2000 SC Primary.

[niyad]

1. gee, newtie, how does it feel to be on the receiving end of your kinds of dirty tricks?

you know, I wouldn't put it past him to have actually done this himself to garner sympathy as the poor, abused, maligned upstanding person he is.

[Zenlitened]

5. Had that same thought, may be a sympathy ploy. -nt

[The Wielding Truth]

39. Yep. Rove strikes again!

[nanabugg]

55. I believe the Newt camp did this themselves.

They know full well how the dingbats think in SC. Only they would be able to think up such trash.

[rhett o rick]

10. I might agree if the subject was anything other than abortion. Any connection, even if proven

false, will not set well with his base. This has KKKarl Rove written all over it.

[yardwork]

13. It seems a little ham-handed for Rove. I'm thinking Romney team.

[rhett o rick]

14. I guess I dont understand your use fo "ham-handed". Seems like a typical Rovian dirty trick. nm

[yardwork]

15. I meant that it's not a very well-executed dirty trick. It fell flat.

Rove's dirty tricks are usually managed a little better than this. This one has no legs. It's obviously a dirty trick. It won't change anybody's mind. If anything it might raise some sympathy for Newt.

[rhett o rick]

17. I think that any connection of The Newt and abortion will hurt him with his base, whether true or

not. Just my opinion.

[yardwork]

21. It's possible. I'm just happy that they're still shooting one another in the feet. Hope it continues

[a simple pattern]

22. Maybe it's an inoculation.

It sounds exactly like something he'd do.

[yardwork]

25. If there's any truth to it, then Rove would innoculate against it by leaking a similar lie.

I take it that's what you meant?

Either way, I don't believe that Newt will be damaged by his infidelities. Republicans don't care. They will vote for anybody who feeds their greed.

[a simple pattern]

33. I was thinking he may have been caught off guard by her revelation of the "open marriage" proposal.

If the abortion story is true, he would want to get ahead of it/cast doubts about the validity.

I think some of the Republican base will be lost whatever candidate they go with... if their jobs have been offshored, they're not going to vote for Romney; if they are Evangelicals, they won't come out for mean old cheating Newt; I guess the only one they would all come out for is Santorum, he's so corrupt that the money interests will know he's their guy and so sanctimoniously evil that

OK I scared myself and I'm going to stop now

[yardwork]

43. Don't worry about Santorum. He's not going to get the nomination. Even PA loathes him.

[boppers]

38. It's a Santorum innoculation.

His wife aborted by early birth.

[rhett o rick]

28. Thom Hartmann was saying on his radio show that maybe after the repukes get

done hammering each other, the public will be sick of it and when it comes time for the general, the public will no longer be interested in how much money Money-Bags has off-shore. Is that the type of inoculation you are referring to?

[SomeGuyInEagan]

29. Dunno. It's January ... most of the public isn't even thinking about the election yet.

We - plus the media (news and advertising) and those who live in the early caucus and primary states - are the minority. IMO, most people don't start paying real attention until August. I've heard more than one national-level politician say the same.

That said, my first thought was Newt did this in order to soundly deny it and get his name in the news cycle in SC one more time before the primary.

[bklyncowgirl]

41. I was in a library today and I heard a couple of retirees discussing Romney's Cayman Islands account

They seemed to be knowledgable--perhaps retired Wall Street types. By the way, they thought he was hiding something.

My thought is that was some other GOP type trying to get rid of two time bomb candidates--Could it be Rove?

[wordpix]

30. Rove is for Romney so it's one and the same

Personally, I'm loving the rats fighting and maiming each other

[MADem]

50. Romney's the one with the "abortion problem." After all, he was against it before he was for it,

and that was before he decided he was against it again.

For that reason, I think your thesis has merit!

[sabrina 1]

18. Rove has done this kind of thing.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out they did it themselves.

[treestar]

47. +1

This is the kind of thing Republicans do.

[brewens]

2. Because he had syphilis? That would explain alot! n/t

[denem]

3. not to mention Newt's black baby n/t

[yardwork]

26. Love it!

[Zenlitened]

4. Plots within plots? Perhaps Newt's own team sent it...

...hoping to place doubts on all the rotten things he really has done?

I dunno.

But if anyone is capable of that level (depth?) of cynicism, I'm sure Gingrich is.

And anyone who supports him is, pretty much by definition, morally or ethically deficient as well.

So...

[denem]

6. Newt is more cynical than Karl?

I don't buy it. Karl's won every gold platinum and diamond medals out there for muck.

[Overseas]

49. Newt pushed the Language Control and Rove Pushed the Smear Control DIY

Put out some fakes to disguise the truth and make all moral challenges repugnant.

And I thought they were chums.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

31. Newt would have to be a sociopath to plan that

oh, wait ...

[Zenlitened]

40. I wuz about to say... !!

[Justice wanted]

7. I never thought this day would come... POPCORN PLEASE!!!

[DCBob]

8. Even though I cant stand Gringrich this stuff is sick.

Remarkable some Republicans are willing to stoop to such levels just to win an election. This is the kind of stuff we may have to deal with in the general.

[emilyg]

34. Do you know or sure

it came from Republicans?

[DCBob]

42. Probably 99% sure.

do you have another theory?

[blm]

9. This shit is standard ops for some Bob Jones profs and RW activists with longtime ties to BushInc.

They will say ANYTHING, they have no bounds and have the network to pull it off. They started the whole chain FAX bullshit that evolved into chain emails. Alot of those fictitious emails we've seen over the last 15 years, usually with a military name attached originated with this pack of crazy BobJonesers who think their lies are allowed because they do it for their 'religious' goals.

[rhett o rick]

11. It's no secret that Karl Rove's masters dont like The Newt. This smells of the Karl. nm

[fantomas]

12. "Make the bastard deny it!" -LBJ

--From Hunter S. Thompson's probably apocryphal story of LBJ's first run for Congress. LBJ supposedly called a news conference to accuse his opponent of having carnal relations with farm animals.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

32. That reminds me of a retort in a star trek movie

"Well, not JUST farm animals"

dumb movie, but a funny line.

[MADem]

51. That poor, mythical pig! nt

[Loudmxr]

16. This is why I love DU!! You people beat me to two punch lines!!

I came in late.

Just reading the headline I thought two things.

It has Karl Rove all over it.

Marianne had to abort the baby because it was black.

to you my witty friends.

[brewens]

27. Yup. You gotta be quick. Unlike the Freepers, where if you were quick

witted, it would just go over their heads anyway, so why bother. You don't type up something funny there and find someone beat you to the punch.

[sufrommich]

19. How delicious is it to watch the party of Rove and Atwater

attack one of it's own? I have never enjoyed a primary battle more than this,outstanding.

[McCamy Taylor]

20. Shades of CREEP---this time in the GOP primary.

The obvious suspect is a Romney supporter, but do not rule out the possibility that this is a non Republican trying to smear both Newt and Mittens.

[Kalidurga]

35. If it was a non-Republican trying to smear Newt...

they would say that he was helping out at a soup kitchen or he gave some money to a poor black family to help them out while they were going to college or something.

[cosmicone]

23. Newt's team must have done it

By releasing something outrageous and denying it, they can make it appear that everything Marianne Gingrich told is suspect and it neutralizes her somewhat.

[Zenlitened]

45. Entirely possible. We are, after all, dealing with people...

... who truly are morally grotesque.

Sick in ways and to depths that would shock ordinary, decent people if they took the opportunity to really look closely.

[liberal N proud]

24. The scum attacking the scum

[Major Nikon]

36. Looks like something the brilliant Ron Paul fanboys would dream up

Ayn Rand said there were no ethical problems with it.

[jmowreader]

37. False-flag operation...

There is no reason whatsoever to tell lies about Newt Gingrich in an attempt to smear him; the things he has actually done are bad enough. Newt's people could have sent the message, denounced it as the work of unknown (name one of the three)-affiliated operatives, and gain lots of sympathy.

[Warren Stupidity]

44. Ok so the emails are fake, but what about the story itself?

[the_chinuk]

46. Please, God, if you make Newt Obama's oppo, I might just start believing in you again ... n/t

[yurbud]

48. Does Newt need more personal dirt to sink him? No. But if this story was false, it HELPS him:

Now whenever someone asks about his multiple marriages, adultery, and request for an open marriage, he can end with ''but it is NOT true that I asked my second wife for an abortion.''

If he added that in response to a single allegation, it would at least muddy the waters, so some of the knuckledraggers might think, ''Gosh, some of what they says about the Newt is true and some ain't? I don't know betwixt which I can believe then,'' or ''If some ain't true, the rest probly ain't as likely a snot.''

[MADem]

52. That would make me think that he asked his first wife, or some odd girlfriend, to have one. nt

[yurbud]

53. Like W saying he hadn't used drugs since 1973

when Karl Rove was on vacation

[MADem]

54. Yep! nt