GREENVILLE, S.C. — While Newt Gingrich was onstage Wednesday
night at the Pro-Life Presidential Forum here, journalists in the
back of the Hilton Hotel ballroom were learning — via their
laptops, iPads, and cell phones — that Matt Drudge had just broken
an exclusive story that might completely change the race for South
Carolina’s crucial Republican primary.
“NEWT EX-WIFE UNLOADS” was the banner headline, linking to
Drudge’s own
report that Gingrich’s ex-wife Marianne had given a two-hour
interview to Brian Ross of ABC News with “explosive revelations.”
According to Drudge, there was a debate about the “ethics” of
airing the interview prior to Saturday’s primary vote here, but the
Associated Press subsequently reported that ABC is “likely” to
broadcast it late Thursday night on the network’s “Nightline”
program. According to the Washington Post, an ABC
spokesman has
indicated the network will release excerpts from the interview
during the day on Thursday.
Depending on what that interview contains, its potential
to have a last-minute impact on the South Carolina primary results
is difficult to calculate. However, no one can doubt that it may
devastate Gingrich’s prospects to become the “Anybody But Mitt”
candidate whom many conservatives have hoped would prevent the
nomination of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. And it is just
one of many twists and turns in the hard-fought campaign here in
the state where Republicans proudly boast, “We pick
presidents.”
The effort to stop Romney, the moderate frontrunner, has
entered a desperate phase. Gingrich himself
said Wednesday that if Romney wins South Carolina, the 2012
primary campaign is effectively over. And the former House Speaker
was apparently feeling so confident after his strong debate showing
Monday in Myrtle Beach that he was the man to beat Romney here that
he suggested that two of his GOP rivals — former Pennsylvania Sen.
Rick Santorum and Texas Gov. Rick Perry — should drop out and
endorse him, “consolidating into a Gingrich candidacy” for the sake
of “the conservative movement.” That was Tuesday and on Wednesday,
one of the most vocal early supporters of Perry’s campaign, Erick
Erickson of Red State, joined in
calling for the Texan to quit the race. A spokesman for Perry
dismissed Erickson as “a pundit sitting behind a computer
somewhere,” evidently ignoring the fact that Erickson introduced
Perry at the governor’s Aug. 13 official announcement of his
candidacy in South Carolina, where Perry began his speech by
saying, “Howdy. Thank you, Erick.”
Perry is currently dead last in the
RealClearPolitics Average of polls in South Carolina, a state
where he led by 23 points in one poll taken shortly after he
entered the GOP race five months ago. The clear cause of Perry’s
downfall was the same factor that has contributed so much to
Gingrich’s rise, the televised debates that have exercised such an
enormous influence in the long campaign for the Republican
nomination. After a series of debate debacles in September, Perry’s
support collapsed and, despite the expenditure of millions of
dollars by his campaign, he has been unable to recapture any of his
once-formidable momentum. Perry was reportedly ready to quit after
a fifth-place finish in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, but decided
instead to skip the New Hampshire campaign to come to South
Carolina and attempt a last stand here. Another embarrassing defeat
in Saturday’s vote will almost certainly end his campaign, which
was why both Erickson and popular conservative talk-radio host
Laura Ingraham on Wednesday called for him to drop out and endorse
Gingrich before the primary.
That seems unlikely, given that Perry has in recent days
made pointed references to the Alamo, where Texans famously fought
to the death. Yet the “Anybody But Mitt” conservatives expressed
concern that Perry might in effect play the role of a spoiler in
the Palmetto State, draining away enough votes to enable Romney to
score a decisive victory. And the man suggested as the only hope to
stop Romney — not only by Erickson and Ingraham, but also in an
almost-endorsement Tuesday by Sarah Palin — is Gingrich, whose
campaign suddenly seems at risk from his ex-wife’s interview with
ABC News.
As of Wednesday evening, there were no details of what
Marianne Gingrich told ABC’s Ross, but it serves as a reminder of
the thrice-married former House Speaker’s controversial past. His
current wife was a congressional staffer when Gingrich began an
affair with her while he was still married to Marianne, and that
affair occurred even while Gingrich was leading House Republicans
to impeach President Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Thus, his second wife’s TV interview would fit with the theme of an
ad that a pro-Romney “super
PAC” is airing in South Carolina and Florida, which says “Newt…
has more baggage than the airlines.” Gingrich’s baggage problem was
clearly in the mind of one South Carolina voter Wednesday
night.
“Newt is really his own worst enemy,” said Cliff Poynter
of Greer, S.C., who joined his two adult sons for a late-evening
meal at a McDonald’s in Greenville. “He’s a tremendous debater and
a brilliant thinker with a flawed character. If the Republicans are
going to beat Obama, the election has to be about Obama and his
policies. But if Newt becomes the nominee, it’s going to be easy
for the Democrats to make it about Newt, his past and his lack of
character.”
Poynter described himself as “very pro-life,” adding that
he married his high-school sweetheart 37 years ago and they have
five children, and expressed his support for Santorum. Unlike
Gingrich, Santorum has downplayed suggestions that the GOP battle
will end if Romney wins here, insisting that he’s prepared to make
a long-term campaign for the nomination, whatever the odds against
him or whatever the result on Saturday. While Santorum has
apparently lost some of the surging momentum that enabled him to
battle Romney to a draw in Iowa, he continues to urge voters to
“stand up and fight” for their conservative convictions.
There will be another debate tonight, in Charleston (8
p.m. ET on CNN), and it remains to be seen if the last-minute
developments will reshape the results in the state that has voted
for the eventual Republican nominee in every primary since South
Carolinians voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980.
