Gingrich's Wife Drove Off Staff

And his Mediterranean cruise was the last straw
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 10, 2011 9:35 AM CDT
Newt Gingrich's Wife Callista Drove Off 2012 Staff: Rumor Mill
Newt Gingrich and Callista Gingrich pose for photos during a December function in Washington in this file photo.   (Getty Images)

What drove the entire Gingrich 2012 senior staff to simultaneously resign in protest? Two words, says Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard: Callista Gingrich. Barnes doesn’t cite any sources—not even anonymous ones—but he says the aides were fed up with the amount of control Gingrich gave his wife, who essentially pushed for a part-time campaign. The final straw, apparently, was the Gingrichs’ just-concluded two-week Mediterranean cruise, which Callista insisted on despite the staff’s objections.

In a New York Times profile last month, Callista was described as lukewarm about the prospect of a White House run. But Barnes says she had nonetheless supplanted Newt's oldest allies—including aide-de-camp Rick Tyler and Sam Dawson, who's been with Gingrich for more than thirty years—to become Newt's foremost adviser. With fundraising down, the staff believed Gingrich could not win without a vigorous campaign, so while he was away at sea, they planned their mutiny. (More Callista Gingrich stories.)

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