"Newt's daughter says hospital bed divorce story a myth"

Mother Jones apparently completely botched the story on Newt's first divorce. This story has been particularly devastating for Newt's image. It is nice to know that it has been cleared up.

. . . Cushman, Gingrich's daughter from his first marriage, writes that her parents discussed splitting up long before the infamous 1980 hospital visit — a devastating anecdote that's haunted the former House speaker for years.

"You can look them up online if you are interested in untruths," she wrote last week in her syndicated column. "But here's what happened: My mother and father were already in the process of getting a divorce, which she requested. Dad took my sister and me to the hospital to see our mother. She had undergone surgery the day before to remove a tumor. The tumor was benign. As with many divorces, it was hard and painful for all involved, but life continued. As have many families, we have healed; we have moved on."

Mother Jones first reported the incident in 1984 and described it as Gingrich asking his wife for a divorce shortly after cancer surgery. . . .