Over the last two days, both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, perhaps reacting to Newt Gingrich’s announcement of his forthcoming announcement concerning his presidential ambitions, have published pieces about Gingrich’s “secret weapon.” According to The Times, it just may be Callista Gingrich, Newt’s former mistress and current wife, while the Journal identified Gingrich’s “secret weapon” as his conglomerate of “advocacy and for-profit groups,” known unofficially as Newt Inc. So which is more secret, more weapon-like? Callista, a French-horn player and former House Agriculture Committee employee, might do well to turn up the enthusiasm. “At Villanova University on a recent Thursday night, Mrs. Gingrich warmed up the audience for a showing of the couple’s movie about Pope John Paul II by signing books and DVDs in her left-handed curlicue,” The Times reported. “But when asked whether she is ready for the scrutiny a campaign would bring, she smiled tightly and grew silent.” Friends worry that, like millions of other Republicans, she’s not thrilled about the idea of another Gingrich campaign. Still, the couple’s obvious fondness for one another may help prospective voters forget about Gingrich’s morally checkered few marriages.
And, in a stunning synergistic turn, Callista Gingrich is the president of Gingrich Productions, the cultural arm of Newt Inc. (According to The Times, she “is especially hands-on with the musical scores.”) Is Gingrich’s secret weapon another secret weapon’s secret weapon?