Gingrich Puts A Price On His Family Values : He Sheltered His $4-Million Book Bonanza From His Struggling, Non-Trophy Ex-Wife.

Newt Gingrich on his first wife, Jackie Battley: "She's not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of the President. And besides, she has cancer."

The news that Newt Gingrich will receive $4 million from Rupert Murdoch's publishing house must have been greeted with dismay by his former wife, Jacqueline, down in Carroll County, Ga. Newt had pulled a fast one. It was only nine months ago that she consented to the congressman's request for an amendment to their divorce decree that bars her from claiming additional funds due to an increase in his earnings.

Not to be too harsh on Newt, it must be terribly difficult balancing pro-family values with a commitment to a Darwinian survival of the fittest in the marketplace. Newt the congressman-author is a winner in life's sweepstakes, Jacqueline the schoolteacher-mother is a loser, and that must be the way God and/or Adam Smith intended it.

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