"The thing is, I don’t think Newt Gingrich was actually asking for an “open marriage,” per se. Even Marianne admits that’s her phrasing. What she specifically said that he asked for was that she accept that he have both his wife and his mistress. Which, while we are all having a good snicker at Mr. Family Values asking his wife for this, the reality is that a powerful man having a wife to take care of him professionally and socially while keeping a mistress to care for him emotionally and sexually fits right into the traditional culture that Gingrich is always blathering about bringing back. This was even enshrined in the law of Victorian England, for instance, which allowed men to sue for divorce on the grounds of adultery, but didn’t extend that right to women."
— Newt Gingrich didn’t want an “open marriage.” He wanted a mistress.
