No surprise, Newt lied, he has no friends

You'll recall John King opened the South Carolina debate by asking Newt Gingrich about his second wife's claim he asked for an open marriage while he was boinking Callista on the side. Newt reacted with great indignation. Newt pounded the lectern and roared, "Every personal friend I have who knew us in that period says the story is false." Newt further claimed these friends were offered to ABC News and ABC refused to give them air time to refute Marianne Gingrich's allegations.

Well, now comes his campaign spokesmouth who admits, Newt lied. He has no friends who were willing to speak to ABC on his behalf. The only "witnesses" Gingrich proffered were his two daughters, who were duly quoted in the news cycle right along.

Politico calls this confession "(a)n important victory for John King in his ongoing effort to justify last Thursday's confrontation." Wonder what they're smoking over there?

John King still looks like an idiot. He had two shots at Newt. As someone who almost always thinks of a killer comeback an hour after an argument is over, I had some sympathy for his failure to confront Newt the first time. It was an unexpected and aggressive response. But King had another chance with a second interview. When King told Newt that the campaign didn't actually produce any alleged friends willing to testify on his behalf, he allowed Gingrich to call it a bunch of baloney. What kind of victory is that? It's pure journalistic incompetence.

King had plenty of time to prepare for the second round. As I mentioned after the debate, the appropriate response would have been to ask Newt to produce the names of these ignored friends. As it stands the victory goes to CNN for forcing the campaign to finally admit Newt lied.

Meanwhile, Newt still wins because his fan base doesn't watch CNN and I think it's a safe bet this won't be mentioned on Fox "News." [original image]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]