Hypocrisy? Ex-Wife Says Newt Gingrich Wanted Open Marriage

So far one LGBT rights group is calling on Newt Gingrich to quit the race for president in response to the revelation that he once asked for an open marriage, calling it "a new standard for hypocrisy in politics."

ABC's Nightline released video of an interview with Marianne Gingrich, the candidate's second wife, in which she claims the former speaker of the House had asked her for an open marriage or a divorce. In an interview with The Washington Post, she said the request came even as he was touring the country talking about family values.

"How could he ask me for a divorce on Monday and within 48 hours give a speech on family values and talk about how people treat people?" she told the Post.

In the Nightline interview, which will air tonight, Marianne Gingrich describes the way her former husband asked for the arrangement.

"I said to him we've been married a long time, and he said, yes, but you want me all to yourself," she says as she remembers learning that he was having an affair with his Callista (now his wife), who he claimed "doesn't care what I do."

Wayne Besen, executive director for Truth Wins Out, reacted with outrage to the interview, which Newt Gingrich has refused to comment on in the press, calling it inappropriate.

"If the allegation is true, Newt Gingrich has done the impossible by setting a new standard for hypocrisy in politics," Besen said in a statement. "I'd call such actions unconscionable, but that would wrongly suggest that Gingrich has a conscience."

Besen points out that Gingrich has a track record of opposing same-sex marriage and denigrating LGBT families based on his family values argument. He toldTheDes Moines Register, "I am defending a value system which has a several-thousand-year history behind it, which is pretty clear. And I think that almost nobody who studies that value system has any doubts about that clarity."

Gingrich signed a pledge from the National Organization for Marriage, which is partly sponsoring a debate tonight in South Carolina, and it puts him on the record as supporting an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage. He's also said he would consider reinstating "don't ask, don't tell. "

"Gingrich has worked to deny LGBT people the right to marry based on his professed family values, but may have failed to disclose that his definition of family might include an open relationship with a mistress," Besen said.

Gay presidential candidate Fred Karger points out that Gingrich might still deny the allegation. But he said if it's true, then "It is the ultimate in hypocrisy."

"We knew this was going on -- he would cheat on one wife with his next and that's been evident, and it's slimy," Karger told The Advocate. "I'm not calling for him to resign, but I think he certainly owes more" of an explanation.

"I hope he will be a little more understanding of people who might be different than he," Karger said.