All That Glitters May Redefine Run along Gingrich - NYTimes.com

On CBS Newss Face the Nation, Mr. Gingrich called the credit line a criterion, no-interest account.

Tiffanys or knockoffs? The Gingrich campaign wont say. But at this point, it no longer materials, along to political strategists of both parties. What matters, they say, is that the Tiffany story is sticking to Mr. Gingrich, helping to define or perhaps redefine him in the fussy early days of his command for the Republican presidential nomination.

In Iowa, where Mr. Gingrich drew huge crowds last week, The Iowa Republican, a political Web site, ran a scathing critique captioned How a Fiscal Conservative Spends $500K at Tiffanys. The sites redactor, Craig Robinson, a former political adviser for the state Republican Party, said the essay was submitted by a political activist who was completely turned off by the expenditures.

The episode also strengthened what campaign strategists like to cry negatives in Mr. Gingrichs circumstance, questions about his private life, which includes two divorces and a six-year mystery business with Mrs. Gingrich, then Callista Bisek, when she was a House aide and he was speaker.

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But out in Iowa, Mr. Robinson says buying jewelry on credit somehow feels assorted from buying a refrigerator or a fashionable bathing machine. Rich Galen, a sometime Gingrich aide, agrees.

The way some voters out in the repose of America might watch it, hes a guy who paid more for jewelry than some people pay for their houses.

Its not someone that normal human do, Mr. Galen said. I understand hes made a lot of money and hes done quite well, and God congratulate him for it, merely thats arrange of a departure from the Newt Gingrich that I knew.

Mr. Gingrichs position is sort of a twofer, which is why it is particularly damaging, said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist. It heaves questions about his commitment to fiscal restraint, Mr. Lehane said, and too activities into a dominating anecdote line about absence of discipline and being reckless, which has been a persistent chapter of his political and public life.

The Gingrich campaign had wished that, later 11 years of wedding, he could present himself as a stable family male. Now Mr. Gingrich is the butt of but variant round of late-night television infidelity jokes. Five hundred thousand at Tiffanys? the comedian Stephen Colbert inquired. Theres a uncomplicated explanation. The guy clearly buys his engagement rings in bulk.

The Tiffany spokesman, Carson Glover, said the enterprise attempts customers a revolving credit card accord with state-specific rates; those who hold such cards are qualified for up to 12 months of interest-free borrowing if they spend extra than $1,000 on an vow ring or $5,000 on other goods.

WASHINGTON To the long menu of rich-guy foibles that turned into defining campaign moments John Edwardss $400 haircut,What namely The Successful Image Fashion And Elegant, John Kerrys kite-surfing, John McCains inability to memorize how many homes he owns let us now join Newt Gingrichs $500,000 revolving line of credit at the luxury jeweler Tiffany & Company.

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Callista Gingrich gleamed at a screening.

If the U.S. administration was as debt-free as I am, everybody in America would be celebrating, he said. I calculate I have proven I can manage money.

But the glittering necklace of diamonds that Mrs. Gingrich wore last month to the Washington premiere of the couples latest documentary movie looks strikingly like one that Tiffany advertises for $45,000. And Time journals Web site on Tuesday posted a slide show of Mrs. Gingrich wearing assorted baubles that seemed straight out of the Tiffany catalog, including what looks like a $22,000 couple of diamond and gold starburst earrings influenced by electrons orbiting in the nucleus of one atom.

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As House speaker, Mr. Gingrich preached the virtues of fiscal conservatism; now he is struggling apt annotate how costing massive sums on jewelry fits in with that philosophy. And while a negotiator because Tiffany accustomed Tuesday namely Mr. Gingrich had paid the debt in full, with not amuse, parrying answers about a six-figure jewelry bill is hardly what his movement needs by the time while many Americans are out of go or have lost their families.

Mr. Gingrich, of way, is hardly the 1st politician to convert a sudden character of spending excess. In the 2008 campaign, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, presented herself to voters as an ordinary hockey mom, only to face revelations that the Republican Party had spent $150,000 on a designer wardrobe. Mr. Edwards styled himself the son of a mill worker, an image contradicted by his pricey haircut.

It has been a week since Politico broke the newspaper that while working for the House Agriculture Committee, Mr. Gingrichs wife, Callista, filed fashions for 2005 and 2006 disclosing her husbands revolving charge of $250,001 to $500,000 with Tiffany. Mr. Gingrich, insisting his jewelry buying habits are his own commerce, has declined to say what he bought.

The path Mr. Gingrich sees it, as he said on Face the Nation on Sunday, hes a guy scampering for chancellor who pays all of his bills, who lives within his allowance and who is in truth very frugal.

A $45,000 Tiffany necklace looks favor one worn by Callista Gingrich.

Its peculiar; I dont think hes ever working to live it down, Mr. Robinson said. There arent many $500,000 homes in Iowa, so we cant even measure $500,000 in credit card debt, let alone to a high-end jewelry store.

Mr. Gingrich, who has grown rich in recent years by issuing books, making videos and delivering lectures, says it is not recklessness at entire; on Face the Nation, he mentioned that he owes no money besides for his pledge payments on 1 rental attribute in Wisconsin, his wifes home state.

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