It may surprise you to learn that the United States as of today has only two serving, Senate approved Ambassadors, Nikki Haley, the envoy to the United Nations and David Freedman, the Ambassador to Israel. All of the other 131 ambassadorial positions remain empty and unfilled. So, I was blindsided when Donald Trump nominated Callista Gingrich for the position of Ambassador to The Holy See the Vatican.
Her nomination signals all that is wrong with politics as usual. Her nomination is not based on her accomplishments, which are nonexistent except that she blows, amongst other things, a mean French horn. It’s naked political payback, a quid pro quo, for Newt Gingrich’s unwavering and continued support of Donald Trump’s disastrous policies. What makes this nomination all the more odious is its sheer hypocrisy – the nomination of an open and notorious adulteress now married to a serially philandering husband to a religious city state that professes to be guided by the Ten Commandments which include the prohibition against adultery and coveting thy neighbor’s wife.
I am no beacon of moral rectitude. I have sinned mightily and I have enjoyed those sinful pleasures but never a hypocrite was I. I do not perform weekly with the Choir of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC as Callista proudly declares. I did not carry on an open and notorious affair with New Gingrich, a married man, as Callista admits, nor did I demand my married lover divorce his second wife who just happened to be dying of cancer.
America’s long, robust history of misogyny is alive and well and resides temporarily in the White House. The current resident boasts of grabbing women by the pussy, using his fame to fuck them, groping them without consent, of doing whatever he wants. His lack of moral compass within and without his well-documented serial marriages and affairs is a matter of public record. His morals are in tune with Callista’s.
With the making of this nomination Donald Trump has validated Callista and Newt’s past behavior. He has placed Pope Francis in a difficult position. The Pope has but two options: one, he can reject the Letters of Credence, the Ambassador’s credentials, by refusing to receive them, forcing Trump to find another more suitable candidate; or two, he can “suck it up” and accept Clarissa’s credentials finding that her adulterous behavior acceptable and for Clarissa and God to deal with privately, and not something a Pope should deal with.
I doubt that Pope Francis has the balls to choose option #1 which would be a declaration of war. The Roman Catholic Church is as divided as America’s body politic. I doubt that Francis needs more enemies within his Church and he surely does not want to antagonize Trump’s religious base, the Evangelical right.
The Evangelical right with the likes of Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, Jerry Fallwell, Jimmy and Tammy Faye Baker has validated Callista and Newt’s behavior in years past, as have the main stream Protestant denominations. Francis’ Roman Catholic Church with its own brand of expanded misogyny – predatory pederast priests and monsignors – will do well to abstain from taking a moral stand.
The Pope will suck it up and make the best of it and Callista, once a concubine but now a proper wife – Newt’s prior marriage of 19 years was magically annulled – will be America’s emissary. She will be Vatican’s newest femme fatale, bedecked with Tiffany baubles worth millions, her porcelain face framed by an “impervious platinum helmet of hair”. Makes my heart swell with pride.
Deyan Ranko Brashich is a contributor writing from New York. He is the author of Letters from America, Contrary Views and Dispatches. His contact and blog “Contrary Views” is at www.deyanbrashich.com