Leave it to Newt Gingrich to turn a question about second wife’s statement that he had requested an open marriage into an opportunity to go after the media. His gambit worked brilliantly with tonight’s debate audience in Charleston. I suspect it worked with a lot of Republican voters, too.

"I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like this," Gingrich said with great outrage after CNN’s moderator, John King, asked (rather politely I thought) whether he had any response to Marianne Gingrich’s interview with ABC News and The Post. Gingrich said that bringing up the issue "is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine." For good measure, he called the media "destructive, vicious, negative."

He also said, "I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans." Bringing a question about his personal life around to Obama was quite a reach, yet Gingrich knew that his statement would be taken as gospel by most of the conservative voters he is trying to reach. And he flatly denied he had requested an open marriage. "The story is false," he said.

550 KFYI's very own Rush Limbaugh is questioning, how come journalist are not held to the same standard they hold those they investigate. Limbaugh sugguested an investigation into ABC News' Brian Ross, the reporter who interviewed Marianne Gingrich.