Stand by Your Man?

As the columnist and writer Katha Pollitt opines in the current issue of The Nation:

Just once I’d like to see a male politician caught in a sex scandal stand up there at a press conference all by himself. You want to be an alpha male with extra helpings of testosterone and appetites that cannot be denied? Fine…….but if you get caught, don’t drag your wife in front of the cameras to prove how strong your marriage is. Practice saying these words: "No, darling, I could never live with myself if I let you humiliate yourself in public….."

There was Silda Wall Spitzer, the wife of the now-former Governor of New York, not once but twice (!), at her husband’s side, looking stricken and shell-shocked. And the same thought occurred to me — be a man! Stand up there on your own. There’s no political face left to be saved. Maybe Suzanne Craig, Dina McGreevey or, oh yeah, Hillary, should have flown to Paris when they faced similar photo-ops. Or maybe stayed home to deal with the rage and anguish of their children.

In the end, it doesn’t matter…..the outcome will be the same! As Pollitt so rightly (and indignantly) says, "People may use the words like stoic or dignified, but really what they’re thinking is doormat or enabler."

As we move towards the possible election of the first woman President of the United States, isn’t it time we gave political wives a permanent pass on this uniquely arcane form of political theater?