Spitzer’s Wife Stands by Prostitute-Soliciting Husband

Is it narrow-minded of me to suggest that if my husband cheated on me, I wouldn’t want to stand by his side while he publicly confessed to it?

I know politics is a different arena than the one in which most relationships play out, but when you watch women like Silda Wall Spitzer, Hillary Clinton, Wendy Vitter and Suzanne Craig standing beside their contrite husbands – literally standing by their men – you have to wonder if, at the very least, they’ve even had time to start wading through the incredibly complicated issues around extra-marital affairs, and decide if they do forgive him or not.

Politics is a high-profile career. When one partner’s political aspirations take off, certainly both partners must know that great sacrifice comes with the attendant material gain and publicity. But why does it so often seem that politicians’ wives have to give up everything for the sake of appearances, as though the day their husbands get sworn into office is the day they cease to be a wife and become a stalwart PR agent?

It is good damage control to have your wife stand beside you while you apologize for offending the nation’s sensibilities by hiring a prostitute. A politicians’ constituents might be outraged by his perceived betrayal, but the offense is truly his wife’s more than anyone else. If she can forgive him, why, certainly anyone can.

Maybe she’s thinking to herself, this is one of the great sacrifices I’ve signed myself up for. But why, when the assured outcome is the end of the political career so much has already been sacrificed for?

Perhaps if the American public becomes suitably inured to the modern-day lynching of its corrupted government, soldiering through the humiliation of being on display as the cuckolded wife will be worth the embarrassment: the fought-for career will be saved, and angry recriminations can take place privately in the home. But when the result is a guaranteed boot from office, I say add insult to injury by joining the bloodthirsty masses, and keeping your dignity intact.