Suburban Guerrilla

Etiquette

Mar 11th, 2008 at 12:04 pm by Chris

While the sordid details of Spitzer’s penchant for high-priced hookers are of little interest to me and I don’t really care whether he resigns or not (and it looks like he will). One thing that really bothers me about it, though, is the sight of a politician who’s been caught with his wiener where it wasn’t supposed to be, hauling his mortified wife (who likely just found out about the improper wiener placement a few hours before) up in front of the national press to show off some sort of BS marital unity. It would make me really happy if we could arrive at some sort of a national, bipartisan, unity pony-like consensus that this particular use of your spouse is in bad taste and really just cruel.

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17 Responses to “Etiquette”

on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:10 pm1just john

She should at least get to drag him away by his collar after he’s through talking. … Or a bit before he THINKS he’s through talking.
on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:12 pm2votermom

Yeah, she looked shell-shocked.
It would be good if it would be considered extreme bad taste to have the spouse there. Because it’s just cruel, imo.
on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:17 pm3Joy

I agree. If it were my husband ) I’d tell him you’re on your own buddy. Or smack him upside the head. The poor woman looked like she had been hit with a train. Do political wives have something ingrained in them that makes them go the “stand by your man” theme? (I’m looking at you Hillary!) His political career is in the crapper now anyway. Having the wife stand by him isn’t helping. Poor kids too!
on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:17 pm4PSoTD

Agreed. In addition, the weiner-exposed official should be forced to drink rat turd coffee during the public statement.
on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:19 pm5just john

(Has it been established that Mr. Spitzer was calling the Emperors’ Club exclusively on his own behalf? I ask ‘cuz one extenuating circumstance for putting his wife in this position is if it were her idea.)
on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:38 pm6John

I agree, the spouse has already suffered enough with the knowledge of what happened becoming public knowledge. That said I wonder what it says about the spouse that they allow themselves to be used once again for window dressing, cover, or what ever else you want to call it.
on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:41 pm7votermom

When you’ve been blind-sided like that it’s hard to make objective decisions, and if your handlers are saying you have to do this, you go with the flow. So, don’t throw stones. It would be better, as Chris says, if politics didn’t expect it of the spouses.
on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:50 pm8Snarki, child of Loki

Is it as bad as dragging your kids to the podium to cry during your concession speech, after having cratered during the attempt to hang on for a third term in the Senate?

Just asking…
on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:58 pm9Chris

Yeah, what votermom said. The expectation is there. Long before that news conference yesterday, we probably all instinctively knew that we would see somebody who’s life just went to shit standing next to the person who did it to her. Who knows if she had to be talked or coerced into it by the governor, or his political hacks, or if she just assumed that’s what she had to do because that’s what political spouses do. Really, it doesn’t matter. It’s just a grim, but expected spectacle that nobody should ever have to go through.
on 11 Mar 2008 at 1:10 pm10sigrid

Ask Hillary about that.
on 11 Mar 2008 at 1:11 pm11votermom

*rolls eyes*
on 11 Mar 2008 at 1:18 pm12Henry

Here’s something from HuffPo

Silda Spitzer, Human Prop
Patt Morrison

Why do so many wives of famous men suck it up and stand grimly by, like a prop for the photo op, as the hubby spills his guilty guts for the cameras?

Silda Spitzer looked like she might have had a gun at her back, but there she was nonetheless, “at his side,” as the saying goes.

Girlfriend, he was [allegedly] whooping it up with a hooker named Kristen! Stick with the marriage if that’s what you want, by all means — but let him twist in the wind alone. Just once, as the husband takes his place at the confessional microphone, I’d like to see a wronged wife walk onstage with him — and just keep on walking, suitcase in hand, exit stage right.

YouTube has scored nearly a half-million hits for the recent video of a well-known Chinese broadcaster crashing a big Beijing Olympics press conference and, in front of those five big symbolic rings, accusing her husband — an even better-known Chinese broadcaster — of having an affair. She dodges and weaves like a champion welterweight, ducking and shaking off the musclemen who try to hustle her offstage, and manages to say her piece in front of the world’s press.

Now that’s what I’m talking about!
on 11 Mar 2008 at 2:38 pm13Susie

I’m glad everyone is pointing this out - hopefully we can get political people to rethink this emotionally barbaric practice.

Of course, I think a lot of them are simply resigned to being props.
on 11 Mar 2008 at 4:05 pm14joe

Why hasn’t anyone talked about she actually having a mind of her own!? Did she HAVE to do it? She decided to stand next to him…just like other spouses at other pressers…She has free will and I am assuming no one is holding her daughters hostage making her go out there…I’m not criticizing her or any other spouse for a decsion they make in a similiar circumstance - but we all must assume she HAD a choice and decided (for whatever reason — love, money, motherhood, reputation, his career) it was a proper thing. I think every spouse should let the cheater twist in the wind and take everything coming to him on his own. But there must be some reason(s) these woman do this…is it for the children (everyone knows staying together just for the kids is a big mistake) or is it so soon after the event that they are still woozy for the gutshot?? I am not being chauvanistic but there must be a reason most spouses (women) go out and stand with the lying, cheating sack of shit and don’t even send the evil eye towards him one time!
on 11 Mar 2008 at 7:41 pm15JJ

As Tammy Wynette sang, “Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman…”
on 11 Mar 2008 at 7:45 pm16k

Because, surprisingly enough, there is a habit of loving. And that habit will cause you to go out there and be supportive.
Tonight, out of camera range, who knows? Tomorrow, after her friends rally around her, who knows? It’s her decision, and I’m walking away from judging.
on 11 Mar 2008 at 7:59 pm17Dennis

Right on! Can’t imagine the sheer humiliation the spouse must be going through, not to mention how they also forfeiting their individual reputation and maybe even job/political standing or aspirations because self involved partner decides to commit virtual suicide.

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Etiquette

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