My Point Exactly

I wrote yesterday about what I consider the most hideous aspect of the Elliot Spitzer prostitution scandal so far - his wife, Silda, standing next to him looking utterly destroyed as he lacked the courage even to name the act by which he betrayed her.  I am disgusted with seeing these weak, stupid men drag their humiliated wives before the cameras - in a show of what, support? - as they suggest in vague, scripted platitudes that they have "disappointed" their families, their constituents, and most of all... themselves.  Boo hoo.  If you were a man, you would have the guts to go before the media alone, and then take questions after reading your non-admission admission. If you were a man, you wouldn't have humiliated your wife in the first place.

 

Well, Catherine Price, at Salon's Broadsheet blog, seems to feel the same way.

 

While the media obsesses over what Spitzer actually did with "Kristen" and advisors pressure him to resign, the real victim seems to be his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer. As the San Francisco Chronicle (via the Washington Post) describes the situation:

"Whatever Spitzer -- or, in the language of a federal court filing, 'Client 9' -- did with a petite brunette nicknamed 'Kristen' on the eve of Valentine's Day last month at Washington's Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, it probably wasn't as monstrous as what he asked his wife to do Monday.

"In the grand tradition of Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter and former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, Spitzer dragged his partner of 21 years before the television cameras at his offices in New York to announce that he was 'disappointed' in himself for unspecified sins.

"Silda Wall Spitzer looked like a victim of food poisoning as she stood by her man's side. She cast her eyes downward at the 183-word statement while he read it. She raised her glance only briefly, when the governor admitted he had 'acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family,' when he offered an apology 'to the public, whom I promised better,' and again when he pledged to 'dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.'

"The silent Mrs. Spitzer -- Harvard law school graduate, corporate lawyer, nonprofit founder and mother of the governor's three daughters -- then led Client 9 away from the lectern."

 

Next time we have one of these sordid little pageants - and we will - I hope the wife stays home.  Or  if she does go to the press conference, maybe she could punch him in the throat while the cameras are rolling.  No jury would convict her.

UPDATE

On second thought, the next time some prominent married man gets caught skanking around on his wife, the Missus should definitely stay home, and tell him to drag his skank to the press conference instead.

In this case, it would have been nice for the press and the public to get a look at "Kristen," the classy, upscale escort for which Spitzer betrayed his wife and ruined his career.