The Good Wives?

Anthony Weiner's second sexting scandal in the midst of the Democrat primary for the Mayoralty in New York City raises the interesting issue of "The Good Wife" syndrome. 

[L] Weiner's continued sexting exposed 2013 [R] Weiner resigns after sexting scandal 2011

While Weiner's wife Huma did not physically stand by her man when the ex-Rep. Weiner (D-NY 9th) resigned in 2011, the quite pregnant spouse did accompany him afterwards to the Hamptons where he presumably received all six days of sex therapy treatment.

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-NY), a.k.a. Client No. 9, resigned in disgrace as Governor of the Empire State in 2008 for his habit of contracting with the Empire VIP Club for high end prostitutes, even when visiting the Mayflower Hotel in the District of Calamity (sic).  His wife Silda stuck by his side but looked extremely uncomfortable when Spitzer withdrew for "a private matter."

 John Edwards withdraw from 2008 Presidential Race 

Former one term North Carolina Senator  and 2004 Democrat Vice President nominee John Edwards (D-NC) withdrew from his 2008 Presidential run because he could not get traction.  Of course this might have been due to the fact that Edwards cheated on his wife who was dying with cancer and had a bastard with his campaign videographer Rielle Hunter.  Edwards had the temerity of asking his wife Elizabeth and family to stand beside him as he withdrew from the race, even though the Establishment Liberal Press (a.k.a. the Lamestream Media) had not broken the "affair"  (although the National Enquirer had in Oct. 2007).  But Edwards tried to make it right as he waited until after his wife died of breast cancer before he invited Hunter to try living together .  And Edward's delayed trial of covering up extramarital expenses with campaign funds ended with one  acquittal and three mistrials that Eric Holder's Department of Justice will not do further prosecutions. 

Some dedicated Democrats might explain away Carlos Danger, Client Number Nine and even the "Breck Girl's" affair with Rielle as being just personal indiscretions.  The same can not be said about McCreepy.  Ex New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey announced his resignation in 2004 as he came out as a "Gay American" with his wife Dina by his side. This public embracing of his alternative affinity and betraying his betrothed for a homosexual love interest. McGreevey's resignation was prompted on by Golon Cipel's intent to file sexual harrassment charges.  McGreevey had appointed Israeli Cipel to be the Homeland Security Liaison to New Jersey's Government.  That's not right headed thinking to appoint a foreign national to a security coordination post in a State which watched the terror attack on the World Trade Center in 2001.  Moreover, McGreevey had cruised restrooms on the New Jersey turnpike to sate his "love which dare not speak its name" with strange men.

Bill Clinton was able to twice invoke the "stand by your man" visual motif to mitigate his marital misdeeds.  As a candidate for the Presidency in 1992, Governor Bill Clinton was charged by Gennifer Flowers of having a twelve year relationship with him. and she had the audiotape. To respond to the charge, Bill and Hillary Clinton appeared together on 60 Minutes to show that they had worked through difficult periods in their rocky relationship.   It is also when Hillary Clinton infamously assumed a southern drawl to insist that she was no Tammy Wynette Stand By Your Man. 

In 1998, when it came out that the re-elected President Bill Clinton was having an improper affair with a White House intern Monica Lewinsky, then First Lady Hillary Clinton was not photographed standing by her man as he deflected the titillating charges.  But Hillary was quick to blame the troubles on the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy".   Hillary was paid off for being a good soldier with strong funding for her New York Senate run.   

There have been some prominent Republicans who have been caught in compromising positions.  Ex Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) was accused of soliciting sex in mens' bathroom in the Minneapolis airport. Craig denied the charges with his wife by his side and quietly served out the last 1 1/2 years of his term, refusing to run for re-election.   

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) was exposed as a client of the DC Madam in 2007.  Craig denied the charges with his wife by his side and quietly served out the last 1 1/2 years of his term, refusing to run for re-election.  Vitter had his wife by his side and asked for forgiveness, which seemed to quell calls for resignation, until Democrat partisans wanted to mitigate Weiner's 2011 scandal by claiming that both sides do it. Of course, that charge would have been more analogous to Spitzer's sins.

Republicans have not been lenient when their caucus members sexual indiscretions deviate from the bounds of mere sleeziness.  Within hours of ex-Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY 42nd) having a Craigslist sex post exposed, he was drummed out of office, and the GOP lost that reliable seat.  

Moreover, in 2006, the GOP did little to exculpate ex-Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL 16th) after it came out that he was sending questionable emails to Congressional pages.  In Chris Lee and Mark Foley's case, they did not have "good wives" standing by their side to mitigate the blows from the fall from power. 

A nexus which connects the Weiner, Clinton and Edwards "good wife" impulse is that women who were politically engaged chose to stand by their philandering men so that they could advance their political ambitions.  Clearly, Mrs. Clinton benefited from the Clinton machine which vaulted her to US Senator and these financial veins could be mined again in Presidential runs (2012 as well as prospectively 2016).   Elizabeth Edwards looked the other way when her husband impregnated Rielle Hunter  and to the end relished the residual power connections to Democrat party politics by sticking with her disloyal spouse, even as she was dying of cancer.  Huma Abedin has twice stuck by her horn dog Weiner husband.  Huma claims that she loves him, but does she love repeatedly being made a fool? Considering her Muslim Brotherhood connections (by family as well as advising former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) she might not mind being "Huma-miliated" if that leads again to the corridors of power.

For four seasons, CBS television has broadcast "The Good Wife", a dramatic series starring Julianna Margolies, whose husband was a Cook County, Illinois States Attorney that was jailed for a very prominent sex and corruption scandal.  This necessitates "The Good Wife" to return to her old profession of being a litigator. Michelle King, one of the executive producers of the series, admit that the germ of the Good Wife storyline was inspired by recent scandal headlines.

We came up with the idea about a year and half ago. There had been this waterfall of these kinds of scandals, from Bill and Hillary [Clinton], to Dick Morris, to Eliot Spitzer, to name just a few. I think they’re all over our culture. And there was always this image of the husband up there apologizing and the wife standing next to him. I think the show began when we asked, "What are they thinking?" And Robert and I started talking about it from there. ... You know, what’s interesting about a lot of these political scandals is that the women are lawyers, too. Hillary [Clinton] is a lawyer. Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer. I think that got us thinking along those lines. That is, we knew she had to go back to work, and we had so many female lawyers to draw on.

But as this political review shows, truth is stranger than fiction with these political "Good Wives". Yet the 2012 campaign was marked by a meme about the Republican War on Women.  Go figure, but the lapdog liberal Establishment Media tries to cover up the peccadillos of those pols with whom they agree and pounds the drums against their ideological opponents.   Yet Adedin, Edwards and Rodham-Clinton have set the standard for feminists that all can be overlooked, even repeated romps of naughtiness, if it gets you where you want to go.  Quite an example to emulate, isn't it?