Eliot Spitzer's wife

So the comedy gold story of the moment is now-former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, previously famous for his crusade against prostitution, has been caught literally with his pants down, boinking a prostitute. ('Boinking' is a technical term.) Every joke that can possibly be made about this deeply ironic situation has already been claimed by someone far wittier than I, so instead, I'll take another, more serious angle on the subject.

If you had a look at the article linked above, you'll see a little thumbnail picture of Spitzer and his wife, which seems to be the shot that everyone is using in their articles about this scandal. What struck me about the picture is how utterly devastated his wife looks. She's got deep circles under her eyes, the kind of circles that you get from crying rather than lack of sleep, and she looks like she's barely holding back tears while she watches her husband speak. This experience has obviously broken her utterly.

But even so, after her asshole of a husband betrayed her trust, broke his marriage vows, and utterly humiliated her on the national stage, she's standing by his side. I don't get that.

I know that being the wife of a political figure is a completely different culture and mindset. It requires an unshakable loyalty to live with every aspect of your life under constant scrutiny, to endure long periods alone while your husband campaigns, to cultivate a media image of your own and meet with endless girl scouts (or do whatever else it is that you want to do), to look, on the outside, as though you are Perfect. I have heard that among the circles of women who are married to public figures, it's even a mark of prestige to endure the unendurable with a convincing smile.

But no matter how loyal and devoted "no matter what" I was, no matter how committed I was to the ideal of giving all, if my husband, for whom I had sacrificed so much, betrayed me like he betrayed her – with a fucking prostitute, over the course of a decade, so it wasn't like he met someone, sparks flew, and he had a moment of indiscretion – the loyalty would be gone. That man went out over and over again with the cold blooded intention to pay some woman an inordinate amount of money for sex. The only question that would remain for me would be whether I was going to take the high road by refusing to stand by his side while he delivered his fake apology and cried his crocodile tears, or whether I was going to get my revenge by standing by his side and, at the last moment, grabbing the microphone and yelling 'My husband is a cheating asshole!', then slapping him in the face and storming off the stage.

That's all I've got to say, really: Eliot Spitzer is an asshole, and I'm baffled as to why his wife isn't throwing his cheating ass to the media dogs.

First Post!

So my father told me today that I need to start a political blog. I was giving him a long and drawn out handicapping of various democratic vs. republican candidates, come November. I'm pretty decent at working these things out -- I predicted a long time ago, back when Guliani was considered the Republican frontrunner -- that it was going to come down the Ronmey vs. some dark horse candidate who was going to come out of nowhere at the very last minute. I wouldn't have guessed John McCain, because his campaign was such an awful mess, but I guess he got it together in the end.

Instead of rambling on and on about politics today, though, I think I'll tell you about myself.

I enjoy reading the news online, but I recently switched from CNN to Reuters. I had been spending a couple of weeks making a sport of figuring out how many stories on CNN were actually news stories, rather than recreational outrage, fuzzy feel good stories, or stupid human interest. What I discovered was that most of what was reported wasn't news, and the news was reported only briefly. So out of disgust, I switched. I like Reuters better; I don't have to read 'oddly enough' if I don't want to. (I don't.) The only other place that I get my news is from the Daily Show. I don't actually have cable, but I watch the clips posted online every day. In my opinion, it's the only remotely worthwhile news show on TV right now.

I also follow the Straight Dope message boards, although I don't post there. I've learned a lot about politics, finance, and life from the people who post there, all of them intelligent and coming from very different walks of life. Many of my posts will probably be linking back there, or at least inspired by something that I read over there.

I have two cats, Cordelia the ruler of the house and don't you forget it, and don Francisco, the flirty lover of women. (He once crawled up under a friend's shirt.) I am a crazy cat lady, but I'll try not to assault you with too much about them.

Though I will be talking about the Republican race and the Republican party often in a very even handed tone, know that I'm not a moderate -- I'm a liberal, and damn proud of it. But I believe in knowing thy enemy, and taking a crazy, heavily biased perspective or painting things in good and bad, black and white isn't helpful and has, frankly, been a large part of why our party has been doing so poorly these last few years.

I'm also a feminist, although I prefer to approach feminism by rooting out the symbols and themes about what a woman is and should be that have been integrated into our society since the middle ages that oppress women (in my opinion) more than any misogynist ever can. Like the child pointing out that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes, I try to find these symbols wherever they may hide, hold them up, and say 'bullshit'.

So there you go. I'll try and post regularly; I have a lot to say, but I'm also very lazy.