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12 March 2008

World of Wynetting Photo gallery of "Spouses in Scandal."

post by: Miko at: 08:44 | 17 comments

Hmm, what is it with Mid-Atlantic governors? Recent Jersey, Connecticut and now New York governors going down in scandal. Should I worry about Rendel?

posted by octothorpe 12 March | 09:00

What a terrible picture of Silda. That's just mean.

posted by amro 12 March | 09:48

I cannot imagine being one of the teenage children of any of these people. Yikes!

McGreevy looks happy, and in fact he now has a handsome hubby, big house, the good life.

posted by Claudia_SF 12 March | 10:13

I know, I feel absolutely terrible for Spitzer's teenage daughters. Old enough to be able to comprehend the whole mess (and have other people think they can talk to you about it), not old enough where they're living lives separate from their parents. Awful.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 12 March | 10:23

I tried to find an online picture of David Mellor's wife, Judith, when he paraded her and their children in front of the media to show that they'd forgiven him an affair, but my Google-fu failed me. They later divorced.

posted by essexjan 12 March | 10:53

McGreevey also looked happy to me, and in a way, so did his wife. I can imagine that perhaps there was a lot of tension within the marriage, and there may have been some element of relief in the truth. But of course I have no idea of the inner workings.

posted by Miko 12 March | 11:19

What a terrible picture of Silda. That's just mean.

I just thought she had been caught rolling her eyes like no one has ever rolled their eyes before. It's the eye-roll of the millennium.

posted by mudpuppie 12 March | 13:20

What a terrible picture of Silda. That's just mean.

From what I know she found out literally an hour before the press conference. So, that could be the cause of a few wonky faces.
I'm amazed she was able to stand up. I wouldn't be.

posted by kellydamnit 12 March | 13:27

From what I know she found out literally an hour before the press conference. So, that could be the cause of a few wonky faces.

That had to feel like life as she knew it was over, and having no fucking idea what would come next.

posted by danf 12 March | 13:34

Here's an interesting article about the whole phenomenon: Why do political wives stand by their men?

posted by mudpuppie 12 March | 13:47

The rise of cultural conservatives in the 1980s created the need for politicians to perform a public confessional if they got caught with their pants down, said Paul Apostolidis, a political science professor at Whitman (Washington) College and the co-editor of "Public Affairs: Politics in the Age of Sex Scandals."

The real story here seems to be how these events are manufactured by the media. If I had my way, the press conference would not have been televised. This kind of theater loses its meaning in the medium of radio.

Wolf said the investigation of Spitzer - done with the help of federally ordered wiretaps - shows how easy it is for the government to take down its political enemies through expanded domestic surveillance. Wolf, in thoughts echoed throughout the liberal blogosphere, believes the Republican-led Bush administration and Justice Department were no fans of Spitzer, who could be an aggressive politician and prosecutor.

I call bullshit. I absolutely refuse to get up in arms about the government using its powers of investigation for taking down one of its own for doing something that was blatantly illegal. This "malicious prosecution"/panopticon thing is a complete red herring.

posted by pieisexactlythree 12 March | 14:29

I agree with pie. Esp. of you have made your, er, bones by prosecuting white collar crime, including busting a couple prostitution rings (I read that somewhere) then why on earth would you do THAT?!?!?!? Especially when you know that your real or perceived enemies would just love to have the opportunity?

Easiest way to have sex outside your marriage, or so he thought? Or just the thrill of buying an 4K hooker, because he COULD.

What do you get with that money, anyway? I mean, my low self esteem has prevented me from ever paying money for sex, so I don't understand any of it.

posted by danf 12 March | 15:08

As we were saying last night around here, there's no sex act you're gonna get for $5000 that you can't get for $500. Beyond that, it's purely a question of the perceived status you'd like to accord yourself.

And I agree, too, pie - you don't need a Republican conspiracy to blame if you don't screw up in the first place.

posted by Miko 12 March | 20:03

Dina is practically grinning, maniacally it would seem. Didn't she write in her tell-all that it basically didn't sink in until later?

(but how could she not have known ... ?)

Silda, however, looked ashen, even nauseated at times (and she'd found out Sunday night, we now know). As Spitzer said "that's all" or whatever and began to walk away there was this minuscule flash of a smile. Either a politician's wife's automatic reaction? Or relief that the public ordeal was over?

Some of those others didn't fit. Dick didn't cheat on Pat, after all. He only fucked the country.

posted by stilicho 13 March | 06:56

OMG yes, pie. He thought he was invincible (gah, he STILL thinks he's invincible - what a grin he has!), and he got caught.

posted by muddgirl 13 March | 07:08

Some of those others didn't fit.

Agree. Wynetting for our purposes, I think, really has more to do with that element of personal betrayal that is suffered in public. However unpleasant, it's a lot easier to stand by your man when he's done something inglorious if it doesn't involve people checking you out to see how attractive you are/aren't and wondering what you may or may not do in bed in order to decide if he was "justified".

posted by taz 13 March | 07:18

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by BoringPostcards 13 March | 10:16

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