You will find no shortage opinions about Mark Sanford right now — not to mention rumors about his Argentine lover. But what about his wife, Jenny Sanford? Her absence at yesterday’s press conference was a welcome change for those tired of watching scorned political wives dragged into the media spotlight while the cameras rolled. But she was not silent, issuing a only a few short hours after the press conference wrapped.
Is she reinventing the post-affair rules, or is she falling back to the traditional script? We asked Broadsheet contributors for their (contradictory, varied) responses. Lynn Harris: I was never one to be 100 percent outraged by the sight of a spurned political wife appearing oh-so-nobly at her dumbass husband’s press conference. After all, one never really knows what is going on in a relationship, and hey, at this point we know Mrs. Dumbass has suffered enough; let’s not start with the judgment pig-pile when it’s he who screwed up.
Also — in so far as it’s possible to create a taxonomy of trangressions — people have forgiven partners far worse. What can we say? Still, I am glad that Mrs. Sanford has demonstrated that there’s not just one way to respond, one expectation of one kind of post-”Argentina” etiquette.
So I can freely say “good for her” without saying “bad” for those who stood uncomfortably before her. Not that this was her responsibility, but she (and Mrs. Ensign) have freed things up for those who will — no doubt — follow them. What’s left to wonder is this: What will happen when, inevitably, the “stoic wife” is the husband?
With all due respect to site: click there
