If This Marriage Was Made In Heaven Then Why Does It Feel Like Hell?
By Ann Huggett (06/16/03)
I never thought that I would side with talking head/Democratic Party strategist Susan Estrich on anything but when she said that she wished the Clintons would just, "…shut up and go away." I found myself nodding vigorously in agreement. Estrich went on to complain that the Clintons, "…suck all the air out of the room." when it comes to sharing the spotlight with fellow Democrats. Well Hillary created one heck of a vacuum this week when her 8 million dollar advanced, ghostwritten, self-promotion-as-soap opera biography, Living History, hit the bookstores.
Despite the breathless adulation of media mental midgets like Ashleigh Banfield on MSNBC, who practically proclaimed Hillary as Queen of America, the rest of us sort of cringed as excerpts started hitting the airwaves. From what I can tell, Living History is one long sob fest as directed by Hillary to portray herself as the stalwart, long suffering, faithful, always believing, always forgiving, dedicated spouse of one of the biggest philanderers ever to occupy a governmental seat.
What a mental image one can get focusing on all that sordid sex and betrayal! Hillary wants us to believe that when she finally was told about her tubby hubby's dalliance with equally chubby Monica Lewinsky, she couldn't breathe; that it came as a complete surprise to her. Yeah, right. This from a woman who grabbed Clinton rape victim Juanita Broaddrick's hand and said in a menacing manner, "I want to thank you for everything you've done for Bill."
So what's up with this recycled hash anyway? Why emphasize tawdry sleaze since all it does is make the "World's Smartest Woman" look like some sort of dim bulb piece of trailer trash whose theme song is "Stand by your man"? Evidently Hillary believes her kiss-and-tell-and-tell biography takes the heat off having to answer some very nagging and politically damaging questions. It's pretty hard positioning yourself for a run at the 2008 US Presidency when there are thorny little questions still floating about. Vince Foster's death, Travelgate, stock manipulation, Rose Law Firm billing, using the White House as a revolving door hotel for bribe budgeted Chinese communists, 900 FBI files used for blackmailing, and the looting of White House furniture when the Clintons vacated it in 2000 still need to be answered.
Evidently Hillary believes that if you position yourself as some sort of trusting Uber-Woman, blind to your husband's peccadilloes, then it can hardly be expected of you to know about any other wrong doing either. If she can forgive Bill for betraying her then America can forgive her willing accomplice status of betraying the nation. Right? Right?
So instead of an admittance of wrongdoing, a "mea culpa", and a slinking off into the sunset never to be heard from again, we get descriptions of Bill Clinton looking like a Viking with strong hands. As Emile Zola said in his novel, Nana, "You never know where your tastes will run." Excuse me as I hurl chunks.
Despite the just-folks facade, women like Hillary Clinton are a breed apart from the average wife. While an honest man or woman, who has faced multiple infidelities or crimes by their partner, will toss said miscreant out the door after a certain point, the Hillary Clintons of this world will not.
Is it love that keeps the elites bound to their caddish husbands? Who am I trying to kid? Take one look at
Hillary's cold, calculating, reptilian eyes and just try to find the love! Hillary Clinton has a self-righteous head of steam up but do you detect any real love for hubby? I think not! For women of Hillary's elitist status, Women's Liberation has nothing to do with it. That drivel is for the unimportant of society. Besides, as was pointed out in that ultra-catty movie, The Women, "If you listen to your friends, they'll talk you out of a perfectly good marriage."
What you detect is a lust for power as achieved through an advantageous marriage. Taken in its historical perspective Hillary Clinton is being a good wife in the 18th Century sense rather than the 21st Century sense. In the 21st Century we expect marriages to be for love whereas in the 18th, people were a lot more pragmatic. Family fortunes and position were made or consolidated through beneficial arrangements and love was a side issue that might develop in time. Marriage was a business arrangement. It was understood that both partners would lead separate lives if it suited them but unite for public ceremonial occasions or festivities. It was essentially the tribute that vice paid to virtue.
As such, the spouses might show little concern for each other privately. Hogarth's prints of 18th
Century domestic life "Marriage a la Mode" shows one such fashionable marriage from callow start to
penurious end. Publicly, however, these wives were ferocious in protecting and furthering their husband's fortunes. For if the husband suffered financially, so did the wife.
What these women love is not their husbands so much as their positions in society. Even being the wife of someone notorious rather than famous, has its benefits. For one thing, it can be the springboard to greater positions of power for themselves. Although I admit becoming a junior US Senator is a real comedown from being co-president, Hillary has her sights set for the big prize in 2008 and she doesn't care who she steps on in the process. (Sure hope the Democratic Presidential line-up for 2004 doesn't mind heal marks on their collective backs.) Finally, while divorcees may get healthy alimony payments, they have essentially lost their position in a society which views single women as threats to established power couples.
So viewed in this context of elites protecting their positions JUST LIKE THEIR ARISTOCRATIC 18TH CENTURY COUNTERPARTS DID, Hillary Clinton's tacky and deeply manipulative Living History makes a lot more sense.
And one other little teeny, tiny, little thing...spouses can't testify against each other in court. That's ultimately why the likes of Bill and Hillary Clinton stay married.
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