The Steele Magnolia

I cannot tell you how happy it made me when Jenny Sanford did not stand up next to her cheating pathetic husband, Gov. Mark Sanford, when he had his press conference admitting to his tawdry affair.

If your husband loses his job, has a disease, or has succumbed to early hair loss, then yes......stand by your man. If he has left you, your four young sons, and flown to Argentina to bonk a pretty young Latino on Father's day, then....no. You don't stand by him, unless it is to position yourself to push him off a cliff.

Kudos goes to Sen. Ensign's wife as well, who refused to stand by him during his confessional press conference, but unfortunately babbled to the press later about her marriage being stronger, as I'm sure her husband directed her to.

Watching any man go through a mid-life crisis is always embarrassing. My brother bought a black convertible miata. He tanned and wore pooka beads. Embarrassing, but acceptable. Another male relative invested in a motorcycle, a personal trainer, and enough tooth whitener to paint the White House. Again, embarrassing, but acceptable. But if your midlife crisis brings you to a point where you imagine that you have met your "soul mate" who just also happens to be young and sexy, then it's no longer embarrassing, it's a deal breaker. A big deal breaker.

Watching Sanford these last few days reminded me when we were watching Rod Blagojevich as he did his "I didn't nothing wrong" tour this past year. You just can't believe this man, this politician, this Governor, is speaking in such a clearly insane way. You wonder, do they have any idea how ridiculous and pathetic they sound?

Anyway, I digress. Jenny Sanford didn't stand by her man, and what a refreshing change that was to see. After seeing an array of zombie faced wives (from Clinton, Spitzer, McGreevey, Vitter, Edwards ect..) standing there in front of the cameras as their politician husbands humiliate them, I could hardly stand one more.

Her statement read: "We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect and my basic sense of right and wrong. I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago."

It's about time a woman stood up to this kind of thing, demanding to retain her dignity and self respect.