Friday, March 14, 2008 Seares: Standing by one's spouse By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
RITUAL of an American public official confessing to and apologizing for corruption, cheating on the spouse, or some other scandal strikes me on two things:
(1) He's penitent but doesn't whine or otherwise show he's clinging to the job. He can hurl himself to an onrushing train or cut his wrist but he has to resign first.
(2) There's always the wife beside him---stoic, with almost total absence of emotion---as he recites a litany of deep regrets and thoughts of what might have been, healing, and moving on.
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned after he was caught hiring a $1,000-an-hour call girl, is the latest in the US serial scandals that dish out "I confess" scenes to the public.
Not quietly
This is no country for old rituals of the disgraced. Here, they don't go quietly. They rage against what brought their fall, not owning sin but blaming political rivals' scheme.
And the wife, or husband, standing dutifully by the offender?
None of that kind of photo op. No culprit in high places makes a public "mea culpa" here. At least not in recent memory.
Yes, President Gloria admitted on national TV she made phone calls to a Comelec official about the 2004 elections. Admission or apology, however, was faint. She even realized soon enough that it was unwise. Enemies used the "confession" to pound on the presidency more ferociously.
And, of course, First Gentleman Mike was not beside her when she faced the nation. In that setting, even a Palace tactician agrees, FG would've been less of a symbol of support and more of, ah, conjugal mischief.
