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WORLD> America
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Love in short supply for political spouses
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-04 14:37 The Dodd flap comes on the heels of a 2008 presidential campaign where spouses faced criticism over various issues. Conservatives questioned Michelle Obama's patriotism for her remarks about being proud now to be an American, prompting her husband's blunt "lay off my wife" warning to critics. Democrats ripped into Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, for failing to release tax returns showing her vast wealth. She eventually relented.
Former President Bill Clinton sparked an uproar when he said Barack Obama's opposition to the Iraq war was a "fairy tale." Clinton's rants against Obama on behalf of his wife during the primaries were so intense that Obama quipped to Hillary Rodham Clinton, "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes." When Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh was seen as a possible running mate for Obama last year, there were questions about Bayh's potential conflicts of interest because of his wife Susan's service on several corporate boards. Carl Sferraza Anthony, historian at the National First Ladies Library in Canton, Ohio, says the trend toward larger public profiles for political spouses has slowly built "certainly since the 1970s when you saw an increase in the independent professional careers of spouses." "It's not going to go away," Anthony said. "It is a practical reality of public life." Linda Daschle, the wife of former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, faced criticism for lobbying the House on behalf of a pharmaceutical firm while her husband was in the Senate. "The more they step out and show independence and have careers of their own ... they get attacked," said Betty Winfield, a political scientist at the University of Missouri. "If she had stayed home and been the traditional wife, keeping the home fires burning and having dinner on the table, then in this climate, she might have been criticized for that. "I don't see this so much with men as spouses," Winfield said. "How many attacks have you seen on (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi's husband?"
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