I really hate seeing pasty-faced wives, who look like they've had the stuffing knocked out of them, standing by their assholes in news conferences.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/408/story/801038.html
S.C. first lady is known for sharp wits and iron will
By Seanna Adcox
Associated Press
Posted: Friday, Jun. 26, 2009
Slideshow
S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford celebrates winning the Republican primary in 2006 with his wife, Jenny. Jenny Sanford was instrumental in launching her husband's political career and is known as his top adviser. She is the “governor of the governor,” one former legislator says.
COLUMBIA Jenny Sanford did not stand by her man.
To those accustomed to watching betrayed first ladies smile stiffly through their husbands' public confessions, the absence of Gov. Mark Sanford's wife at the soul-baring news conference where he admitted to an affair with a woman in Argentina was striking.
Instead, she issued a tough-minded statement saying she had thrown her cheating husband out and told him to stop speaking to her while she tries to deal with his infidelity.
That came as no surprise to those who know this independently wealthy, Georgetown-educated, former Wall Street executive. Around South Carolina, Jenny Sanford is regarded as a strong-minded figure, accomplished and politically astute.
Jenny Sanford doesn't have it in her to play the “namby-pamby Tammy Wynette,” said Donald Aiesi, a political scientist at Furman University in Greenville, the governor's alma mater.
“She has very strong faith, very strong family values,” said Marjory Wentworth, a family friend who was appointed South Carolina's poet laureate by the governor in 2003. “There's no gray area about the things that matter to her.”
Many of Jenny Sanford's counterparts have stood beside or behind their spouses for similar moments of scandal: When New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey outed himself as gay. When former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer acknowledged he was the client of a call-girl ring. When Idaho Sen. Larry Craig denied trying to solicit sex in an airport men's room.
Some of these political wives were bitterly criticized for subjecting themselves to such humiliation, as was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who stood by her husband – figuratively, if not literally – during some of the most fraught moments of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Kendra Stewart, a political science professor at the College of Charleston, said Jenny Sanford was wise not to appear at her husband's side.
“The women receive a lot of criticism and even mocking on ‘Saturday Night Live' skits, criticism from woman's groups and other folks,” she said.
As for whether Jenny Sanford's absence hurt her husband, Stewart said: “I'm not really sure any more damage could be done.” In fact, the political scientist suggested that the 49-year-old governor might have helped himself somewhat by taking his lumps by himself, and not making his wife stand there the way other politicians in peril have done.
The governor's spokesman, Joel Sawyer, said he did not know if Sanford asked his wife to be at his side.
During the painfully frank news conference, the governor said the first lady had known about the affair for five months. In her own statement, Jenny Sanford said: “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. This trial separation was agreed to with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage.”
On Thursday, Jenny Sanford spent part of the day with her husband at their coastal home. Later, she left with some children in her car for what she said was dinner and a boat ride. Asked if she would be staying with her husband, she said: “It's a goal.”
“I'm going to do my best to work on my marriage,” she said. As for her husband's political future: “His career is not a concern of mine. He'll have to worry about that. I'm going to worry about my family and the character of my children.”
Born Jennifer Sullivan, the first lady grew up near Chicago. Her grandfather founded Skil Corp., a power tool manufacturer. She graduated from Georgetown University in 1984 with a degree in finance, then worked for the Wall Street investment banking firm Lazard Freres & Co., where she was a vice president in mergers and acquisitions. Mark Sanford was also working on Wall Street.
The couple have four school-age sons.
Jenny Sanford, a millionaire, helped launch her husband's political career nearly 15 years ago, running his campaigns for Congress and governor and putting up with campaign workers living in the basement of their Sullivans Island home.
Though she has stayed largely in the background, it is common knowledge that she was her husband's chief adviser. She has been a regular at his morning meetings with his top aides.
Close friends know her as a warm, bubbly person with an infectious smile. But in political circles, she is seen as a formidable figure, not to be crossed.
“She's a highly organized, corporate-type person,” said former state Rep. John Graham Altman, a Republican. “I think Jenny's very calm, very controlled. She's extremely gifted and talented. … It's clear she was the governor of the governor.”
