Vote for me! I might be a jerk, but my wife is really nice!!

To the editors of the Washington Post:

I really don't care about a politician's wife. I am not voting for her. It really doesn't matter if she's pro-choice if her husband votes away my rights in order to appease the religious right. She's not the one who is going to be representing me in the Senate. It's nice that's she's loyal and will defend him to the death. So's Hilary Rodham Clinton, but Hilary has an identity of her own. Teresa Heinz Kerry had an identity of her own as well, she managed a multi-million dollar foundation. Both of them were smeared because of their independence. Judith Steinberg didn't even bother to change her name when she married her fellow physician Howard Dean. (BTW, where was the outrage about Lynne Cheney working for the American Enterprise Institute? Can you say IOKIYAR?) Wouldn't it have been nice to have a First Lady who actually had a real job? Instead of collecting wingnut welfare like Lynne Cheney?

But we really need to move away from the politician's wife as decorative accessory. It is an anachronism. Real women have careers of their own, the days of a woman making her husband her career are a relic. Women don't go to college to get their MRS degrees, women now outnumber men at colleges. A politician bringing his wife into the spotlight to appeal to women voters is patroning. How stupid does George Allen think women are? Let's dump the wife as a part a candidate's package, this is the 21st Century after all.