DADvocate

Following a circuitous route starting with Instapundit, I came to Betsy's Page and comments regarding Nancy Pelosi, politics, motherhood and rich husbands. Betsy starts by pointing out Mark Steyn's article on the media's love affair with Pelosi.

Indeed, Steyn writes a telling and humorous account of the double standard and shallow affection the media have for Grandma Pelosi. As glaring as the dog that didn't bark is the absence of references to Pelosi's very wealthy husband. Betsy states:

I wonder if traditional feminists are at all uncomfortable with all this celebration of a stay at home mother who now can have it all. And how little mention there is of her very wealthy husband who perhaps made all this motherhood and rise in politics possible. I've seen more mentions of her father politician than her husband. Why is he getting shortchanged? As the San Francisco Chronicle wrote recently, he is deliberately keeping a low profile. I guess having a multimillionaire husband doesn't fit the entire image. There's nothing wrong with having a husband who has made many millions in investments, but it is part of the complete picture and some mention of him should belong in the media profiles.

From my personal observations, Betsy makes a incisive observation, not just into Pelosi, but into the minds and lives of many "liberated" women. I can't count the number of women I've known whom consider themselves "liberated" who heavily depended on their husbands to attain their "status."

Being a stay at home mom for most is not an easy job, but women with rich husbands usually have plenty of help with the cleaning, laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, babysitting, etc. Women of the middle class and the lower economic groups must work much harder as mothers then the rich. I doubt Pelosi had a difficult motherhood.

But Betsy made me think about all the women who "made it" on their husband's coat tails. I know several women who eventually became "successes" because they could go to college, quit jobs at will, try different career choices and such because hubby was there to make sure the family stayed solvent. Hubby carries the load, mommy gets the glory. Do you remember in the 1998 Olympics all the fuss about Tara Lipinski and her mother? Dad worked and earned all the money that payed for everything. For his efforts authorities prevented him from joining his daughter after she won the gold medal because they didn't know who he was.

Of course, what we really see here is why Pelosi and all those other rich guys and gals in Congress are so out of touch with real life in the United States. They never lived it, or lived it so long ago that they can't remember it. But they'll give you a measly raise in minimum wage and act like it's the greatest thing since the birth of Christ. And, once again, the MSM falls in love with skin-deep "beauty" and not substance.

P.S. John Kerry put a new twist on the rich spouse routine, however.