There are plenty of highly intelligent and capable women, who do a very good job — many of them consider themselves to be unpaid employees and full partners of their husbands (much like Mrs. Obama) — they are assets to their spouses and most certainly are not Stepford wives.  I grant you it can be a very lonely life, especially if your spouse rises through the ranks, because like military wives, you would not confide in someone who is on a lower rung in the hierarchy — so the circle becomes smaller and smaller.  Not all women are capable of it — and that’s fine, but it is inexcusable to expose someone — especially one’s spouse and the father/mother of your children.  The only option is to leave the marriage in a dignified manner.

Not being able to hear your voice, I’m going to reply by taking the high road and not assuming that your question is being posed in a sarcastic and contemptuous tone. While I have made plenty of mistakes along the way, it’s highly unlikely I would have found myself in this predicament because, frankly, I too spent a great deal of time in that world and know too well what is expected of a spouse at that level (it’s not something that is left to one’s imagination by the government) — and there is no doubt that, given her husband’s rank and position, she should have been more sensitive to what is appropriate.

I suspect she now either feels very bad and embarrassed about it all or, as I mentioned in another post, is passive-aggressive and was hoping to sabotage his appointment — and if the latter is the case, the self-absorption is inexcusable — if it was a life she didn’t want, leaving the marriage in a quiet and dignified manner would have been a better choice.

As for Sharpton, does anyone remember the Tawana Brawley debacle?  Once again, Sharpton insinuated himself into this whole affair and was making unfounded accusations against the police, the DA, etc.  This man doesn’t deserve to be called reverend.

AMEN!

MJ’s mother may have withstood her husband, but she didn’t prevent him from abusing her kids.  Further, unlike Diana Ross’ children, not one of the Jacksons completed any level of higher education.

I HATE wearing a bathing suit. You know I sometimes go by the pool and I see women that look much worse than I do wearing the smallest two piece bathing suits. I always ask myself, "how the hell can these woman have the confidence to wear such suits"?

They don’t have full length mirrors in their homes! :-)

Is there anything better on a steamy day than a dip in the pool or the ocean?  Don’t let that prevent you from enjoying the water, siasp!

I’m impressed you’re still wearing bikinis, Liz!

We are not talking about an adolescent here — we are talking about  a grown woman who traveled at the highest levels of the diplomatic world.

I concur with you Judy.  Not only could a self-absorbed wife put him in jeopardy, she could put the lives of a lot of other people who have so much as shared a sandwich or played tennis with him in danger.  That is the way I felt about those who exposed Valerie Plaine — they not only destroyed her career, it is not a stretch to imagine those with whom she had contact overseas being tossed into a dungeon and having their fingernails pulled off.  If you are married to an intelligence officer and are unhappy with him/her, leave, but have enough respect for the one you once loved enough to marry and perhaps had children with to keep the secrets.

She may be passive-aggressive and decided this might well be the best way to sabotage his job — and I wouldn’t go so far as to say she disliked him, simply that she no longer wanted to live that kind of life.  Spouses at that level lead fairly lonely lives — those with the job have their spouses as confidentes at some level, but the spouses have nobody — especially if they are married to someone at the top.  Maybe she just wanted to return to her cottage in England! — seriously!

No doubt she feels bad, but the wife of a high level diplomat should be more savvy than that (and not technically savvy, but certainly far more sensitive to security matters — i.e. the inappropriateness of having a facebook page, period, when one’s spouse has been named head of intelligence)  It’s pretty shocking. 

I am stunned that she didn’t have enough sense to know that the spouse of a high level diplomat should not have a facebook page that can be easily accessed.  The minute after he was appointed, she should have deleted the entire account!

I’m like you Joan! My husband always says that I’m not home 24 hours before I start thinking about the next adventure!  My 18 year old son and I are going on a mother-son trip to Egypt on the 20th with a good friend and her 18 year old son.  I wish my husband was coming with us, but he generously said that he and our son have had plenty of adventures and that Meg and I should enjoy this time with our boys — no doubt we will! :-)  

Jackie left instructions that her papers/files were to be sealed until 50 years after her death, and I believe there is a taped in depth interview that she also asked not be released to the public until she’s been dead 50 years —- so we will just have to wait for firsthand details of her life.

Actually Maggie, the press in the 1960’s often chose to look the other way when it came to the Kennedys and their antics —  

I wonder what the comment about Pierre Salinger disagreeing (present tense) is all about because he died in 2004.

I agree with you Andrea.  I might add that despite all the talk about the kids being with their first cousins, aunts, and uncles, there’s no doubt in my mind they’d be better off with Diana Ross — the Jackson Family compund sounds like a study of dysfunction!  And like you said, those kids are going to have tons of baggage.  What a sad state of affairs.

By the way, nobody has ever mentioned schooling … I guess their itinerant lifestyle would preclude attending any kind of school in a community, so I suspect they were home-schooled, if at all, and if so by whom? Grace?