Men In The Pedestal

Behind a great man is a great woman. That’s how it goes but apparently, behind a man’s failure is also a woman.  Have you ever noticed that great men were always been toppled by a woman? In the past years, we have seen this correlation come to life before our very eyes.

Who could forget the now infamous, White House Intern Monica Lewinsky and a so called friend Linda Tripp who tediously recorder her conversation with Monica that almost cause President Clinton’s impeachment.  And yet Hilary Clinton with her grace and elegance faced the humiliation and embarrassment with head held high and came out the stronger person she is right now.  I admire her for that.

Eliot Spitzer, former Governor of New York, with a $1,000 per hour call girl named Ashey Alexandra Duprè.

John Edwards, Senator and former candidate for President, affair with a former videographer Reille Hunter.  What’s extremely sad about this story is that the wife, Elizabeth who stands by this man was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer while this scandal was unfolding.  And he denied fathering a child with Hunter not admitting it until the end.

Mr. Universe himself was not spared from this spectacle. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator was terminated (hahaha…) by his wife Maria Shriver, a Kennedy at that, after an explosive news about an affair with the housekeeper and having fathered a son with her.  But in spite of that Maria Shriver stand by her man that made a lot of women admire her more.  Eventually though, I guess her patience run out too, gave up and then file for divorce.  Come to think of it now, perhaps she got tired of all the other ones he had an affair with, as per the book he’s written where he confesses all his extra marital affair to his wife which I personally think is sick.  Why would you kick a person in the gut while they are already down in the gutter?  I see him now as a pathetic individual who is selfish and unkind.  Though I love his movies (i.e., The Terminator {I guess because he doesn’t have a dialogue except for the famous “I’ll be back”}, Predator, True Lies {indeed}, and of course my favorite Eraser) it is all lies.

 

And just recently, a well respected CIA Director David Petraeus not so much as publicly admitted to having the affair with the biographer Paula Broadwell yet it is all over the news and sadly the cause of his resignation from a very prominent position in the government.  Yet again, his wife Holly Knowlton though furious and hurt, stands by her man.   But the big concern here now is if he passed on classified information to her during the affair that may jeopardized the national security.  This affair might have not been know if it hadn’t been for Jill Kelly who complained to the FBI of harassment from Paula Broadwell who apparently is threatened by Ms. Kelly’s presence in the life of Gen. Petraeus.

What is wrong with these stories?  Powerful men, publicly adored and respected yet they find themselves in an awkward situations.  The key word here is “power”.  They are confident they can never be caught.  They believe they can get away with everything. And they are most certainly hoped  are going to be forgiven.  But like everything else, they are wrong with that conclusion.  Well, just some of them.

So there they were, men in pedestal, now in the hall of shame.