The Orbis

I guess I neglected to check on something when I followed Barbara Boxer's and Kathleen Blanco's campaigns for their respective offices: their husbands.

Sure, their stance on issues matter, but shouldn't the public know what their husbands look like or what they do? And more importantly, why aren't they at their wives' campaign events? After all, these husbands should've dropped whatever they were doing to cheer on their wives.

These questions clearly seem frivolous. According to the media, however, the Democratic presidential candidates' wives and their involvement in the campaign must be taken into account when voting, in addition to those minor issues like the deficit, national security, health care and such.

This "wife issue" is so important that several news shows have begun asking these questions about the wives of the candidates. At one point, Teresa Heinz Kerry was the topic of debate. But they've found their new target for attack: Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean.

It's true that we haven't seen much, if any, of Judy on the campaign trail with Howard. It is with good reason.

She is a physician with a private practice in Vermont who still makes house calls. As a family physician, she believes that "my patients are my patients, and they really depend on me."

She has said in several magazine interviews that her sense of responsibility to the patients makes it very difficult to simply cancel on them. It's refreshing to know that there are doctors out there who still truly care for their patients.

But political pundits and even some of the other candidates have commented that her perceived "lack of interest" in her husband's campaign is evidence that Dean is some left-wing nut who lets his wife do whatever she wants. The media must have forgotten about the time when they scrutinized the "two-for-one" presidential campaign of Bill Clinton. Perhaps they changed their mind and now want Judy to head up the task-force on the health care initiative.

This debate has recently reached the daytime show circuit and has even begun questioning the Deans' "family values." Joy Behar of "The View" criticized Judy for not supporting her husband and acting like a "potential first lady." To Behar and others, any good wife of a presidential candidate had better be at her husband's side throughout the course of the campaign. Otherwise, it's a sure sign that the candidate does not have good "family values." But why would being by her husband's side be the only judgment of one's quality of marriage?

If we used those criteria to judge the Clintons' marriage during their campaign, then they have a perfect relationship. Behar, among others, has neglected to note that the Deans have a 17-year-old son at home. By any other standards, Judy's decision to stay at home would be applauded as a sign of a "good" mother.

Last Thursday, America finally got a good glimpse of Judy on "Primetime Live." During the interview, she talked about what the family does on her birthday. She said, "My birthday is around Mother's Day...so, we do a family bike ride...with squished cupcakes in our knapsacks."

Tell me again, why is Judy so threatening to America's family values?

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