The sad, shameful and sudden fall of Eliot Spitzer is grist for so many mills that it will defy the 24 hour news cycle; the commentariat will grind away on the private and public agony of the disgraced crusader longer than your average scandal.  It is just so rich with irony, so inexplicable, so salacious and the humiliation of the man so profound that it is simply irresistible.

The agony, of course, is not Eliot Spitzer’s alone.  There, by his side, through two short but certainly excruciating public statements, stood his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer.   The chorus of disbelief heard immediately.  Most incredulous were other women. Why?  Why would this accomplished, intelligent woman stand by a man who had plunged her into the misery of his indiscretions?  Conjecture and comment from the talking heads and knowing but typically anonymous quotes from sources supposedly close toMs.Wall Spitzer are the hottest sidebar to the scandal story. 

Ms.Wall Sptizer’s motivations are hers alone to know.  They are undoubtedly complex.  But here is the overarching truth that confronts any woman who is faced with the choice Ms. Spitzer faced and it is the truth missed by most who ask the question, why?  Not every audience in the lives of public people is a public one.  Sometimes, the most important audience is the private audience.   We are mistaken if we assume that every decision made by public people is calculated to have a public impact.  This must be particularly true of wives who step in front of cameras at the most difficult moment of their lives.

Was Ms.Wall Spitzer hoping that by standing by her Governor Man that she could help salvage his political career?  Perhaps.  It is far more likely is that she appeared not for the sake of her husband’s career but for the sake of her children, her family, her marriage, for the life they will have when finally their names are no longer in the headlines.  Though she was silent, her presence was a powerful message.

Unseen, but their agony nonetheless palpable, are the Spitzer children.  Three teenage daughters.  For Ms. Wall Spitzer, what audience could be more important?