Why do women engage in "the Clutch?" Silda Spitzer made me physically ill when I saw her make that long, slow, horrifying walk into the hot glare of TV lights, her eyes cast downward as throngs of hostile peppered her husband - who will now forever be known as Client No. 9 - with questions about the tens of thousands he is accused of spending on a high-end hooker. The humiliation was etched into her face with an embarrassed smirk. Still the Harvard-educated attorney was there, clutching Elliot Spitzer's arm. She is not the only political wife who engaged in "the Clutch" in recent memory. There was Hillary Clinton's famous hand-holding when Bill Clinton wagged his finger at the American public saying "I did not have sex with that woman!" Larry "Senator Wide Stance" Craig dragged his poor wife into the cacophony of TV trucks and camera flashes when he was caught toe-tapping gay sex signals in a public restroom at a Minneapolis airport. David Vitter's wife was in the "Clutch" after his name was found in the black book of an infamous DC Madam. Gary Hart's wife stood-by-her-man after he was caught in compromising positions with a young hottie. Gary Condit's wife was in the clutch even after her husband's admitted lover Chandra Levy went missing and is presumed dead. The best clutch came from Dina McGreevy, who clutched the hand of her New Jersey governor husband when he declared: "I am a gay American."
If any boyfriend I had was unmasked as a prostitute paying-sicko, was caught having an affair with a college student, or was busted for toe-tapping a signal wanting a quick Monica Lewinsky in the stall of a men's room, the only clutch I would engage in would happen lower than his hand...and it would probably make him weep with much more than regret.
You can't put a price on dignity.
