Could Margaret Wente be an expert on the Spitzers’ marriage?

A local footnote to the continuing tsunami of stories on the now ex-governor of New York. An august member of this city’s editorial elite wrote me this morning:

Look at the Globe’s cover blurb yesterday under the main Spitzer headline: “The awful life of a political wife: A stalwart effort, considering she wanted to tear him limb from limb. Margaret Wente, Page 15.” Whoa, Wente knows Mrs. Spitzer wanted to do hubby bodily harm, she got an interview? Well no. Wente writes, as I expected, that Mrs. Spitzer “probably wanted to tear him limb from limb.” No big deal, and certainly no reflection on Peggy, but cover display, especially, should be written and vetted more carefully than to suggest the Globe has an exclusive on the state of mind of Spitzer’s wife.

Good point. But even more significant, the front page of this morning’s New York Times reports in a subhead, “Wife was urging to stay on.” A wan hope for sure, but hardly tearing him “limb from limb.” Every marriage, it seems, is its own country. Margaret Wente didn’t need to interview Mrs. Silda Spitzer to figure that out. She could have called anybody on the Clinton campaign.

• Spitzer Wrestles Over Response, Paralyzing Albany [New York Times] • The awful life of a political wife [Globe and Mail]