There’s a slick new excuse being used by high-and-mighty men. It’s called “Blame the Wife.”
If you’ve done something illegal, criminal or unethical – well, don’t worry. Just blame the wife.
Recently, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito pulled that stunt, as did U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey).
Menendez is charged, along with his wife, Nadine, in a four-year scheme of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey businessmen so he would use his power/influence to protect them and to benefit the Egyptian and Qatari governments.
The alleged bribe payments included almost $500,000 in cash, another $70,000 in cash in Nadine’s safe-deposit box, home furnishings, a Mercedes convertible and small gold bars worth more than $100,000.
Those charged include the businessmen, Menendez and his wife. The latter are being tried separately. Both have pleaded not guilty.
At the opening of the senator’s trial, his lawyer told the court Menendez said his wife has “kept him in the dark” about financial matters. He and his defense lawyer claim he had no idea his wife was accepting bribes. The prosecution, however, is contending that he did in fact know all about the bribery schemes and made certain his wife was the one who communicated with the businessmen to deliver and accept the bribes. That way, if anyone’s ever busted, he’d be off the hook.
So, get this: Are we supposed to believe Sen. Menendez lived in a home where there eventually appeared expensive new home furnishings, gold bars here and there, cash stuffed in envelopes and then one day, out of the blue, the arrival of a Mercedes convertible? Where oh where were all those things coming from? Did the senator not notice them? Did he not ask his wife anything about them? Was he blind, deaf and dumb? We can only hope the jury doesn’t buy “the-wife-did-it” alibi.
And then there’s U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s pathetic, low-down, dishonorable attempt to blame his wife. Photos recently surfaced of a “Stop the Steal” upside-down American flag flying in Alito’s yard. It was raised shortly after the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol when radicalized thugs brutalized police and threatened to hang the vice president, all the while insisting the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Alito said he had “no involvement whatsoever,” that his wife, Martha-Ann, hung up that flag on the flagpole by their driveway. Did he not see it? Is he blind, deaf and dumb too, like Menendez?
Judges are supposed to be scrupulously careful about keeping any conflict-of-interest favoritism out of their decision-making. They are expected to refrain from acting upon or displaying any such favoritism.
What is most disturbing is that Alito, as a Supreme Court justice, is one of nine members on that Court who are being asked to decide whether U.S. presidents have “absolute immunity” for crimes committed while in office. That is what former President Trump and his legal team are asking the Court to decide, as well as issues surrounding the validity (or not) of the 2020 election.
Many other times, Alito has shown that he sides with Trump, that he’s all-in for Trump. Another Court justice, Clarence Thomas, is married to Ginny, who was actively involved in illegal schemes to keep Trump in the presidency. Are we supposed to believe it was all Ginny’s doings, not Clarence’s? Will he, too, someday blame the wife?
What a total lack of personal (and moral) integrity – especially from a judge, senator, a husband: “I didn’t do it. The wife did.”
It’s just as feeble, as inexcusable as that time-worn excuse, “The Devil made me do it.”
