Below The Beltway

I’ve generally ignored most of the psycho-analyzing that the cable news and morning talk shows have done in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer case, which is why these particularly idiotic remarks by Laura Schlesinger didn’t come to my attention until today:

Dr. Laura Schlessinger has never been one to shrink from controversy, and she leaped headlong into one on Monday when she said that if a husband cheats, his wife may share some of the blame.

“When the wife does not focus in on the needs and the feelings, sexually, personally, to make him feel like a man, to make him feel like a success, to make him feel like her hero, he’s very susceptible to the charm of some other woman making him feel what he needs,” the popular psychologist and radio personality said.

(…)

“You’re saying the women should feel guilty that they somehow drove the man to cheat?” asked TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira.

“The cheating was his decision to repair what’s damaged and to feed himself where he’s starving,” Schlessinger replied. “But, yes, I hold women responsible for tossing out perfectly good men by not treating them with the love and kindness and respect and attention they need.

This of course isn’t surprising coming from “Doctor” Laura, but that doesn’t make it any more absurd. Spitzer didn’t do this because of his wife, he did it because he thought he could get away with it. And, for ten years during which time he fathered three children with his wife, he did get away with it. The man is a sleaze bag.