Posted on 09/01/2007 12:53:06 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
Matos McGreevey once stood shellshocked next to her ex-husband, then-New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey, as he announced before TV cameras that he was "a gay American" and would resign.
"I was watching his wife the other day standing next to him, and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, that was me three years ago. Now here we go again,'" Matos McGreevey said in an interview at her home Friday evening. "She's a victim of the choices he's made."
James McGreevey, the nation's first openly gay governor, later said he stepped down rather than succumb to a $50 million blackmail threat from a male former lover.
When it was Suzanne Craig's turn to stand stoically beside her husband this week, 40-year-old Matos McGreevey said she felt her pain. Matos McGreevey said she stood by her man in 2004 because she still loved him and she felt she had done nothing wrong.
"For me, I decided I was going to stand by my husband's side. I was in shock, I had not had an opportunity to absorb what was happening," she said. "I had 48 hours, 72 hours to try to make sense of what he was telling me."
Asked if Suzanne Craig should follow her lead, Matos McGreevey said: "Only she can answer that question," she said.
Republican officials said Friday that Craig will resign from the Senate on Saturday. The announcement comes amid a furor over Craig's arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men's room.
The 62-year-old grandfather denied he used foot and hand gestures to signal interest in a sexual encounter with an undercover officer and said his guilty plea to a reduced charge was a mistake.
Matos McGreevey predicted tough times ahead for the Craigs, and offered this advice to the beleaguered political wife: "Do what's right for you and your family, not what's politically expedient or what your husband wants you to do. That's certainly something that I learned from my experience."
Matos McGreevey said in the midst of her personal turmoil she called Hillary Rodham Clinton for advice. The former first lady also had been publicly humiliated by her philandering husband, though his indiscretions were with a female intern and did not involve gay sex.
"She said the best piece of advice I can give you is to get your own counsel and do what you think you need to do protect you and your daughter," Matos McGreevey recalled. "And don't let your husband's advisers make decisions for you."
These days, Matos McGreevey said she counsels others in similar situations who contact her by letter, e-mail, phone and in person, sometimes at unlikely places like the grocery store.
"I've had many conversations with people in my shoes," she said.
Although she did not ask to become a symbol for spouses weathering the gay infidelities of their mates, Matos McGreevey said helping others means "the pain I have gone through has not been in vain."
Jim McGreevey, 50, will begin full-time studies at General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in Manhattan, seminary spokesman Bruce Parker said Friday.
Matos McGreevey, who is now locked in a contentious divorce proceeding with her estranged husband, said the relationship was over once he came out. She said she is moving on, even dating, but has lasting issues trusting others.
"It's very painful to know that you've been betrayed by the person you love, the person you trust," she said. "And it's equally painful when you have the rest of the world, who doesn't know what you're feeling, what your relationship is like, criticizing you for taking certain actions."
I hope she's able to pick him clean...financially,that is.I doubt that any self respecting woman would want to "clean" him any other way.
Maybe she knows more than she lets on ~ now that Larry Craig has “outed himself” maybe she can recall others with whom her husband had encounters at interstate rest stops in Virginia, or what officials here might have gotten him off the hook.
“James McGreevey, the nation’s first openly gay governor”
Is this right? Didn’t he come out only after he was caught?
This is why homosexuals should not be in power positions in government.
If he plays his cards right, he can become a TEC bishop in time.
Stuff and nonsense! A heterosexual philanderer is just as open to blackmail as a gay philanderer, and an “out” homosexual is less open to blackmail than a heterosexual philanderer.
Good catch. That description makes him into a brave civil rights icon, not just a slimeball whose questionable activities forced him into his self-pitying “I am a gay man” speech. That was the first spin, making himself the poor victim of close minded gay bashers, instead of the criminal activity he was really involved in.
But what the hell, it worked.
Gee, my recollection is that, three years ago, the press couldn’t care less about Matos McGreevey (today is the first time I’ve ever even read her name in print, let alone heard it). Now, when it’s a Republican who’s in trouble, she’s wheeled out as a fellow victim “of his choices.” An expert commentator, as it were.
LMAO... 3 years and their finally getting around for her story.
“Jim McGreevey, 50, will begin full-time studies at General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church”
He’s got his sights set on the next growth industry.
The fellow already has a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and a master's in education from Harvard.
Perhaps he was inspired by The Right Reverend Vicky Imogene "Gene" Robinson from up New Hamster.
That and the fact that they are usually bounders.
If youâve seen Eddie Izzardâs skit about the Church of england you know why Miss McGreevey chose to jump from the Catholic Church to the Episcopal Church.Itâs kinda like going from the Marine Corps to the Girl Scouts.
Yes, and he was not elected while “openly gay”. It kind of “happened”.
Wasn’t it just a short time ago that McGreevey was hired to teach Ethics at Kean College in New Jersey? Ethics! OMG! Kean College must be the worst school in the country!
“James McGreevey, the nations first openly gay governor”
James McGreevey, the nations first openly gay governor caught in a corruption probe and forced to resign to prevent prosecution.
Much better.
Hillary’s advice:
“She said the best piece of advice I can give you is to get your own counsel and do what you think you need to do protect you and your daughter,” Matos McGreevey recalled. “And don’t let your husband’s advisers make decisions for you.”
Just like a lib, never take their own advice.
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