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."
“She’s a victim of the choices he’s made.” ??????????????????????
She’s a victim of the choices SHE made.
Either that or she’s the biggest moron in the U.S., McGreevey being gay was the Worst Kept Secret in NJ for many years, even before he became governor.
This is a vile woman, first acting as his beard and benefitting from all of the perks from office and then when THEIR facade is unmasked playing the unsuspecting victim. Shocked, just SHOCKED that her husband and father of her children is a homosexual, can you imagine her devastation (please).
Her and Arianna Huffington are the same type of self-absorbed pigs who will use a gay man as their paths to fame and power.
McGreevey the Machiavellian
When I saw her name in print around the time McGreevy came out as a “gay American”, it was Dina Matos. I never saw her referred to as Dina Matos McGreevy before reading this story. One feature that this story avoids — she apparently doesn’t want the kid exposed to his alternative lifestyle. Since she’s a very liberal Democrat (gadzooks, calling Shrillary for advice!) there is definite cognitive dissonance happening. She’s torn between what she knows is good for the kid and what she is supposed to think and say as a progressive.
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This man is the poster child for the democratic machine. Everything he has done so far was for himself. He did not care about his wife or his kids and was adored and accepted by his party and the media as a man of courage and conviction. Sickening, just sickening. These are the choices we have before us come election day.
She did make a good looking beard IMO.
I believe Craig and McGreevey were probably both heterosexuals who enjoyed kinkiness. Ultimately that led them to the path of homosexuality.
Concerning, McGreevey, which speech sounds better?
bump
No, that’s why CLOSETED homosexuals should not be in power positions in government. You can’t blackmail someone who’s openly gay.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Yeah that is why she called Hillary Clinton for advice
Cut me a break
n.b. Of course, Democrats, especially in Massachusetts, may not do any harm to their public standing no matter how egregious the behavior..... Mass. Democrats can survive even being “caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy” in Huey Long’s phrase.....
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
That’s true, but the post I was replying to implied that there shouldn’t be gay officeholders because they could be blackmailed due to their sexual preference. If their sexual preference is no secret, than obviously that in itself could not be used for blackmail. That would be like blackmailing somebody for their party affiliation, which is known to everyone. Obviously, any person with dark secrets, sexual or not, can be blackmailed.
I was going to say, if she didn’t know, then her gaydar needs a serious adjustment.
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