THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512170035
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing Enid Greene Waldholtz is not a fan of the Tammy Wynette tune ``Stand By Your Man.''
The Utah congresswoman dumped her husband so fast and clean - in a press conference, no less - he hardly had time to send roses.
Not that they would have helped.
For those of you behind on the congressional version of ``As the World Turns,'' Waldholtz married this guy named Joseph and won her congressional seat last year after he masterminded a monstrous infusion of cash into her campaign.
The $1.7 million in so-called ``personal funds'' paid for a last-second media blitz that propelled Enid to the Capitol.
Funny how Enid didn't think to ask some hard questions - say, ``Was that money really mine?'' - until after she was comfortably seated in Washington. I can understand that. I wake up all the time thinking, ``Let's see now, just how is it that I became a millionaire overnight? Oh well, I'll think about that some other day.''
That some other day arrived when her husband mysteriously disappeared this fall. Days later, Enid held a press conference to let the all-important voters know she was dumping the guy.
Talk about a woman with damage control on her mind. Is this an example of those ``family values'' that the Republicans keep talking about?
What happened to loyalty, what about all that ``through thick and through thin, in sickness and in health'' business? What about waiting to see if a guy's innocent or guilty?
But no, this marriage came equipped with a rip cord. And ever since she parachuted out of her marriage, Enid has been scrambling to put as much distance between her and her spouse as she can. If that includes sobbing on TV for four hours - count them, four hours, as she did in a news conference last week - so be it.
She's blubbered that her ``teddy bear'' husband turned out to be a con man. That he forged signatures on checks, and she didn't have a clue. That he injected $1.7 million into her campaign chest, and she thought it was all legit.
Hello? Enid, are you there? The same woman whom citizens trust to protect their hard-earned tax dollars doesn't know what's going on in her own bank account?
Then, she sums it all up by saying she didn't do anything wrong, so why should she surrender her seat?
Huh?
It's not like she and her husband weren't close. They slept in the same bed, ate at the same supper table, conceived a child, for goodness sake.
I'm not saying I've never signed anything my husband shoved in front of my face without knowing what it was. Still, I'd like to think if something were rotting in Denmark, I'd smell it sooner than she did.
The biggest problem with Enid pleading ignorance is this: It makes her look ignorant. If, as she says, she had no part in this massive deception, then the whole thing flew right over her head.
She's not someone I'd want managing my tax dollars.
Enid, though, is clinging tight to her congressional seat while Joseph Waldholtz faces a federal grand jury probe. He might well be humming another popular country-western tune by now: ``She Got the Gold Mine, and I Got the Shaft.'' by CNB