Michele takes note of Drudge making it a big issue that Mrs. Judith Steinberg Dean, wife of Howard Dean is not a trophy wife in this election campaign. Michele assumes Good Faith:

I suppose that’s what it could boil down to; on the issue of this campaign, Dr. Steinberg chose her kids over her husband. Is that so bad? Is it terrible to want to be there for PTA meetings and football games instead of holding your husband’s hand while he’s on a 2003 Blast Bush Tour? Sure, I could be wrong. I’m engaging in a little mind-reading here. Maybe Dr. Steinberg-Dean is staying in the background because she hates politics or is selfish or is having a secret lesbian affair with her child’s gym teacher. Maybe she’s a secret double agent who is planting dissenters in Howard Dean’s audience to wreck his career, after which she will dump him for Dennis Kucinich, who is in the market for a life partner, anyhow.

I’ll take a stab at Bad Faith, and conjecture away!

Having a loving, loyal, supportive wife at your side seems to be anti-Feminist and very un-Democrat. See, women can get along just fine while their husbands are away campaigning, and I assume that to be a decent mindset even for moderates from both sides of the fence. I suppose Dean is thinking that clingy wives is a Republican thing.

Let me also speculate that Dean has found out that she is a Rove operative as well. She probably is aware of a lot of things that he has spewed forth from his mouth over the years, and she might end up shaking her head or letting out non-verbal cues at every gaffe that Thumb-Powered Howard does. This, of course, will damage his credibility (therefore Rove’s role) more than shouting someone down in the audience.

Finally, and in all fairness to Mrs. Dean herself, she looks ordinary. Nothing to add, nothing to take away, until you see the photo of her as posted on Drudge. That pic makes her look hideous, and appeals to the senses, as we all know, produce very base-level reactions. It doesn’t help to have an ordinary-to-hideous-looking wife when you yourself look like a thumb. Her invisibility would perhaps be for the good of both, nay, all.

UPDATE: This has been featured by Sean Hackbarth in Issue No. 5 of The Duck Hunt, an aggregation of posts about our favorite Ducky, Howard Dean.