Kissing Up

IT is a sad thing when the sight of a man kissing his lawfully wedded wife gives rise to unworthy thoughts. But when Vice President Gore grabbed Tipper and went into a deep and prolonged smooch with her, I was instantly reminded of the words that Oscar Wilde puts into the mouth of Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest: “The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public.”

To be sure, the Brits-—and in this context Wilde must be reckoned a Brit—are made notoriously uncomfortable by the sight of married couples expressing affection for each other. There were raised eyebrows in London when President Reagan and Nancy were found holding hands. The commonly expressed view was: Surely they should have got over that sort of thing by now? But nobody doubted that it was real affection being expressed; nor suspected that they were holding hands in order to be seen and photographed.

About the Author

John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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IT is a sad thing when the sight of a man kissing his lawfully wedded wife gives rise to unworthy thoughts. But when Vice President Gore grabbed Tipper and went into a deep and prolonged smooch with her, I was instantly reminded of the words that Oscar Wilde puts into the mouth of Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest: “The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public.”

To be sure, the Brits-—and in this context Wilde must be reckoned a Brit—are made notoriously uncomfortable by the sight of married couples expressing affection for each other. There were raised eyebrows in London when President Reagan and Nancy were found holding hands. The commonly expressed view was: Surely they should have got over that sort of thing by now? But nobody doubted that it was real affection being expressed; nor suspected that they were holding hands in order to be seen and photographed.