Wilson’s Domestic Issue

She kept coming. Once a week, the Mexican woman would show up at the San Diego condominium of Pete Wilson. He did not know much about her. There might have been “polite conversation,” he would say later, but nothing more. He did not know her background. He did not know her name or where she lived. All he knew was that she came to clean his home, although he wasn’t exactly sure what that entailed.

“I don’t know,” he said Friday, “where she dusted.”

In the last month or so, Wilson has learned more about this woman who cleaned his home in the late 1970s. He has learned that her name is Josefina and that his ex-wife paid her $25 a day. He has learned also that his ex-wife isn’t certain Josefina was properly documented, and that Social Security taxes were not withheld on the woman’s behalf--”a serious dereliction,” Wilson called it.

More to the point, what Wilson has learned is that running for President will be much rougher than anything he has done before. It’s a different game, with fewer rules and players more skilled in the mean arts. Consider: In four statewide campaigns--two for U.S. Senate, two for governor--Josefina never came up. In fact, in his last campaign, Wilson not only was spared scrutiny of his personal life, but even his record as governor received little attention. He was pretty much left free to bash away at his opponent and illegal aliens--sorry ‘bout that, Josefina. Not this time.

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The game among politicos now is to calculate the damage to Wilson, an exercise that seems premature. In this era the domestic help holds the power cards--see Z. Baird, M. Huffington, et al.--and so before predicting the impact it might be better to wait until Josefina has surfaced. Oh, the stories those snoopy maids can tell.

Nonetheless, one optimistic adviser to the Wilson campaign on Friday said that at least Wilson was back in the news, which would help build the “name identity” so vital in early polls and primaries. One can almost hear the New Hampshire-ites now: “Oh, Pete Wilson. I remember that fellow. A Californian. Had a maid once.”

Wilson himself--his voice surprisingly hoarse as a result of a throat operation intended to make him sound more, well, presidential--vowed that the Josefina affair won’t silence him on illegal immigration: “Throat surgery may, but not this.” Of course not. Pete Wilson without illegal aliens to kick around would be like Joe McCarthy without Commies. The hunch here is that Wilson, who can be rather shameless in his rhetorical turns, will attempt to work Josefina to his advantage.

“What better evidence,” he might thunder in his new, improved voice, “can there be that these”--what was his term in the Prop. 187 debate?--” invaders are everywhere? Witness! Even I, Pete Wilson, Scourge of the Southwest Border, have been invaded! They keep coming, I tell you! You hire them to come up and clean your toilet, and right away they are enrolling their kids in kindergarten!” Etc. Etc.

Well, no one said it would work.

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Beyond making him look hypocritical on illegal immigration, the Josefina disclosure causes trouble for Wilson in another, almost subliminal context. To run for President is to audition for the role of the Great American Father. The process often can seem as much psychological as political: Which candidate is more like the majority’s idea of Dad? Who’s got kids? Where’s the family dog? What’s the wife like? Who knows his way around the kitchen, or a carburetor?

Crazy, yes, but undeniably the American way. What Josefina has provided is a back door--a servants’ entrance?--into the private side of Pete Wilson, a dimension he has kept fairly well-protected running for lesser offices in California. Now everyone in the national press wants to interview Wilson’s ex-wife--an ex-wife? the Iowan muses--his old neighbors, his maid. Where are the kids? Oh, there are no kids. What about a gardener? No, Wilson said Friday, he has never lived in a home with a lawn to mow. Good God! He doesn’t even own a lawn mower!

Again, none of this stuff should mean beans, but who would argue that American presidents are selected strictly on the basis of brain power and policy positions? Ultimately, Josefina represents something of a warning. Wilson is not the only politician seeking to become the next First Father. The opposition research teams--as this little bombshell demonstrated--are up and active, eager to dig into every little thing about our governor, professional and personal. The better Wilson does, the more they’ll keep coming. And these people don’t clean up messes. They make them.