Dressing for scandal

Lawyers advise clients how to dress for the jury. Scandal-plagued lawmakers and their wives should heed their warnings before going on TV.

Most important: Look professional and don’t wear clothes that clash with what you’re saying.

“The normal is just dress professional and respectfully anytime you appear in court, just the proper decorum of a court, one of the few places that still has a dress code these days,” said John Nassikas, attorney for Will Heaton, former chief of staff to former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio); Heaton was sentenced to two years’ probation, a fine and community service last month for his involvement in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

For the past week, the nation has watched Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) during the hardest moments of his public life — trying to defend himself against charges of lewd behavior in an airport bathroom to which he had already pleaded guilty.

That’s a tough task, and it ended with a press conference in which Craig said he was resigning his seat after 28 years in office.

His clothes were right in some ways — a soft light-blue button-down shirt, no tie and khakis. It gave him a clean, everyman image against the unbeatable backdrop of a Western mountain range. A dark suit and power (red) tie would have conveyed a stronger message of control, but might also have looked uptight.

A suit shows “respect for the process,” explained Nassikas, an attorney at Arent Fox, adding: “You would worry if someone showed up [in court] in very casual dress.”

At Craig’s first press conference, his wife, Suzanne, wore a country-style light blue blazer, long pants and oversized dark sunglasses. She looked like what she was, a rancher’s wife who wanted to hide — not quite right when your message is that of standing by your man.

Very different was Wendy Vitter, who wore a tight, rather sexy tiger-print top while her husband, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), admitted to using the services of the D.C. Madam.

Rachel Cothran, creator of the Project Beltway fashion blog, said, “In these sex scandals the scorned woman is often the most scrutinized. Women can’t win; wear something modest, people will say, ‘Well, no wonder he went looking.’ Wear something that celebrates your femininity, and you’re desperate trash. Wear something appropriate? Well, that would render you invisible, perhaps the worst option of all.”

Mrs. Vitter “may have been standing by her man, but she wasn’t hiding behind him,” Cothran said.  

Some lawmakers are hyperconscious of appearances. When former Rep. Gary Condit (D-Calif.) was facing the music after his intern and lover, Chandra Levy, went missing — she was eventually found murdered — I approached him in the Speaker’s Lobby and asked, “How do you feel?” Condit countered, “How do I look?”