'Cause after all he's just a man

Sylvan e-mails to hep us to another story of a husband who's paying the price:

Saying she's going through a "very difficult and personal time," U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow on Wednesday promised to focus on her job in Washington while dealing with revelations that her husband paid a prostitute $150 for sex in a Troy hotel.

Talking to the Free Press in Washington, Stabenow, a 57-year-old Democrat from Lansing who married radio talk-show executive Tom Athans in 2003, refused to discuss whether the two remain together or how she learned what he told Troy police detectives in late February.

$150 for sex at a hotel in Troy, Michigan? Say what you will about Mr. Athans, but he's no Elliot Spitzer.

Athans and Stabenow, a U.S. senator since 2001, were married five years ago after a brief courtship, though they had known each other for years. He is a radio producer who has spent the past several years trying to launch liberal talk shows that could counter popular conservative radio programming.

Before starting his current firm, TalkUSA Radio, in 2006, Athans was the head of syndicated programming at Air America, a liberal network that declared bankruptcy in 2006.

That probably explains his bargain basement booty shopping.

Athans has strong ties to Democratic Party officials. Sen. Hillary Clinton publicly acknowledged him during her speech in Detroit last month.

"Let's recognize the loyal husbands who support their wives like my Bill and Tom Athans..."

A Troy police detective who had been trolling the Internet for leads on prostitution in the city posed as a potential customer when he called the woman, who listed her name as Kasey on a Web site with classified ads including personals. The detective learned that she was at the Residence Inn on Livernois off Big Beaver.

No comment.

Officers stopped Athans a few minutes later on I-75. The report said Athans acknowledged paying the woman $150 for 15 minutes of oral sex after meeting her on an Internet site.

"He was very cooperative" and didn't tell officers he was married to Stabenow, said Lt. Gerard Scherlinck, the information officer for the Troy police. "He did not ask for any special treatment."

Do you know who my wife is?

The tearful press conference should be an interesting one.

UPDATE: King e-mails with the first of what are sure to be many Spitzer-Athans wisecracks:

What did Tom Athans says to Eliot Spitzer?

"I can get it for you wholesale!"

Not bad for a dismal scientist.