Shame on Carly Fiorina

The Huffington Post's Sam Stein: "Why even go to the point that you're criticizing her marriage?"

Fiorina: "Well, I guess I would say, you know, if my husband had done some of the things Bill Clinton had done, I would have left him long ago."

Stein, in a tone of disbelief: "Why is that a campaign issue?"

Fiorina: "Oh, I think if you're running for the presidency of the United States, everything's an issue. ... If you're going to lead, people have to trust you, and in order to trust you, they have to know you. So, yes, I think it's all fair game."

Whoa. It's one thing for a voter to decide for herself whether to think well or ill of Clinton for staying in her marriage. It's quite another for a rival candidate to deploy that decision -- or in Fiorina's case, to make smarmy insinuations about the state of the Clinton marriage -- against her.

Which brings us to the rampant sexism embedded in Fiorina's comments. First, she feels empowered by her gender to go after another woman in a way that a male candidate would not. Second, Fiorina chose not to focus on Clinton-as-politician but Clinton-as-wife, an issue irrelevant to her suitability for the presidency.

Finally, her particular critique suggests that Clinton's marriage is a sham tool in her unseemly -- unwomanly? -- quest for power. Clinton is, in Fiorina's depiction, a grasping woman willing to tolerate humiliation in the service of her ambition.

Would Fiorina question the amount of time that a male candidate spends with his wife and family? Of course not. Indeed, unedited video footage posted by the Ted Cruz campaign includes his wife describing how he once returned home to Texas to his daughter shrieking, "There's a guest in the house!"

Heidi Cruz: "So even though they know he's very much a part of our home, they do sometimes see him as a guest."

To imagine how that would play with a female candidate in the guest parent role is to recognize the double standard to which female candidates are subjected -- including by rivals of their own gender.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.