You are very right...and don't think for a minute that VALERIE wasn't aware of it...and so was Joe Wilson.
Notice HE wasn't in the audience....he didn't want the Congresscritters to see him...thus, reminding them of her marriage...just another opportunity to whore her out.
Remember that picture of Joe Wilson, with Valerie in the background coming down the stairs in Victoria's Secret lingerie???
Exactly! He knows where her value lies.
Now, have you ever seen a video or picture of him TALKING to his wife? Nope. Just posing, preening and appearing at functions. She is just an adornment. He could have just gotten a Rolex, and not had to feed it.