Before we jump to the jokes about Mark Sanford crying in Argentina, let's pause and think of how sad it is to see a family and a promising political career implode like this. I always liked Mark Sanford. He kept his word about serving only three terms in the House. He kept up with his National Guard responsibilities. He maintained conservative principles in his governing in supporting issues like educational choice and opposing the stimulus money for South Carolina because he recognized the long-term implications of taking on jobs whose federal funding would run out in a few years and leave the state on the hook for the mandate. So I liked him politically from what I'd seen of him. I hadn't counted him as a leading GOP candidate for president simply because I think that the next Republican shouldn't be a Southerner. That's one of the several reasons I'm not excited about the Haley Barbour trial balloons. However, an American politician who indulges in a year-long relationship with a woman from Argentina is not one who was serious about pursuing a further political career. He sounds deliberately self-destructive of his career and his family.
However, judging from their emails, Sanford seems to have really fallen for his Argentinian girlfriend. Even so, the man has four children and no excuse other than his own moral frailty for cheating on his wife.
I do wonder, incidentally, where the newspaper got those emails from. There must be an interesting story there.
The big story here isn't the end of his political career. That's over. But it's the story of a marriage and family being torn apart. And that is truly sad. His wife's eloquent and dignified statement indicates a willingness to forgive him and work through to a reconciliation. Perhaps she'll feel differently after reading his emails and hearing how he cried for five days about having to give up his girlfriend. I know I would. However, I wish them well on their efforts to rebuild their marriage.
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16 comments:
Stupid, stupid, stupid man. Good luck to his wife working things out if that's what she wants.
According to the reporter who met him at the airport this morning (Gina Smith), the newspaper received the e-mails from an anonymous tipster as far back as December.
Another politician in the tradition of Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Grover Cleveland, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton and countless other lesser lights like Wilbur Mills, Nelson Rockefeller, John Edwards, Mark Ensign, and now, Governor Sanford.
You kind of wonder why this obvious history lesson never takes.
Maybe the lesson should be that private lives should stay private. I believe it was Reagan who invited the so-called Moral Majority into the republican party, and now we have candidates trying to out-religion and out-family values their opponents (usually making a mockery out of the Bible the proclaim to hold so dear).
I'm sure I never would have voted for Sanford (since he is one of the Bible-thumpers), but I did respect some of his positions.
mark,
Do those positions you admire[d] now get cast aside or just the man that held them? This is where the politics of party affiliation leave me cold. So many media hacks have already attempted to translate this into a "failure" for the Republicans and their policies. And for some this scandal presents an opportunity to attack religious affiliations and beliefs. Ridiculous and sad.
Did Bill Clinton's infamous perjury episode mean that all Dems were felony liars? Of course not.
Other than declining "stimulus" money for the state, I'm not sure that I know anything else about Sanford. One less career politician in the ranks is a good thing, in my mind, but he should have had the maturity to remove himself from the job if he could not manage his personal life.
I agree Backbone--so stupid.
Eliot Spitzer belongs on the stupid list also.
I do find it interesting that FOX News, just as they did with Mark Foley, falsely claimed in their graphics that he is a Democrat. I suppose it shows just how little they think of the intelligence of their viewers!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/24/fox-news-identifies-sanfo_n_220377.html
So when Democrats spread rumors of Mrs. Lincoln being insane that was not really an example of them trying to bring her personal life as a tool for political revenge. Because obviously to mark it wasn't the Serpent that tempted Eve but rather a recruiter for the Republican Party.
I also suspect that the first thing mark does every morning is go to Counterpunch to get his talking points for the day. Today they have an article talking about the Moral Majority and how the Republicans encouraged them.
Mark: private lives should stay private with a private person
Moral Majority or no, a politician is not a private person. A politician has the audacity to order our lives, at least, he should take hold of his own first. Anyway, cheating is cheating, why should cheating on your wife, the little woman at home, more preferable than cheating on other things?
The press has no obligations to cover up for a politician, unless he was a Democratic presidential candidate. However, a decent press would leave his family alone, and not dwell on his affairs 24/7. It isn't anybody else's business after the affair's exposed. No laws prevent him from staying in office, and no laws prevent the voters from voting for him again. But the voters have the right to know what kind of person they are voting for.
Vnjagvet: How can you forget JFK? By the way, Thomas Jefferson might have been a weasel taking advantage of a teenage slave girl, by all accounts, he had never cheated on his wife when she was alive.
When I looked at Fox they did have an R behind Sanford's name and referred to him as a Republicans.
The rest of the left-wing media likes to forget to put anything behind a Democrat"s name or mention party affiliation when they are in the news for corruption or philandering.
The Moral Majority(so to speak) are Americans Mark,and they have a right to express their opinion. For obvious reasons they certainly do not have much in common with the Liberal Left who consider it sooo clever to laugh at any one who expresses any moral beliefs or character expections.
"Bibal thumpers"---? That seems to be a favorite term on the left. How do you feel about Qur'an thumpers?
Promising? Only among right-wingers is a politician considered "promising" when he courts a national constituency by denying basic educational needs to the children of his state. Which -- now that I think about it -- shows about as much respect for South Carolinians as abandoning his job as Governor for a five day tango in Buenos Aires.
I'm basically in agreement with your sentiments, Betsy. In wounding (destroying? time will tell) his own career Sanford has simultaneously wounded conservatism.
As to Sanford's marriage...
All I can say for sure is that I don't know "his side" of things from the perspective of what role - if any - his wife's behavior had in Sanford committing adultery.
No! Don't lash out folks...! Let me clarify:
I'm not "blaming the victim."
Nor am I "excusing the inexcusable."
If Sanford had decided his marriage was over, it was up to him to inform his wife and make a clean break.
Clear?!
From what we know, Sanford is totally at fault here - the bad guy here - and his wife the blameless, betrayed part.
But read those first four words again: "From what we know..."
I read Mrs. Sanford's statement. She comes across as a woman deserving only our complete sympathy and good will. And, yes, I'm willing to extend her both.
Still... and this is my point... IF we're going to examine this as a question of "how and why a marriage was thrown into crisis," we just don't KNOW enough to act as judge, jury, and executioner as far as setting this matter in firm concrete "good vs. evil" terms.
By the same token... it's certainly possible that Mark Sanford actually is a 100% piece of garbage as a husband and head of household while Jenny Sanford is and was a wife as near to ideal as is earthly possible.
BILL
tfhr,
Nope. Sanford is just another guy who fell short in one aspect of his life. Nor is it a failure for republican policies or religion. Just a repudiation for those who pretend repubs have better values. And (I hope) a warning for those who pontificate about things such as the sanctity of marriage while they're stepping out on their spouse (as Sanford did two weeks ago addressing the subject of same-sex marriage.
Maybe we should just accept El Rushbo's explanation today -
It's Obama's fault:
"This is almost like, 'I don't give a damn, the country's going to Hell in a handbasket, I just want out of here,'" said Limbaugh. "He had just tried to fight the stimulus money coming to South Carolina. He didn't want any part of it. He lost the battle. He said, 'What the Hell. I mean, I'm -- the federal government's taking over -- what the Hell, I want to enjoy life.'"
Of course, the timeline doesn't work too well if the affair began a year ago, but that's a minor detail.
I guess I was wrong when I said yesterday that repubs would blame the media. They'll blame Obama instead.
mark,
Make a note that at 5:22PM, for possibly the first time in recorded history, we agreed on something. I thought I felt something move, a slight but notable change in the Earth's rotation but in less than one hour, at precisely 6:22PM, the axis of feeble was restored with your bizarre obsession with "Everything is about Limbaugh"!
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