Powered by Max Banner Ads
Judge Not That Ye Be Not Judged
Just two weeks ago, almost no one knew who Mark Sanford (R-South Carolina) was. Now everyone does. Normally that would be a good thing for a politician. Unfortunately for Sanford, he is infamous instead of famous.
There has been almost nonstop coverage of every last, tawdry detail of Sanford’s affair with his mistress in Argentina. A South Carolina newspaper even posted the e-mails that went back and forth between Sanford and the Argentine.
No doubt, Sanford has brought much of this on himself. He cheated on his wife, left his job without telling anyone where he was, and flew to another continent, all he tells us, because he needed to cry. His argument for why he shouldn’t resign was plain wacky. Said Sanford, “what I find interesting is the story of David, and the way in which he fell mightily, he fell in very very significant ways. But then [he] picked up the pieces and built from there.”
Translation: David had an affair with Bathsheba and didn’t resign, so why should I? Fair enough, but David also slew Goliath and was ordained by God to be king of Israel. Comparing himself to David hardly projects an image of humility that would be helpful for him. And certainly, he could have done without providing us every last detail of his extra-marital activities as he did in his ill-conceived press conference.
Still, this whole saga raises useful questions. Should we force Sanford and politicians who have similarly sinned to resign? How harshly should we judge them? I’ve come to the conclusion that we are often too quick and too harsh in our judgment of politicians in these instances. Many observers claim that politicians who have strayed in their marriages are unfit for public office.
A lot of people then, are unfit for their jobs. Infidelity is hardly limited to politicians. Plenty of law firm partners, hedge fund managers, teachers, and police officers commit adultery. Moreover, traditional morality is eroding in society-at-large, and not just in Congress. About half of all new marriages end in divorce. Premarital sex, cohabitation, and having children out-of-wedlock have become accepted behaviors. So perhaps we should take the log out of our eyes so we can see clearly to take the speck out of Mark Sanford’s.
Essentially, many critics of Sanford argue that we should hold politicians to a higher standard than we hold ourselves. They’re supposed to be role models for society. If we can’t trust a politician to be faithful in his marriage, how can we trust him to conduct public affairs well? Besides being unfair, that attitude could deprive of us of the service of a lot of talented politicians. People who can write a good tax code or create an efficient health care scheme would be kicked to the curb because they weren’t perfect.
Politicians today aren’t any worse than they were fifty years ago. FDR, JFK, and LBJ all had extramarital affairs. The only difference between them and Mark Sanford is that Sanford got caught, largely because the media has no respect for privacy anymore. Despite their misdeeds, you’ll find no pundits bloviating about how we shouldn’t have trusted Kennedy or Roosevelt.
As for the bit about role models, I doubt that seeing Mark Sanford committing adultery will cause someone else to also have an affair. The sad truth is that they are more likely to think such behavior is acceptable from seeing all the adults they know personally engage in it. They think of divorce as normal not because some politicians got divorced, but because their parents did. Instead of outsourcing the responsibility to be good role models to politicians who already have difficult tasks, we should take it upon ourselves.
-Marcus Gadson
check out my blog: http://thegadsonreview.blogspot.com/
Hey Mark Sanford, Shut The Hell Up
Disgraced Gov. Mark Sanford is keeping his apology tour going strong with new and unnecessary revelations.
I think Sanford has completely lost his mind. He won’t just shut the f*ck up about his personal life. We already know more than we ever wanted to and sure as hell don’t need to know anything else.
Sanford is now flapping his gums about “crossing lines” with other women as well, but never the “ultimate line.”
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday that he “crossed lines” with a handful of women other than his mistress – but never had sex with them.
The governor said he “never crossed the ultimate line” with anyone but Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine at the center of a scandal that has derailed his once-promising political career.
“This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story,” Sanford said. “A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.”
During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he’s trying to fall back in love with his wife.
All this crap about a “tragic love story” is truly touching, but the real tragedy here is what a scumbag Mark Sanford turned out to be.
This guy is a disgrace and he should resign as governor. He’s clearly not in the right state of mind to be running a state or anything else.
Incredibly, his wife has said she’s interested in trying to patch things up with him. I’m sure knowing he’ll have to settle for her in place of his “soul mate” must really make her feel good.
I guess later in the week we’re going to hear about how times he’s beat off in the shower thinking about other women.
All this talk of soul mates, crying in Argentina, and tragic love stories is about to make me lose my lunch.
This guy is the biggest pussy I’ve ever seen and one sorry excuse for a human being.
Someone has to put a muzzle on this clown or send his ass back to Argentina or something. I just can’t take it anymore.
-Chris Jones
Mark Sanford Admits To Chasing Skirt In Argentina
I had a sick feeling that whatever the hell Gov. Mark Sanford was doing when he supposedly “disappeared” wasn’t good.
When I heard his phony story about disappearing to Argentina to “clear his head” I knew with absolute certainty this wasn’t going to end well.
Sure enough, Sanford held a rambling press conference (thank God without his wife present) and admitted to having an affair with some broad in Argentina. (I hope it was a broad)
“I have been unfaithful to my wife. I developed a relationship with what started out as a dear, dear friend from Argentina,” Sanford said in a rambling and often emotional news conference at the state capital in Columbia.
“I’m a bottom line kind of guy I’m just gonna lay it out. It’s gonna hurt and I’m going to let the chips fall where they may,” Sanford said.
He does say his wife was aware of the affair prior to his leaving for Argentina and that they’re pretty much separated.
He went on to apologize to his family, blah, blah, blah:
Sanford apologized to his wife, Jenny, and his children. “To Jenny, anybody who has observed her over the last 40 years of my life knows how closely she has stood by my side in campaign, after campaign, after campaign,” he said.
I’ve got no sympathy whatsoever for this charlatan. If he really cared about his family he wouldn’t be cheating on his wife and causing them public humiliation.
Thank God, we discovered Sanford’s true colors before he ran for president. I can’t believe this guy was dumb enough to pull a disappearing act and think no one would notice.
Secondly, if he and his wife really were separated then why not just say that publicly long ago? It wouldn’t have damaged his republican credentials to have a failed marriage — look at Newt Gingrich.
Our country’s economy is on life support, the republican party is in shambles, and Mark Sanford is chasing skirt in Argentina?
What a disgrace.
-Chris Jones
UPDATE: Here’s the uncomfortable press conference…
Posts
