Jun 25 2009
Say It Ain’t So Mark!
Alright, I’ve been quiet about my preferences for 2012, but I’ve been quietly supporting South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford since they called Ohio for Obama. I’ve always been a Goldwater Republican. I like my Republicans conservative, and smart enough to recognize that there’s nothing conservative about the Christian Right. Although I was for John McCain throughout the primaries, I always had a lot of sympathy for the Ron Paul movement, and I’ve been very excited about Mark Sanford, who is like who Ron Paul would be if he could win. He’s more fiscally conservative than anyone else other than maybe Tom Coburn, and although he’s more socially conservative than I am, he comes by it honestly, and opposes the influence of the Christian Right. More than anything, he’s honest, smart, and he’s the only guy I’ve seen who actually understands why we’re fiscally conservative (hint: it’s not just because we don’t like paying taxes)
So my world came crashing down today when he came out about an affair he’s apparently been having for a long time with a woman from Buenos Aries. He went missing last Friday in what became one of the more bizzare stories I’ve seen in a while. First his chief of staff said Gov. Sanford was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Then his wife said she didn’t know where he was, but wasn’t worried, saying he said he had to leave to go write. A signal from his cell phone was then picked up near Atlanta. Then a federal agent said he spotted Sanford boarding a plane at the Atlanta airport.
And now this. It seems the universal consensus is that this is the end of any shot he had at the Republican nomination, which is more or less a self fulfilling prophecy.
I’m not going to hop on the moralist bandwagon waving my finger at him. And if presented with an opportunity I would still vote for him, in a heartbeat. For one, what the hell could this possibly have to do with what kind of President he would be? He was a courageous congressman, then he was a courageous governor, how can a country that elected Bill Clinton twice pretend as if they’re shocked and offended by this?
And aside from the fact that I wouldn’t give a damn if he was having a really dirty affair, this doesn’t seem like what’s happened. Sanford stated that his wife knew about this affair for five months, and that seems consistent with her disinterest when he went missing last Friday. When asked whether he and his wife were separated, he responded “I guess in a forml sense we’re not”. Does this sound like a legitimately married couple to anyone? At all?
So he wasn’t able to keep up the front of his sham marriage. Whoop di fricking do. The next time you get upset about how there’s nothing but cheap panderers in Washington, remember that you disqualified a non-panderer because he failed the Keep Up the Sham Marriage test.
The Democrats (what sorry excuses for morality) have already started the heat. The best thing that Sanford can do for himself and his family now, is to resign(before it gets really nasty)…the only pollies that survive this test are Democrats, because no one expects them to have any moral values.
Donna, you hit the nail on the head. I find it hypocritical for any Dems to speak out about any affairs. We know the skeletons in those closets. What happened to the “it was only sex” debate that most liberals love to throw around? Sanford should just step down and handle his personal life.