by Damozel | The State paper has the emails exchanged between Mark Sanford and his love connection. They are rather touching, actually. Or would be if Mark Sanford weren't yet another GOP member who made a career out of being what Christ -- who hated hypocrisy almost more than anything -- called a whitened sepulchre, pretty outside, but full of rotting bones. Sanford himself was all about the marital fidelity back during the Lewinsky mess, calling Bill Clinton -- this is so South Carolina -- a "rascal." (HuffPost) NYT: "“He lied under a different oath, and that’s the oath to his wife,” Mr.
Sanford said at the time on CNN. “So it’s got to be taken very, very
seriously.”"
Speaking of which -- this is according to WSJ --- Representative Bob Inglis (SC-R), "zealous" pursuer of Bill Clinton, seems to have been having a serious think about the duties of a Christian, including Mark Sanford. I imagine he was thinking of the same Gospel references I was when he said that perhaps the GOP should lose the "stinking rot of self-righteousness," as Inglis --having reinvented himself -- has apparently decided to do. (WSJ)
Indeed, Sanford’s political fall could be a saving grace for what remains of his governorship, Inglis suggested. “This may be an opportunity to extend a little grace to other people, to realize that maybe it’s not 100% this way or that way,” Inglis said. (WSJ)
Indeed. In the meantime, it ain't too likely that anyone's going to be extending a little grace to Mark Sanford any time soon. For one thing, even Republicans think he's crazy -- Republicans such as my mom in SC, who lives in a town where unemployment's at 12% and there are foreclosures on every street. The New York Times remarks:
Oh...and yes: he did take one trip to Argentina at the state's expense -- a meeting with the governor of Buenos Aires province -- which Sanford's office requested. (NYT)
But let's be as fair to Sanford as he hasn't been to others. A couple of weeks ago, his wife told him she wanted a trial separation.
“The bottom line is this,” he said. “I have been unfaithful to my wife.”
The governor’s wife, Jenny, 46, who did not attend the news conference, issued a statement later in the day saying that while she loves her husband, she asked him to leave the family two weeks ago in a trial separation, though she still believes the marriage can be repaired. The couple have four sons, the youngest 10.
His wife told McClatchy that the governor had agreed during the trial separation not to contact the family. She had known about his extramarital affair for some time, and the two had been in counseling. (McC) McClatchy has her full statement.
In the meantime, there is much pissing and moaning among GoP supporters. Michelle Malkin, unrestrained by concerns about self-righteousness, calls him a "bastard." Others gnash their teeth over the further exposure of the nonexistence of superior GOP righteousness.
At Slate, John Dickerson finds the "glee" over Sanford's crash "heartless" and apparently disheartening. He doesn't seem to understand that a hypocrite self-exposed as such is always a farcical figure....
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