Partly Cloudy / 37° FSanford should have resigned as S.C. governor while he was at it
By Staff
Don't cry for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Argentina.
His wounds are self-inflicted.
Turns out when he went AWOL for seven days, demonstrating a lapse in judgment that should give pause to both sides of the aisle, Sanford, 49, a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, confessed June 24 that he was actually in South America with his mistress of a year.
Taxpayer-funded trysts with a "dear, dear friend" of eight years is bad enough, but he hung his staff out to dry.
He denied instructing them to mount a cover-up, but never corrected the impression he gave them that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Wiping away tears, Sanford apologized to his family – wife Jenny, who learned of the affair five months ago, did not stand by her man at the 20-minute news conference in Columbia – and forfeited a national post heading the Republican Governors Association, but did not give up the governorship itself, even though he was derelict in his duties by not transferring power before leaving the country.
"I've been unfaithful to my wife," he confirmed. "What I did was wrong. Period."
We have heard it argued that Sanford is being judged by a liberal double standard, that if he were a Democrat this mess would be but a speed bump because their ethical standards are so much lower than Republicans'.
We're not sure where to place former senator John Edwards, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer or President Clinton in that conspiracy theory.
Further, that the media went after charismatic Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin because she is attractive, pro-life, pro-gun, does not travel the Beltway social circles and studied journalism, not law at Harvard.
You might also want to add to that equation that Sen. John McCain catapulted a largely unknown governor to potentially a heartbeat from the Oval Office.
The media reaction was especially due to the fact that McCain surprised these pundits who pride themselves on their seeming psychic powers for what they preordain will happen next.
At any rate, her readiness should have been an issue.
Republicans still don't seem to accept that there was a reason President Obama – and that's who Rush Limbaugh blamed for Sanford's fall – won the election.
The public trusted his message.
Sanford's saga, of course, came on the heels of a GOP senator, John Ensign of Nevada, admitting an affair, further tarnishing the Republican brand.
Sanford, who famously spurned stimulus funds for his state, seemed to be a viable alternative for the disillusioned party as it tries to right itself from its lowest favorable ratings since the early 1990s.
Republicans could start by retooling their message, which relies fundamentally on two things, family values and fiscal uprightness.
On the former, the self-righteous are destined to prove time and again that they have human frailty and are no more devout than Democrats.
On the latter, despite their rhetoric now, they failed to control spending when they held the White House and Congress.
