Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Final thoughts on Sanford (unless something else comes out...)

Oh, dear. You know, I have a long-standing belief (going back to Clinton-Lewinsky more than 10 years ago) that I really don't care what an elected official does on his or her own time as long as it doesn't affect the job I as a voter have hired him/her to do. So if, say, for instance, a governor were to cheat on his wife, I would consider that a douchebag thing to do. I would scrutinize him or her more closely when it came to other ethical matters. I would be disgusted. (I still wash the hand with which I shook John Edwards' hand multiple times a day.) But I wouldn't demand that he/she resign from office.

But there's a question of hypocrisy. Members (almost all men) from every political party have committed adultery in or out of office - John Ensign, Bill Clinton, Gary Hart, Edwards, Newt Gingrich, Strom Thurmond, Elliot Spitzer, David Vitter, Larry Craig, that guy who resigned as House speaker during the Clinton impeachment hearings because his own affair came out, etc. And those are just the ones we know about.

But it's not the liberals who presume to legislate "Biblical" values and who then go f*ck women who are not their wives. It's not the liberals who bray about the sanctity of "traditional marriage" and "family values" and then fly to another country to f*ck another woman on frakking Father's Day (when this liberal was having dinner with her family).

I watched Gov. Sanford's press conference today, and it was just sad. The man is obviously torn up about what he did, and I sincerely hope that he and his family can heal. It's a devastating thing, and I'm praying for all of them.

I also hope that, if and when Sanford returns to public policy, that he can exercise a little humility. For instance, he never again gets to vote to hang the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, or to rail against same-sex marriage.

See to your own house, Gov. Sanford, before you butt your nose into anyone else's.

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