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One thing this sad news illustrates is that Republicans have high standards for their leaders while Democrats have none!

I think it means more that Democrats understand the difference between someone’s public life and someone’s private life. A certain segment of the Republican electorate is very judgmental about the private lives of public figures.

Just a couple of random comments: I think these latest GOP Falls from Grace do justify some critical commentary:

What Sanford did which was bizarre wasn’t that he had an affair. What was bizarre was disappearing off the face of the planet for 5 days, while he was responsible for running a state, and telling his staff that he was hiking in the woods.

What Ensign did which was comment worthy wasn’t his affair, but his blatant hypocrisy, after serving as such a loud voice against the private affairs of politicians from Clinton to Craig.

– Larry W/HB

@openid.aol.com/runnswim: Thanks Larry for confirming that Democrats HAVE NO STANDARDS.

How many child molesters will you be supporting for office this year?

What the hell is wrong with the GOP? First Sen. Ensign of Nevada and now this (not to mention several others). Why couldn’t they have switched parties like Arlen Rectum did and THEN made this announcement! You can’t judge a book by its cover but it’s starting to get a little wierd out there in GOP land. I hope the people of South Carolina fire his ass (I’d kick it till his nose bleeds myself) and not reward him or Sen. Ensign for their weak-minded crap.

Today is a sad day for the Republicans. The Liberals are having a blast.
I am so sad mostly for his 4 boys. What is going to happen to them.

Mike, both parties have their scandals, but it is strange to see the uptick in Republican men who use Gay bashing as a tool to get the God vote then be caught and outed for their lust for their same sex encounters. If your preaching to folks to get their values vote, the hypocracy becomes as big or a bigger issue than the transgression.

Since you brought up child molesters, have a look here and see that Republicans will not be denied their rightful place on the wall of shame:

http://www.armchairsubversive.org/

I am sure you can post plenty of Democrats as well

None of this is acceptable, especially from ANY elected official

If Gov Sanford is found to have used the taxpayer dime to travel to Argentina to meet up with his hot honey while his wife and 4 kids were back home missing their Dad, then this becomes a whole ‘nother matter and more than just really bad judgement and betrayal.

I doubt he will finish his current term as Governor and will be gone very shortly

And what’s with the Press holding back those saucy emails from Sanford since last December? And how did they get them in the first place? Why didn’t they come out in December?

http://townhall.com/blog/g/95b2b149-24f4-4830-bf7b-1799215d8f71?comments=true#comments

http://www.thestate.com/sanford/story/839350.html

Gov Sanford does seem truly sorry for this, but no matter what price he will pay for this, his Wife and Kids will pay a higher price. My Dad once told me that a man can work his whole life to build up a good name, and lose that good name in a matter of minutes through bad judgement….how right he was and a lesson for us all.

@mooseburger: True both parties have scandals. Sadly, only the GOP actually cares what the scandal is about. Dems do their best to sweep it under the rug and hope no one notices.

The really bad part is that once they confirmed that his phone WAS on and that he was OK but then was reported to be in Atlanta and then vanished, I was pretty sure that sexual escapades would be at the bottom of this.

I mean, why else would a high profile guy like this just vanish with everyone asking where he was?

The when he surfaced and FIRST claimed he was just there enjoying the ocean side scenery, I was calling BS on it. Yeah I am sure he was enjoying the ‘scenery’ but not that of water, sand and plants 😉

Had he made sure that the bases were covered FIRST and went out … that would be one thing.
But to just disappear while an acting Governor???

If the Dems want to point fingers – ask them if Edwards has ever admitted to or taken a DNA test to prove/disprove that is his child. And he had an affair on his poor cancer stricken wife!

I just find it very hypocritical all the way around how the liberals point fingers at the right and scream about how it is wrong to have affairs when they apparently have no problems when it comes to their own!

Just like the homosexual issue. They will sit and say “be tolerant” but what happened when they found out about Cheney’s daughter? I guess being gay is OK unless it suits your political motivations and then its used to demonize!

Mooseburger:
“If Gov Sanford is found to have used the taxpayer dime to travel to Argentina to meet up with his hot honey while his wife and 4 kids were back home missing their Dad, then this becomes a whole ‘nother matter and more than just really bad judgement and betrayal.”

Very well said. Tax dollars should not be hired to get you to your mistress NOR pay for your sexual escapades.

No way around this, it was a very sad day for South Carolinians, conservative Republicans, and obviously for Gov. Sanford and his family. At least now there is a chance for healing since the truth has been laid out, and not hidden only to fester and get worse. I will pray for them, to be sure.

I didn’t know much about him either, but I believe he was involved with Fred Thompson during Fred’s campaign and when Fred was in South Carolina, so I thank Gov. Sanford for that.

I respect him for resigning his Chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association. That’s an appropriate step at this point, in my opinion. I don’t know about his Governor status, but I imagine that will be worked out over the coming days, either way.

I understand Haley Barbour of Mississippi is the interim (I assume interim) Chairman of the RGA, which is good. Does anyone know if that’s a position Sarah Palin has expressed an interest in as well?

It’s actually about Career Politicians. There is something about holding public office that corrupts.
It is not about Party affiliation. It is about believing that you are above the moral standards that most of us adhere to. In a recent study done by the University of Chicago only 14% of married males and 8% of females commit adultery despite having taken vows.

My issue here is about folks that are asking for Public Trust but can’t stay on line with marriage vows. Unlike some posters here, I believe that an Oath of Office carries the burden of being worthy of trust both in public and private life and especially to your Spouse and being a role model for your children. In my case as a career Military Officer you are 24/7, 365 held to standards and held accountable for words and deeds. To Lead Soldiers you must earn their trust and respect otherwise Soldiers won’t follow you and your Command Structure won’t do so either.

If anyone is not worthy of my trust theres no way they represent me. Period. When folks cannot keep vows or promises in their domestic situation how can they be trusted to make laws or spend my tax money
or receive my tax dollars as salary?

I don’t give a fat rats rump about Party Affiliation and those of You that believe that makes a difference have been mislead. On morals, I am 100% non partisan. Folks with moral value issues will betray the public trust just as easily as they betray their Spouse. I just don’t want them making laws for me to be held to obey. Period. Once trust is compromised it becomes habit.
Once you tell a lie or deceive you are in trouble if you can’t remember the last lie you told.
No ones memory is that good.

Ditto to the Old Trooper.

Basically the way I read the liberal gloating is: Democrats want Republicans held to a higher standard then they are, and are very pleased that the GOP members do so. They have no concern whatsoever for the innocents that are harmed by these infidelities.

Sanford really didn’t seem the type, which is what makes it so shocking. I think the bizarre, rambling press conference actually bought him a good deal of sympathy with the media so maybe they won’t tear into his family as much as they would have otherwise.

Our public library has these lists posted from children naming their South Carolina favorites: places, food, things like that. Several kids had listed Sanford as an ” Awesome person in South Carolina”. I’m glad I didn’t have kids in the Clinton era…

I hope he doesn’t give into despair, gets his head straight and, reconciles with his wife and family. It’s the only thing that really matters anyway.

It’s not because the Republican party is hypocritical or corrupt that the Republican Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford made a stupid, hypocritical, colossal blunder in having an affair. Because overall, it isn’t (as far as I know).

But, that won’t stop the Democrats from making that presumptuous charge.

Wait. Watch. And see. Democrats will make this connection:

“Mark Sanford is hypocritical and corrupt, therefore, The entire Republican party is hypocritical and corrupt.”

It follows as night follows day.

@Fit fit:

That is one of the more reasoned, well thought out responses you have posted here in a long time and I couldn’t agree with you more.

I don’t see the problem of any official having marital affair. It’s not against the law. If you removed every person from office who ever cheated on a spouse, drank too much, ever smoked dope etc etc then there wouldn’t be many left.

In terms of marital affair – you wouldn’t have Jefferson, Garfield, Harding, FDR, Eisenhower, JFK, Johnson, Reagan and of course Clinton among others. Other politicians, commentators and evanglists Giuliani, Limbaugh, Gingrich, McCain, Thurmond, Dole, Bakker & Swaggart.

http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/knowrsex.html

Private matters should be kept seperate from politics unless the person is doing something illegal in the present, they are blatantly being hypocritical, they are inappropriate during their working hours or using tax dollars inappropriately.

Where Sanford went wrong is him going AWOL.

In the early 90s we were lectured by the grey and dull conservative John Major who was PM at the time about the need to go back to basics etc. Only later did it transpire he was having an affair.

@Old Trooper

In my case as a career Military Officer you are 24/7, 365 held to standards and held accountable for words and deeds. To Lead Soldiers you must earn their trust and respect otherwise Soldiers won’t follow you and your Command Structure won’t do so either

So should Eisenhower been removed from his job during WWII when he was having an affair with his driver – Kay Summersby? Or have FDR impeached for his affair with Lucy Mercer? If all the US soldiers during war were sent home for having affairs then I’m sure it would be more than 14%.

That’ not to condone extramarital affairs – but let’s put this in perspective please.

Sanford needs to step down from the Governorship as well, he’s an embarrassment to the state and to his constituents. If he used state funds for his escapades, that needs to be investigated. Unfortunately for his wife and children, he’s opened himself up to enormous consequences because he couldn’t keep it under control.

ANY politician of ANY stripe has to be out of their minds to try to pull off something like this in this technology age. And on Father’s Day weekend its beyond disgraceful.

I don’t know if this makes any diffrence in the equation or not, but I read that his wife had asked him to leave the governors mansion two weeks before he went AWOL, and not to come around the family for awhile, and this was after she found out about the affair and tried to work it out.

I don’t think that there is a difference between a persons public life and a persons private life. You are the same person doing the acts. Marriage is the most sacred vow a person can make and if he can break his vows on that, he can break his oath and vows to anyone. If you can look into the eyes of your spouse and screw them over, you can screw anyone over and you shouldn’t be trusted with taxpayer money and be responsible for thousands of peoples lives. You shouldn’t be trusted with vital information either. You are untrustworthy. I do hope he does resign.

Also, on the private front for the sake of those poor little boys of his, I am hoping that his trip to Argentina was made for a noble cause–to call it quits with the lady in question. I sincerely hope that is the case so that he is free to fight for his marriage which is what he really needs to do for the sake of those kids.

There was a study that came out recently claiming that politicians had the same peronality traits as sociopaths.
The more I see from politicians, the more I believe it.

An update: The hope that he went to Argentina for noble reasons is quickly dashed. The scoundrel was seen in many forms of PDA with the lady in question at various bars and at her apartment complex. Doesn’t sound like a good bye trip to me. His wife after 20 years of marriage and toil should take him to the cleaners.

As for Rush Limbaugh, I think that was satire but in very, very poor taste. It is so sad for the Republican party.

@herman: Where’s your link to that text?

So what’s the deal with removing my post?

@herman: I didn’t do it. But I notice you still haven’t provided a link to that text.

Not me either… in fact, I have no clue what Herman said…

Where Sanford screwed up was simply disappearing. He lied to his staff, disappeared for days, turned off his cell phone, and left the executive authority of his State vacant. THAT is nothing less than dereliction of duty, plain and simple. It is for those actions that he should seriously consider resignation. We don’t even have to reach the question of whether adultery/infidelity is sufficient cause; I think that reasonable people can disagree on that question.

Of course, his comments during the Clinton and Livingston scandals are coming back to haunt him, as well…

Mike, i posted the link with the post and so they are both gone.

Talking Points Memo provided the audio of Rush making the statements.

-In any case, I think it’s unfair to remove someone’s post when all he does post what that person said …and then make a snarky remark about it. Someone is really sensitive.

@herman: You did NOT post a link to the source of your quote. Every comment here is copied to the post author and I have that information. Why would I have asked you for that if you had posted it?

If you want to repost WITH the link to your source please do so.

i think my post just went in the junk file; it has your links mike.