Mark Sanford: Meeting the Devil Half Way

Let's see... Since the South Carolina Governor dropped his bombshell yesterday, we've lost a classy pinup, and a wiener-grabbing pedo-perv bit the dust. Time marches on...

The Governor's press conference was a painful slow-motion self-deconstruction, what with the emotion and the details and the explaining. Even worse, now the juicy e-mails are on the street. John Dickerson of Slate has written an excellent piece entitled, The Disturbing Glee at Mark Sanford's Downfall. He captures perfectly the pathos of the moment and demonstrates how you can sympathize with someone without condoning the pain and destruction they've caused.

As Garrison Keillor once said, "If you don't want to go to Chicago, don't get on the bus."

His public confession and now the e-mails portray a Christian man who knew he was meeting Satan half way, which is how sin happens. The Scriptures, and human experience, are clear: The forces of evil can't wrestle you to the ground and make you tap out; you've got to cooperate. The smartest of people can do the dumbest of things.

Don't hand your enemies the knife

Of course, gleeful libs are doing giddy little jigs all over the internet because the Man Who Would Defy Obama's Bailout has fallen. South Carolina Republicans are also piling on. A politician who doesn't like to spend money is friendless. Just ask Doug Bruce, the tax-cutting, but socially retarded politician who was bounced from the Colorado GOP caucus for being rude. Politicians fancy themselves artists in the medium of money; take it away and they get pissy.

Which is worse, an emotionless one-night-stand or an intimate love affair?

What's worse, an emotionally-detached, abuse-tinged, power-differential servicing by a starry-eyed intern; or a romantic, head-over-heels falling in love in the land of Evita? This is not a Tu Quoque defense. What Governor Sanford did was inexcusable, and from a wife and family point of view, probably worse. Sex is sex, but emotional intimacy with a woman not your wife is a hard one to get past.

Jenny Sanford is no shrinking violet, as this AP story informs us. She's a Wall Street veteran who is also a dedicated wife and mother. Her absence from the Governor's side and a tersely worded press release reveal a woman just strong enough to weather this storm and set her man back on the right path while ensuring their boys learn the right lessons from all of this.

I said a prayer for the Sanfords. I said a prayer for the Edwards's also. That man's poor wife, fighting cancer with a cheating bastard at her side... They're human, and humans are fallible.

So much of society ridicules our our humanity and strips us of our dignity

Will the Sanford family get through this? With a strong woman, a repentant man, and God's grace, they just might make it. And that, more than politics or any other trivial pursuit, is truly all that matters.

Slate - John Dickerson
AP - Sanford's Wife