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

Sanford Slips: GOP Field Narrows

They have a saying in Latin America:

"En la casa del jabonero, todos resbalan, unos caen."

Loosely translated, "In the soapmaker's house everybody slips, some fall."

I spent a lot of time down there, and I have my own sayings. Here's my favorite:

Latin America, where single men come back married and married men come back single.

Now, thanks to Mark Sanford, we've got to put up with smirking liberals blabbing on about hypocritical conservatives

I don't understand the pleasure people take in the private travails of others. I don't know much about the John Edwards sex scandal, and I don't care to. I can't stand the guy, but I pray for him and his family. I would not wish family problems on anyone

The comments concerning hypocrisy are the stupidest of all. We're all human. Can't we aspire to higher ideals? What if the founding fathers had just said to hell with it and wrote a direct right to own slaves into the constitution? What if they had written all men (white men only, no women) are created equal? That would exonerate them from the hypocrisy charge but leave us a much poorer nation.

The ancient Greeks developed the philosophy of virtues. These were ideals to aspire to, not something they thought they possessed and therefore made them feel superior. Any good Christian will tell you he is a sinner who needs God's grace. The alternative is to abandon yourself to your basest instincts and say "hey, at least I'm honest!"

The news about Mark Sanford disheartens me. I hoped he would be our next president. It saddens me to see the man publicly disembowel himself and put his family through such anguish.

Liberalism's Three Amigos: Card Check, Cap and Trade, Socialized Medicine

Worst of all, while everyone salivates over the details, Congress will pass Card Check and Crap and Trade, causing the price of everything to go up and killing any chance of another Reagan or Clinton economy.

Iranians are dying for freedom and the O'President is focused on ramming a gigantic socialized medicine suppository up our posteriors

Iran tears me in two. I sympathize with the people in the streets but I oppose any US military intervention. If the CIA is not providing clandestine support we are criminally negligent.

I don't know what else to say about Iran that hasn't already been said. Anyway, seeing the rioting gives me flashbacks. We don't realize how good we've got it here. If Obama and Congress have their way, well be longing for the good old days...

God bless you and your family, Governor Sanford. God bless those Iranians manning the barricades, and God, please bless the USA...