At what point is Mark Sanford going to realize that his best option is to file for divorce and head down to Argentina? In the last 48 hours he has shot himself in the foot with the “I’m trying to fall back in love with my wife” remark, and then reloaded and shot his other foot with the “I met my soul mate” nonsense, and he appears to be out of feet and aiming at his head next.
I used to wonder if he was going to resign. Now it is just a matter of when, I think.
4tehlulz
What will happen first? His resignation or his wife wasting him with a shotgun?
Linkmeister
Great minds and all that.
Litlebritdifrnt
The general thinking is that if you are in a hole, stop digging, Sanford however does not seem to grasp this simple idea. Announcing to the world that you are “trying to fall back in love” with the wife is basically grounds for getting your balls and/or pen is super glued to something while you are asleep (my vote would be to a photograph of mistresss or perhaps a print out of an e-mail) in the near future and the resulting surgery is not going to be pretty or painless. The man is obviously out of his mind, you mean to tell me that falling in love with your wife is going to be “trying”? jeese just remove all kitchen knives before you go to bed Mark.
Emma
I’m beginning to feel sorry for the guy — I know, I know, me! But honestly, it’s as if he had lost the on-off switch between his brain and his mouth. Some weird form of Tourettes.
Litlebritdifrnt
ooops I said a bad word, sorry John.
Roger the Cabin Boy
He might as well shoot himself in the head, sounds like another part of him is doing the thinking these days.
JK
How long before Jenny goes Lorena Bobbitt on Mark Sanford?
Comrade Stuck
I gave him a week last Friday, and so far things are on schedule. And luckily for the conservative folks in SC, they can look forward to better governance from their Lt Governor Andre Bauer. Apparently a model of conservative principles.
A walking disaster and even presnit material down the road. And in a preemptive move Mr. Bauer placates the wetsuit fearmonger crowd.
Whew, glad we got that out of the way. And nobody even had to ask him./
parksideq
Sanford’s perpetual public confessing of all his indiscretions makes me feel like he thinks he’s married to all of us. In that case, I think I speak for us all, Jenny Sanford included, when I say that Mark need to pack his shit and leave. It doesn’t matter where he goes, it could be Buenos Aires for all I ca… oh, wait.
georgia pig
The only question I would care about is when will he realize that he should resign?
Then again:
At one time in history, SC wanted out of the Union. Now, I can’t help but wonder if we should ask them to leave. BTW, I think Jenny is angling for a book deal — she doesn’t need to shoot him to make him suffer more. I bet there’s a boatload of wacko antics prior to this that she could reveal to the public. My guess is this guy has been nuts for quite a while.
Rosali
As in many affairs, Maria probably doesn’t want him around full-time.
Ash
I think it’s stupid to resign over personal matters like having an affair, and I wish more would be made over the fact that he just LEFT, without telling anyone, for an entire week. But at this point it’s quite obvious he’s a bit demented and he isn’t mentally fit to be dealing with his sinking state at the moment.
JGabriel
John Cole:
Or, to be completely geeky, Sanford is well on his way towards losing as many feet as Darth Vader has hands.
(I consider the entire Star Wars series to simply be an extended SF meditation on the question of how one man can lose three hands.)
.
sam
I wish him the best of luck. Everyone makes mistakes.
gnomedad
Jenny Sanford: “Gay marriage wrecked my family”
The party of individual responsibility.
canuckistani
He’s related to Pamela Anderson?
Rey
I smell a press conference called by the Gov’s office on this coming Tuesday, you know- after the holiday and one last weekend with his kids to tell them goodbye and he will bring them down to Argentina at Christmas time for a visit.
Dreggas
Well obviously Sanford has yet to see the spread in runner magazine with the wasilla wingnut. Tomorrow he’ll have to revise that whole “I met my soulmate” part.
Molly
First time, I pitied him. Really did. But thought he needed to resign, because the man wasn’t able to function in a rational manner…and yes, some would say that’s nothing new for him.
Now, I just want him to ride that jet plane off into the sunset, exit stage left, cue the Bette Midler ballad, and call it a career.
Ash
@gnomedad: While I wouldn’t be surprised if she said that (given her religious nutso schpeels recently) that article is satire.
DaBomb
I think the best part of all this is the way he treated and called out Bill Clinton for finding a temporary soul mate in Monica Lewinsky.
Pot meet Kettle…
Maybe, Sanford and Clinton can swap stories about the various different sexual techniques involving cigars.
southpaw
I think that Argentine lady should fly up here and take her opportunity to cash in before the bloom is off the rose. She could be quite a media force up here, or she could nurse Mark Sanford through a deep, well-deserved depression after he pulls the ejection handle. Not a hard choice, I wouldn’t think.
gnomedad
@Ash:
D’oh! I think you’re right. So hard to tell these days. It’s actually Obama’s fault, of course.
demkat620
@gnomedad: What the hell?
Your husband had an anffair with another woman. WTF does gay marriage have to do with this? How in the hell do these people have enough sense to get out of bed in the morning?
PaminBB
It’s hard to sympathize with this yutz at this point. Jenny seems likely to be able to fend for herself. I do feel bad for the kids – they may not be seeing Dad for a while.
PaulW
The general rule of holes is if you’re in one, you stop digging. Sane normal people know this. The Republicans’ rule of holes is if you’re in one, you get a bigger shovel. They keep digging and digging and digging, thinking that at some point we’ll buy their story and walk away. That doesn’t happen. Maybe during the Reagan years. Not anymore.
Personally, I bet Sanford resigns by Friday. Use the 4th of July weekend to really go hiking on the trail…
Ash
@gnomedad: Yeah, this link says that it’s a parody.
But like you said, so hard to tell.
smiley
OT: I don’t understand this photo. Anyone care to explain?
http://pixdaus.com/pics/1235012004VKw84Tf.jpg
MazeDancer
If Mark Sandford was trying to get his very wealthy wife Jenny to get angry enough to leave him, now, without waiting, without dragging it out to punish him, without taking every penny, then perhaps he’d say these terrible things in the press.
Of course there is the risk she will now drag the divorce out forever and take every penny because he’s said these terrible things in the press.
smiley
@smiley: Never mind. I’ll try again:
http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=125755
PaulW
Oh, didn’t you get the GOP memo? Gay marriage is the source of all ills. Gingivitus, Drunk Driving, Poor Grades in High School, Long Lines for Rides At Universal Orlando, the horrifically bad plots of our current DC and Marvel comics, Lack of Health Care, Unemployment, and the Pacific Northwest’s Rainy Weather. And anything NOT caused by Gay marriage is instead caused by OBAMA’S EVIL EYE.
eric k
I’m starting to see Sanford as a fairly typical example of a tragic figure you see in evangelical circles all the time. Because they don’t believe in Premarital sex they marry fairly young with the first person who they have any kind of connection with. Promise Keepers, their small groups and so on are really just crutches for keeping men married and faithful to women they don’t love and aren’t compatible with.
Litlebritdifrnt
@gnomedad:
I am more and more beginning to think that Rush Limbaugh is performance art a la Colbert, there really is no other explanation for the stuff he is spouting now.
Molly
Was reading the “gay marriage” thing to my DH, we both totally believed it. When neither of us can spot sarcasm or parody in something from Wingnuttia Central…it’s all gone ’round the twist, folks.
Dreggas
@demkat620:
the other day it was Obama’s fault…
JenJen
I believe this is a very good illustration of the PR 101 Concept called “STFU School: Why Your Client Must Attend.”
I can’t imagine being a Sanford staffer right now. They have to be mortified, and I feel as horrible for all the true believers as I do the wife and kids.
At the end of the day, he’s either a complete narcissist, or he’s being counseled by some preacher-man to lay himself bare upon the altar. Then again… maybe both, huh?
ETA: As far as the “not if, but when” thing, now that the US Senatorial come-to-Jesus/Goldwater meeting has happened, I doubt the guy has the emotional or political will to hang in much longer. I think he’ll step aside tomorrow, Friday latest; it won’t do his situation any favors, but he’s probably buying into the conventional wisdom that breaking bad news over a long holiday weekend is ideal.
Little Dreamer
@Rosali:
Affairs come in many different forms. You are making an assumption you don’t know much about. I know a lot of women involved in affairs, some of them want casual contact, others want their guy to be with them in a full relationship. You can’t know which attitude Sanford’s lover would take.
Little Dreamer
@JenJen:
public media is not the altar.
Maus
This case from the beginning has been a case of his narcissism being repeatedly mistaken for admirable honesty.
Comrade Stuck
Maybe it’s just his inner liberal trying to hatch thru all the layers of wingnut.
Laura W
@eric k: Excellent point.
demkat620
@JenJen: Wasn’t it just last month when he ws the future of the party and they were all so proud of him for turning down that dirty stimulus money?
gnomedad
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Rush never cared much for facts, but Clinton was enough of a scoundrel to provide a sort of viral coat for the bullshit payload. Obama refuses to so oblige him, so he’s reduced to pure fabrication and is not longer even remotely amusing.
FMguru
Sanford seems to be under the impression that he can talk his way out of the hole he’s found himself in. He really thinks that if he just explains everything and can get everybody to understand where he’s coming from, then everything will go back to normal. Yes, yes, adultery is a cardinal sin and I am more or less running out on my children, but you need to understand – she’s my soul mate. Just like David and Bathsheba!
It’s the kind of delusion that most people move beyond around the time that their second or third high school romance implodes messily.
This is right up there with Ben Affleck’s brilliant plan in CHASING AMY to reconcile his best friend, his girlfriend, and his bland sexual history all at once, and will probably end up about as well.
He literally has no fucking idea what he’s doing or saying. His whole world is crashing down, and he’s desperately trying to hit on the right words that will make everything OK again.
JenJen
@Little Dreamer: I don’t think “altar” means what Mark Sanford thinks it means, metaphorically or otherwise.
@demkat620: I think they still like that part! The rest is just media frenzy, after all. It’s a lot like Obamania, when you think about it. Obamabot. (I suck so bad at spoofing)
Mike in NC
Sanford will resign after he’s caught wearing a hockey mask while disemboweling teenagers with a chainsaw. Maybe.
JGabriel
DaBomb:
And yet Sanford sounds remarkably like an Onion headline from the era:
.
Ken
I believe that if I’d mention in private, let alone in a public forum, that “I’d found my soul mate”, my wife would have my various body parts strewn about the lawn. Doesn’t sound like Mr. Sanford is trying too hard to reconcile with the soon-to-be-ex Mrs. Sanford.
Rosali
@Little Dreamer:
Calm down.
LD50
Tho the book would sell better if she did so…
Little Dreamer
@Rosali:
I am calm. I’m just noting that you are making an assumption that may not be true at all.
LD50
.
To quote Moe Szyszlak, I think Sanford’s strategy has been to ‘dig up’.
LD50
Right about now, I think we’re overdue for Paul L to link to some article about Monica Lewinsky, and say “HOW COME YOU LIBS DONT TALK ABOUT THAT, HUH? HUH?”
JK
Mark Sanford is one stubborn prick. They’ll have to drag him out of the governor’s office kicking and screaming.
El Cid
Oh really? How long do you think it would take for Belen Chapur to realize what a complete d-bag Sanford was? I mean, a dalliance is one thing. Having to be around the guy a lot would probably change things real quicklike.
PattyK
That was brilliant on your part about shooting himself in the foot and then reloading….No wonder so many of us have to get our daily fix in reading your blog. I think that you are dead wrong, however, in thinking that he has the option of filing for divorce and heading to Argentina. While divorce certainly seems to be in the offing, Argentina is not. It may have been exciting for her to have a secret affair with a seemingly rich and powerful governor, but she will no doubt have second thoughts about continuing on with a disgraced politician whose wife, as it turns out, has all the money in the family as well as the smarts that put him into office in the first place (no wonder he hates his wife as came clear in that comment about “trying” to fall back in love with her). And all of that sniveling in public. I doubt that it will go down any better in Argentina than it does here. No, he has a little lesson to learn and should begin by reading Cheever’s “The Country Husband” to gain some insight into what a fool he has made of himself.
Rosali
@Little Dreamer:
Geez. None of us know the truth. The whole thread is speculation.
SGEW
I just want to know how the Argentinian Formicidae Mega-Colony of Doom fits into all this. Is Sanford in the know?
Only the Lizard People can save us now! Damn you Minn. Supreme Court!
Comrade Stuck
@LD50:
He seems to be channeling Hemmingway in a stream- of conciousness- style of strategy, revealing the existential nature of his political career and family life. and soul matedness.
Or, it’s the ramble of a man whose parachute turned out to be a pair of Bloomers.
Dreggas
Well if that preacher man is Ted Haggard I’d be careful about laying bare on an altar.
AhabTRuler
@LD50: And bring three shovels!
DaBomb
@LD50: Oh, that because I already covered that topic by stating that Sanford is a huge hypocrite. Also at this point, Sanford would probably suck larger cigars than Clinton.
Almost…
Fencedude
@Little Dreamer:
Unverifiable assumptions? ON THE INTERNET!?
Stop the presses everyone!
The Grand Panjandrum
It seems pretty obvious to me the guy is in love with the lady from Argentina. He just doesn’t have the stones to divorce his wife and move on. So he publicly humiliates his wife and kids in front of the national media because he’s a spineless piece of shit coward. The fucker is beneath contempt.
Genine
Gnomedad,
I’m glad that article was parody. But it’s kind of scary when one can’t tell anymore.
I have no doubt there is some wingnut thinking that way.
Actually it reminds me of an article a few years back. We had to read it in one of my classes recently. A woman’s husband left her and she blamed his “sinning nature” and the fact that we are losing our moral fiber in our country. Divorce is “OK”. She did not blame gay marriage, but I wouldn’t put it past her. (The woman who wrote the article I mean.)
Demo Woman
On this site we can’t say s.o.c.i.a.l.is.m because of the word c.i.a.l.i.s but we can say when the hell will Republicans take responsibility for their own fucking.
geg6
The more I see of this guy, the more he puts me in mind of my lying, cheating ex. He’s so full of himself and his “feelings” and how can he just explain how unique his true love is so that everybody will just say, well, of course! He had no choice! And everybody will be fine with it and he can ride off into the sunset with this perfect woman and be governor and maybe even still run for president because it’s true love after all. And then he goes off with the woman who turns out to be just your typical every day woman who is anything but perfect and is most likely a worse match for him than the wife was. Having lived that, I relish his future disillusionment and his wife’s glee at that and her improved quality of life as a result of jettisoning that putz.
Demo Woman
@The Grand Panjandrum: The guy needs therapy from someone other than his spiritual leaders. Maybe he’ll choose Maria and maybe he’ll decide to farm but he definitely needs outside help. His God is not helping him.
Incertus
@JenJen:
I can’t imagine he has too many left at this point. They’ve all checked out mentally if not physically by this time.
kay
I don’t much care for Jenny, Mark or Maria.
Some crucial piece of information is missing in this story. There’s some unified wacko theory that these people share, are operating under, and I don’t want to know anymore about it.
Calouste
Sanford is done. 12 out of 27 GOP state Senators have signed on to a letter calling for him to resign and quite a few others are asking him “to do the right thing”.
Tom Davis, good friend, ex-aide, current senator and the guy who got a shout-out in last week’s presser has changed his position from “I don’t think he should resign.”
yesterday morning to “Obviously I have tremendous concern for my friends, Mark and Jenny Sanford and their family, but I also have a job to do as an elected official,” this afternoon. Tom, as a good friend of Sanford’s, is probably somewhat concerned that more details might come to light about those “blowing off steam” trips that Sanford went on with, uh, good friends.
Zuzu's Petals
I was listening to an interview with Jeff Sharlet on NPR this morning. Guy wrote a book about the cultish fundie group that also runs the “C Street House” where Sanford lives.
He said when he heard Sanford say he wouldn’t resign because he was like King David, he immediately saw the connection with the group’s teachings. Referencing this part of his book (God, please help me with the blockquotes):
Evidently being “chosen” covers a multitude of sins.
Ned R.
A dumb question — did I miss something the other day, because I only just noticed this:
steve s
I’m 33. When I was 19-20 I got involved in a love triangle. I have typically been considered smart, but during that period my head was in such a weird place that I did one or two dumb, and one extremely shameful, things.
So even though I very much dislike conservative christians, I have some sympathy for Sanford. If what happened to me had happened in public on national media I probably would have killed myself.
Incertus
@Zuzu’s Petals:
So does being saved. Even when I was a hardcore believer, I always thought that bit of doctrine seemed a bit sketchy.
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
He seems a bit unstable. If I was North Carolina, I’d be worry that he might use his nukes on you.
steve s
I have expressed sympathy for Sanford on a couple of threads by now, so I’m probably only minutes from some retard labeling me a Concern Troll, but that’s not it. I don’t like Sanford. Wouldn’t vote for Sanford. Consider SC the Worst State In the Union in large part because of people like Sanford. I’m just saying, there are limits to our scorn, and let’s have a sliver of humanity, let he who is without sin cast the first stone, etc.
Tsulagi
Sometimes you just have to step back and marvel at their capacity to bring the stupid and comedy. This stupid fucker is treading water yet he grabs for anvils apparently to brilliantly preempt the possibility of anyone else tossing one.
Loved the soulmate comment. On national teevee he cries for his soul mate in Argentina, then ends essentially saying he’ll settle for his ball and chain in SC. That’s got to be speeding their reconciliation along.
And to show his family values constituents he’s still a man of honor and integrity, he lets them know that while he’s been a player on the field with other ladies, he didn’t cross the “ultimate goal line” with them.
Thanks for the laughs, Sanford. The only sympathy I have for you is your level of stupidity.
Comrade Stuck
There is no humanity in politics. It’s two men (or women) goes in and only one comes out. They are free however, to choose stones as their weapon of choice, or not.
Wingnut rules.
Calouste
@steve s:
I don’t believe in the Bible, so even though I am not without sin, hand me those stones!
The whole quote is misinterpreted anyway IMO. It’s not about being absolutely without sin as it is usually trod out, it’s about the relation between crime and punishment, as the situation is one where a woman is going to be stoned to death for adultery.
If, according to Christianity, we are all born in sin, and only those without sin can judge and punish people, how can a judicial system exist?
Anne Laurie
I’ll confess the whole mishegaus has blossomed beyond my comprehension. When the travel-to-South-America part first broke, and good ol’ financial chicanery seemed a logical explanation, I could at least understand how a wealthy, experienced, presumably not brain-damaged heterosexual white Southern professional politician could get himself caught telling six different sets of easily-disproven lies to everyone around him. But the ensuing week’s worth of on-camera babbling could make one wonder if the ‘not brain damaged’ part still applies. I know it’s hard to give up the “possible presidental-candidate” label and a professional-grade bulldozer, but did Sanford really have to sacrifice every last scrap of his dignity and his family’s at the same time?
rikyrah
The whole, ” I’ll try and fall back in love with my wife”…
the whole, I’m going to throw away my wife and four children over some piece of ass that – I SAY – I’ve only been with FIVE TIMES…..
and then, the ‘ I’ve been with other women, but haven’t gone all the way’…
this combination just made me want to start a big pot of hot grits.
steve s
I’ve been an atheist for years, but only recently got around to reading most of the bible. I’m left with two stark lessons:
1) there actually is some good wisdom in there. Particularly in proverbs. (‘course, it’d be hard to write 2000 pages without writing A Few intelligent things)
2) The christian god is a deranged space monster. I had an inkling of this before, but once I read it, Holy Fuck. He is a cretinous monster, and in general, the more you can avoid him, the better off you’ll be. I can only say, most modern christians are only christians because they’ve never actually read that thing. Jesus Christ.
steve s
@Calouste: Yeah that’s how I meant it.
Cat Lady
@geg6:
Wow. This. (sorry steve s) There’s a screenplay in there.
steve s
@Comrade Stuck: I don’t play by wingnut rules, cause I’m not a wingnut.
Michael
Oh my god.
I dug out Denise Lasalle’s “Your Husband is Cheating on Us”.
As an added bonus in the playlist was this old gem I haven’t heard in 20 years.
Clarence Carter, Strokin’…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7gMkiOPSeA
kommrade reproductive vigor
Sanford has a serious case of attention whoreitis. Or he’s hoping someone will offer him cash for the movie rights.
@gnomedad: Didn’t you know? Before equal marriage rights began to spread their foul influence across our nation, there were ZERO divorces in America.
OK. Maybe there were a few. But only because we allowed interracial marriage.
steve s
@Michael:
If only there were some way Sanford could Slip Away….
Molly
Because I believe very much in loving thy neighbor and not judging lest I be judged, I am no longer able to call myself a Christian in good conscience.
Next?
Comrade Stuck
@steve s:
That’s admirable. Too much at stake to play nice though. But you carry on, the rest of us will do the dirty work of winning.
JasonF
Here’s the latest from Governor Self-destruct:
http://www.wyff4.com/news/19918369/detail.html
steve s
@Comrade Stuck: I didn’t say I’d always take the high road. But I’m not going to engage in 100% reciprocity. If I did, there’d be little distinction between me and Erick Erickson. And that, I won’t abide.
Comrade Stuck
@JasonF:
Clinton had no travel expenses to get his blowjob. 20 feet and true love in teh cloakroom/
geg6
steve s: Sorry dude. I know this guy. I lived with him for 18 years and was humiliated by him (not to mention the AIDS test I had to get) in almost the exact same way. Well, not him specifically, but it might as well have been. He’s a narcissitic piece of shit and deserves every brick being lobbed at his head.
gwangung
The Law and Order folks have got to be loving this; they’ve got enough material here for at least another two seasons—for all three of their shows.
Cain
@Comrade Stuck:
Indeed..
damn wingnuts. unfortunately, I’m finding myself getting more attracted to the wingnut from MN, Michelle. Oh to have her wide eyed, crazed eyes looking at me lustfully.. and me with my consensus clipboard.
cain
steve s
Tell us about the AIDS test, Geg6. I think a lot of people don’t know the personal consequences Konservative Kristians impose on a lot of people, and it would be good to get the details out.
(BTW, I’m not trying to cover up anything or say that Sanford’s been anything but a bad person. I just wanted to say that he is still, in fact a person, and I’m going to behave that way.)
Comrade Stuck
@steve s:
100 percent reciprocity doesn’t make you like Erickson, it”s holding a mirror in his face to what he;s like ALL the time. Consider it a teaching moment. And if you can’t abide, then at least get out of the way/
steve s
The general and limited point that I was trying to make is, “If you’re not at least an iota better than your enemies, then why bother?”
steve s
I don’t think I’m in the way, buddy. I’m voting for Obama, I’m emailing my senators to support a Public Plan.
Let the right do the Purity Purges.
Zuzu's Petals
@Incertus:
I know whereof you speak.
It was an interesting interview. He said leaders of the group – “The Family” – would do things like pray with Suharto, who had murdered hundreds of thousands of his people, because…well, he was “chosen.”
Here’s an early article, which became the basis for his book:
Jesus plus nothing
steve s
I think I made the limited points I wanted to make, and am becoming a distraction, so I’m off ’til tomorrow.
Zuzu's Petals
@steve s:
I’m a Psalms person myself. A lot of ’em written by David, as a matter of fact…guy had some depth.
Comrade Stuck
@steve s:
Pardon for my blunt talk. I meant to confer that it’s ok to not want to crawl in the mud with these asshats, but I and others feel it’s necessary to expose the sheer depth of their hypocrisy. Unfortunately, they only understand things in the language of rough play.
Svensker
@canuckistani:
Ha ha ha.
Comrade Stuck
@Cain:
Thanks for this. Me too. Damn those wild eyes attached to a fruit loop in drag.
Calouste
@JasonF:
Wouldn’t be surprised if that wasn’t about what is in Sanford’s financial records as much as it is about what could be revealed about other people who were on the same trip.
geg6
steve s: Not sure if you’re being snarky or what, but having to go to my OB/GYN and ask for an AIDS test after being faithful for 18 years to a guy who, it eventually turned out, had “fallen” more than the once he first admitted to was just the cherry on the top of the shit sandwich that asshole served me. Just like the governor did to his wife. And like the governor’s soul mate, my ex’s true love would have been well advised to get one herself. And as far as Christians go? Meh. Nothing they say or do is of any interest to me whatsoever.
AhabTRuler
@geg6: You are justifiably bitter, but you are tarring with a broad brush. Although he was thoughtless about your and others’ health, this is a separate issue from his cheating on you (although it is part of the overall picture).
It’s unfair, not to your ex, who sounds like a Class-A douchebag, but to people who have made mistakes, but still respected themselves, their health, and and their licit and illicit sexual (or other activities) partners enough to be honest about that and take precautions.
Zuzu's Petals
@Zuzu’s Petals:
Oops, Sanford didn’t actually live at the house.
Demo Woman
@Molly: The new atheists according to repubs.
SGEW
Obligatory link to Sharlet’s 2003 Harper’s article on The Family here, with excerpts from his book here.
LD50
I think at this point the only dignified course of action Sanford could take would be to quit his job, give his wife 80% of his wealth, learn Spanish, and move the fuck down to Argentina and never come back.
Mike G
I actually feel a tiny, tiny smidge of sympathy for Sanford. He’s obviously going through an existential meltdown as he discovers that the simplistic, parochial Xtian fundamentalist ideology he’s followed his whole life doesn’t provide answers that make sense to him anymore. Maybe he’ll come out of this a less arrogant, less authoritarian person not so enamored with simple black-and-white answers to everything.
Then I remember this hypocrite douchebag demanding Clinton resign over cheating on his wife, and the tidal wave of misery, assholery and mediocrity sired by politicized right-wing Xtianity of which he is a leading example, and I’d like to see him politically and personally destroyed with the same vindictive intolerance he would show someone outside his vicious tribe in the same situation. Reap what you’ve sown, asshole.
Fern
@Tsulagi:
I believe that in his mind the “ultimate line” he did not cross was falling in love with these other women.
oh really
At the moment, his head seems to be very well protected by his buttocks. He’d need a bunker buster to connect.
Fulcanelli
Hmmm. So Sanford didn’t cross the “ultimate goal line” with those other women? And Bubba Clinton “did not have sex with that woman”? And let’s not forget ol’ James Earl Carter admitting to “lusting after other women in his heart”. So I guess that if the lady was only milkin’ the bull, so to speak, then it wasn’t really sex. Heh. Clever. I guess we don’t know everything here up North…
Reminds me of the line in one of the Larry the Cable Guy movies where he says in a serious tone that “I’m gonna marry my (current) girlfriend because she’s the first woman I ever made love to where I had my pants all the way off”.
Gimme that ol’ time religion… Git ‘er done!
maya
So, with all this swirling around him he’ll still be able to keep his mind on doing his job, eh?
Well, it is summertime. Must be something interesting to watch on Myrtle Beach to take his mind off it all.
Delia
Here’s my take on Sanford’s current behavior. 1) His religious beliefs don’t permit either him or his wife to opt for divorce and remain in good fellowship. 2) He really wants out of his marriage and has done so for a long time, remember all the women he’s now admitted playing footsie or whatever with over the years before he met his true soulmate. 3) He’s now playing a totally passive-aggressive game with his wife. All this bilge about “trying to fall back in love” with her while he’s rattling on about his true soulmate is probably an unconscious attempt to goad Jenny into filing for divorce, thus making her the guilty party (in the eyes of their right wing ideology), and leaving him free to pursue his Quest For True Love with a Pure Heart.
oh really
That’s how it looks to me, too. The more I see of Sanford, the worse he seems. His wife said that she told him to leave to maintain her own dignity and self-respect. And that was before the latest trip to Argentina. The garbage he’s said in public in the past few days would seem to me to preclude the possibility of her having any self-respect if she stays with him.
As for him, the people of South Carolina should demand his resignation. I wouldn’t trust him to operate a TV remote, let alone run a state government.
BC
Meh – I think he sees himself as the hero in a tragic love story a la Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde, where the lovers are separated by forces beyond their control. Except he lives in 21st century and there aren’t any of those forces of family ties or class that separate lovers anymore. I imagine in a few years he is going to be a poster boy for the Christian right on how Satan uses sex to derail even the most devout Christians, so be on the watch and don’t even get into an elevator if there are women present, because Satan can use his evil powers anywhere! I see a new Chick tract.
grumpy realist
Migod, it’s the political equivalent of suicide-by-cop.
Mr. Governor seems to have totally slipped the cogs and is just flailing around madly, hoping desperately for someone to put him out of his misery. That comment about not releasing the financial records on top of the”I’ve got my soul mate down in Argentina but I’ll try to fall in love with my wife again” babbling. Oy vey. I read that and thought, what a dumbassitude move to make. And then realized: Sanford wants this. His entire cultural background has set him up for Never Giving In and Sacrificing Everything For God. For crissakes, he *wants* to be a victim and get kicked out on his ear by the S.C. Republican Party and his wife. Then it will prove, PROVE to the world that what he is feeling is Twue Wove and this is the most bedazzling fantastic sacrifice that a man ever made for his soul mate…..
(If I were Maria, I’d quickly find the Argentinian equivalent of Deep Cover, dye my hair, and move to another country.)
gwangung
From what I can gather, she’s not so helpless as all that; he steps one foot back in Argentina, she’ll whack him in the head so hard, he’ll start seeing tan lines around every object in his vision.
feebog
@BC
I don’t think Maria is going to be too crazy about the mutual suicide pact thingy.
Church Lady
I tend to think that Delia and oh really are probably right in their suppositions. As long as he’s not the one to initiate divorce proceedings, well, he’s right with God and the GOP. That he’s a piece of shit has nothing to do with either of those things.
No longer being “in love” with one’s spouse after many years of marriage probably isn’t all that uncommon, but long marriages, particularly with children involved, have a lot of other things that still bond a couple together and have them still feel love for one another. What this man is doing to his wife, as he continues to run his mouth, is absolutely cruel and shows a complete lack of respect for both her and their marriage. She needs to cut him loose and not look back as she walks away, while still maintaining a shred of dignity. Unless she does so, in the future her sons might well think that showing such disrespect for their significant other is ok. She’s not doing them any favors by staying in the marriage.
mai naem
I don’t like Sanford. He’s your typical hypocritical conservative republican politician. On top of that, he’s going through a midlife crisis in a very public setting. He just needs to STFU and leave. OTOH, I don’t particularly find Jenny Sanford particularly sympathetic. I think she’s kind of known all along that he’s been screwing around on her at some level. And it’s got to burn her up that Maria looks like a younger version of herself. I personally get the feeling she’s been hanging around because she thought he was very possibly going to become president someday. Yeah, she’s definitely the adult in the situation but isn’t that the way it usually it is? I know this must come across very similar to what the cons use to say about HRC but there it is. Did Sanford make any real money doing anything? From what I have read about him, he’s just been a politician pretty much all his life. Nobody’s going to hire him now. He may get a book deal but really how much is he going to get on a book deal? I have a feeling he’s not going to be giving much to Jenny in the divorce except for child support. And he might even be fighting her for some of her money in the divorce.
LD50
Good lord, look at the ad immediately underneath that LA Times ‘soul mate’ piece:
I know this probably wasn’t deliberate, but yeesh.
Zuzu's Petals
@Delia:
Well speaking from experience, most fundamentalist groups recognize divorce when there has been adultery, and an insincere pronouncement about trying to reconcile isn’t gonna fool many of their friends or fellow churchmembers. I doubt anyone would blame her at this point for pulling the plug.
LD50
Don’t worry for him. The K Street lobbying firms can absorb as many used Republicans as the market can produce.
grumpy realist
What’s bizarre is that Jennie Sanford seems to be the higher powerhouse of the two of them. She has the money and seemingly, a higher drive than her husband–if she was ever permitted to let it out in her Southern Christian surroundings.
No wonder she’s so pissed. Not only has the husband she has groomed for stardom made a laughing-stock of himself, he’s made a laughing-stock of her as well. Expected ROI from all the years she’s invested in him? Zilch.
From some of her comments (especially the sugar-sweet “nice” ones ending up with the shiv in his back), I get the feeling that their marriage has been a broken system for quite some time. Jennie probably would have gritted her teeth and gone along with it (particularly if Sanford had gotten closer to being considered an actual candidate for POTUS), but Sanford’s latest bomb-throwing has probably put the kibosh on their marriage as well.
I have to say, I haven’t seen such a spectacular flame-out since, well, Gary Hart.
Brachiator
@Zuzu’s Petals:
The current episode of the NPR program Fresh Air has a great interview with Jeff Sharlet, who wrote a book about The Family (Family’: Fundamentalism, Friends In High Places). The group’s background is as creepy as Sanford’s non-stop confessions about his love life:
The Fresh Air site also has a book excerpt.
Zuzu’s Petals — I’m a Psalms person myself. A lot of ‘em written by David, as a matter of fact…guy had some depth.
Although some Psalms are attributed to David, he is probably no more the author of these works than King James is the author of the King James Bible.
The biblical stories about David were separate narratives written centuries after the fact, and one, the Monarchial source clearly tries to provide David with plausible denial for the various actions that allowed him to depose Saul, marry Bathsheba, etc.
Delia — Here’s my take on Sanford’s current behavior. 1) His religious beliefs don’t permit either him or his wife to opt for divorce and remain in good fellowship.
I think you have a good point here. Sanford is stuck. His faith demands that he pursue forgiveness and reconciliation, no matter what his feelings for the other woman. On the other hand, his increasingly bizarre press conferences don’t exactly endear him to either his wife or his “soulmate.”
Wile E. Quixote
@Litlebritdifrnt
No, no, no, no. That’s the old way of doing things, don’t you know that things are now hot, flat and crowded and that Lexuses are growing on Olive trees? If you read your Tom Friedman you’ll learn that the new general thinking is that if you’re in three holes you should bring lots of shovels.. Come on man! Get with the program already!
Zuzu's Petals
@Brachiator:
Yes, it was the NPR interview I had described and linked to in my prior post. That’s also where the book excerpt that I’d quoted came from.
harlana pepper
Erhm, you can fancy-pants dance around this thing all ya want, guv, but sounds an awful lot like blow jobs to me.
A Mom Anon
If I was Jenny Sanford,I’d invite the media over,tell them to bring the stuff to make s’mores,and pile all of Mr Governor’s shit in the yard and have a nice fucking fire.
What he’s doing is fucking mean spirited,and he’s hiding behind the Bible to do it.
That shit about”trying”to fall in love with his wife again. Bitch Please. Like he’s doing her some favor.
Sloth
That’s certainly part of it. I agree, he’s angling for a divorce. There’s more.
All this public confession is not just Sanford losing his mind, it’s what his church expects. It is key to understand that from his church’s point of view, all men are fallible and will fall, what is important is the repentance.
And so he is repenting with a will.
And he will be forgiven. Completely.
To the reality based coalition, this looks absolutely insane. STFU, we say, and we mean it. Leave it be. But that all that matters for Sanford and his ilk is the repentance, that it be complete, and he will then be completely forgiven.
If that sounds like a free pass, you are right. If it sounds like oversharing, to you, it is. To him, it’s the path to forgiveness. I’ve had people I barely know confess to the most amazing things at the drop of a hat, it’s the way things work. And there are no consequences once they have done the confession. The sin doesn’t really matter, the confession does.
It’s like sin without real consequences. Whenever I visit my family in the deep south, all of whom are hard core born again, it is striking how common divorce, adultery, teen pregnancy and the like actually are. Where we come from, in the godless north, these things have real consequences that you can’t confess away, and they are comparatively rare.
If that scares you silly, it should. For about 20 years, the leaders of our country believed that confession absolves all sin. Look at what we’ve got for it: wars of choice, torture, etc.
So look at Sanford and cringe all you like. He’ll be rehabilitated (even his bizarre disappearance is being explained in biblical terms as a time wandering the wilderness) and won’t that be scary.
geg6
@AhabTRuler:
Well, far be it from me to tar the responsible cheating liars with the same broad brush as my ex. Of course, he told me I had nothing to worry about. But since he was an already proven liar, forgive me if I didn’t take his word at face value.
And honestly, I may sound bitter. I realize that. However, I really am over it. We are, today, friends. But I believe in calling a spade a spade. And lying cheaters are just lying cheaters. They are not to be trusted with anyone’s heart or health. Jenny Sanford should get an AIDS test. As should anyone who finds themselves in the same position.
bob h
I’d be heading down to BA to get it on with Maria, myself. But his political power was presumably part of the attraction she had for him, and soon he will be just an old gringo.
kay
I watched the press conference and didn’t find Sanford credible, so I had already made a decision on that, and I haven’t changed my mind.
I wonder about the two women though, and why they did what they did. I wonder about the mistress who agreed to a chaperoned meeting with Sanford and his religious advisor. I wonder about his wife, and the exclusive interview with the AP, where she relies on the children she claims she wants to protect again and again, to make her own case for moral superiority.
Sanford seems to me one of those people who gets a pass. He seems to me to be one of those people who other people bend over backward to accommodate, and that was true in his professional life as well: he never compromises and he’s described as “vindictive” when he doesn’t get his way. I don’t admire that. Maybe someone should have told him to shut up and get lost, at some point in his privileged life. he could have acquired some humility prior to this late date, had someone done that.
He’s a jerk, but the people around him who allow this behavior are complicit. He was treated as “special”, the exception to accountability, in both his personal and professional life, and the two women contributed to that. They didn’t have to.
BDeevDad
OT but no open thread:
I wonder if Dana Milbank thinks the Washington Post is a dick.
Robin G.
Yep, passive-agressive game.
I watched a couple in my life do this recently (though the part of Maria was played by the wife’s best friend). It dragged on for a year. The husband kept treating his wife with more and more open contempt (holding hands with the mistress in the wife’s house, etc), hoping *she’d* file for divorce and therefore he’d be the victim. He underestimated her. There was no treatment she wouldn’t swallow in order to deny him.
In the case of Jenny Sanford, I would be surprised if she continued the passive-aggressive AP interview war, denying him an escape route until he’s forced to file. She’s more likely to win that game than he is. That he thought he’d get away with this is astounding; that woman knows how to stick a shiv.
Robin G.
Er, *wouldn’t* be surprised. No iPhone post edit option.
Fulcanelli
@Sloth: Interesting take on the Sanford mess. A lot of what you mention about the religious deep south is why we in the godless north and elsewhere wish they would just tap a nicely chilled keg of STFU and start drinking, go back to humping and feeling up their country cousins and siblings and keep their twisted, hypocritical religious morality the fuck out of national politics.
If he had a weak moment or was unhappy in his marriage that’s his business. It happens. I know this from personal experience. You take responsibility for it.
But if somebody wants respect and to be taken seriously on the national political stage as a leader then they shouldn’t try to sell this tired, old “born again” snake oil shit as a solution to whitewash over their fuckups to anybody outside their tribe.
This born-again absolution shit is so phony. A band-aid on a gaping moral or ethical deficiency or an emotional wound that doesn’t fool anybody other than the ones that use it. The last 8 years should be more than enough proof of that. That it dovetails nicely with modern so-called “conservative republicanism” tribal horse shit is no surprise to anybody with an IQ higher than a loaf of bread and is a topic too long for this post.
If Sanford survives this mess politically with the born-again absolution route he’ll likely double down and be even more sanctimonious and narrow minded than he was before, but he’s burnt toast with an image of the baby jeebus outside of his tribe.
Sebastian Dangerfield
Bingo. At first, what I thought was going on was a simple matter of trying to get ahead of the story (and then stories), albeit horribly clumsily executed. The more I see of his very public meltdown (A 4-hour interview with the AP? Good ghod man, have some dignity!), the more I’m taken with these theories. Plus, this behavior, although extreme, is of a piece with how he, if you’ll excuse the term, “governed” the state. He has been prone to taking extreme positions that even the wingnut republican legislature couldn’t stomach, so he’d veto everything that wasn’t in his view “pure” and make them override him. The most flagrant example was the “stimulus battle” that forms the prologue to this whole sorry episode: He first postured with the Obama administration, asking them to let him use the stimulus money to pay down debt, rather than for its intended purposes. The administration told him to pound sand and he reluctantly took the initial necessary step of submitting the prelminary certification to the feds. Then he made noises about not taking the money at all, and the legislature passed a budget with language requiring him to apply for and accept the funds. He vetoed the legislation and they overrode his veto. He then said he would simply refuse to submit the application paperwork by the June 30 deadline, and the legislature took him to court, eventuating in an order from the Supreme court of South Carolina that he must apply. He submitted the application and then jetted off to Argentina. This behavior is hard-wired. The man has a serious personality disorder, I’d say somewhere around Axis II, Cluster B, heavy on the passive-aggressive.
BTW, the comment above about Cheever’s “Country Husband” is spot on. Check that one out if you haven’t.
JosieJ
Sanford has done a good job (for once) of “talking the talk” to make himself look like a born-again Southern Baptist.
Except, he’s an Episcopalian. I guess he figured his constituents wouldn’t go for him being a co-religionist with those elite, effete, WASPy Northeasterners.
binzinerator
@Sloth:
This.
Yup.
Brachiator
@Sloth:
I’m not sure what Sanford’s supposed rehabilitation will get him. He is looking like a figure of ridicule even to his fellow Republicans, who are increasingly calling for his resignation. His presidential ambitions are dead, and no one would touch him as a VP candidate with a 20 foot pole.
He is termed out, even if he doesn’t resign, so he cannot run for governor again. With his marital situation shaky, along with the looniness of his “can’t stop” confessional, running for the Senate would be a tough slog.
His wife’s political ambitions may well have crashed and burned as well. She can no longer be a behind-the-scenes figure to her husband, and it’s dicey that she can run as an independent candidate. Not only is she hamstrung by the scandal, her religious world-view casts her primarily as a wife and mother.
Sanford might find support among a narrow band of his co-religionists, but his behavior cannot attract anything other than mild sympathy at best among the wider band of citizens in, and outside, the South.
I’m willing to bet good money that we are witnessing the slow, but total, unraveling of two political careers, that of Sanford and also of his wife.
Tax Analyst
That would be a sad thing if their political objectives weren’t for the most part significantly more insane than the Mad Hatter’s rants to young Alice.
The Tim Channel
The fact he hasn’t already stepped down is just another example of his lack of bad judgment. I don’t think these religious nutjob wanna-be rightwingers can accurately assess themselves. They’ve completely given up on personal judgement, preferring to hand it off to the God. Sanford is probably thinking “Since God didn’t strike me dead, it’s all good.”
Enjoy.
pseudonymous in nc
Compare and contrast: NC currently has a female governor and junior US Senator; SC has not been good at electing women to statewide office.
Jenny Sanford knows that, particularly as she’s a transplant to the state: born and raised near Chicago, went to Georgetown, worked on Wall Street. That’s as close as it gets to living in a foreign country within the lower 48. While living on Sullivan’s Island is a pretty sweet deal, you’d have to wonder if there’d be anything to keep her there with the kids if El Marco were to run off to Argentina for good.