Your email address is safe with us. View our Privacy policy.
Author Bio:
Kathleen Parker is one of America's most popular opinion columnists, addressing the country's mental health through her views on current national ...
Read more about Kathleen Parker.
Kathleen Parker is one of America's most popular opinion columnists, addressing the country's mental health through her views on current national ...
Read more about Kathleen Parker.
Please Cry For Me, South Carolina
Kathleen Parker
WASHINGTON -- A wise man once said that love is the triumph of
imagination over intelligence.
No one who managed to get through the torture of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's news conference admitting to an affair would disagree.
Yes, I know, shocking. Another Republican affair. Next thing you know, we'll learn that a Democrat hasn't paid his taxes. There does seem to be a pattern of failure in those matters about which people purport to care the most.
If we were feeling charitable, we might say something about man's fallen nature and his attempt to repair himself through public works. Thus, Republicans touting family values can't seem to stay zipped. Democrats raising taxes can't seem to spare the change come April.
We might conclude that public espousals carry certain risks of self-incrimination.
Before charity exhausts its welcome, let's do give Sanford this much: He has a flair for the dramatic in what otherwise would have been merely banal. Nothing like vanishing for a few days amid lies, mystery and frenzied speculation to get that "whole sparking thing" going, as Sanford ickily described his affair.
That was but one of many bits of information the governor might have spared the world -- and especially his family. His news conference felt like a combination AA meeting-tent revival, filled with self-recrimination and flagellation, absent only the sackcloth, ashes and Oprah. Although his agony seemed sincere enough to make me want to offer the man a cigarette, his apparent need to drag everyone else along his Via Dolorosa was both personally embarrassing and politically disastrous.
The man would not stop talking. But first he wouldn't start. Even though most cable news channels covered the spectacle live -- and the room was fairly bursting with media and equipment -- Sanford began with a wistful recounting of his adventurous youth when he loved to hike the Appalachian Trail. What? He spoke for five minutes about those good ol' days before moving, finally, to the point: Where did he go, with whom, and why?
One sensed that the governor was afraid to put a period at the end of the sentence, whereupon his own sentence would begin. As long as he talked, he could entertain an illusion of control over his life.
People generally will forgive human frailty, especially in matters of the flesh. After too many such public trials, schadenfreude begins to feel as unseemly as the original sin.
But Sanford's foray into iniquity has potential repercussions beyond what he and his wife ultimately resolve. He did disappear for several days, five of which he confessed to having spent "crying in Argentina." What is it about that place?
And, there's no nice way to put this, he lied -- by omission if not commission.
He lied by not telling his staff where he was going or how to reach him. He deceived his staff by allowing them to believe and then report to the media that the governor was hiking in the Appalachians. And most important to his political future, he failed to make arrangements for his state's uninterrupted governance.
To his credit, Sanford acknowledged all of these failings, but he seemed less interested in discussing his shirking of executive duty than in making rending statements about the condition of his heart. Not only did we learn Sanford's philosophy of moral absolutes, but we were led through the meaning and purpose of God's laws. The governor even lectured on the definition of sin.
Spiritually, Sanford may have succeeded in checking off several acts of contrition. But politically, he did everything wrong -- invoking religion, apologizing endlessly, and acknowledging friends in a sort of reverse intervention.
Meanwhile, the questions that matter remain essentially unaddressed. Can a governor lie about his whereabouts and leave the country while his state is untended? Were taxpayer funds ever used in the pursuit of his personal gratification? Exactly a year ago, Sanford went on a South Carolina trade and investment trip to Brazil and Argentina. Undoubtedly, that trip's receipts will be closely examined.
If not for Sanford's appalling judgment in disappearing, his personal travails might never have come to public light. That alone suggests that he is a man unmoored from reality and, just possibly, unfit for public office.
Sanford ended his tearful remarks by saying he was committed to getting his heart right. It might serve him better to think about getting his head right.
========
Kathleen Parker's e-mail address is kparker@kparker.com
(c) 2009, Washington Post Writers Group
This news arrived on: 06/25/2009
Printer Friendly Version | Send this page to a friend | Post Comment
Rate This Story:
Great - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - Bad
Posted Comments:
07-01-2009 00:01
JCE wrote:
John W Smith III Catharyne is correct in the details, altho she left one out. Sanford knew for months that the news media knew, but he didn't expect them to talk. And if they hadn't talked, neither would he have talked. As far as any lies to anyone, I think the lies he told was in the news conference. His family and staff and the reporters already knew everything, and I do believe he paid the money back. You want to paint a republican bad. No need, he can do it himself. Give it a break.
Bridget You are right as usual.
Bridget You are right as usual.
06-30-2009 23:34
JCE wrote:
The thing is, he attacked other politicians for cheating on their wives, wanting their resignation. He still has the mistress, and he only admitted it because the news media were going to. As long as they were keeping quite, he was keeping quite. It is the hypocrisy, the phony family values that he is verbally such a strong supporter of, and then actually, in reality, doesn't even believe those values. You can't trust a person like that. I am sure someone knew where he was, but it was stupid to allow all the news hype. No one needs a stupid, hypocritical liar like that in a position of trust. It isn't the personal actions, it is the political actions that called for the resignation of others doing the same thing. The old republican double standard. That is what the media should be covering, and what the people should want. Not the personal trash that people just love and the media feel the need to feed the sick addiction.
JDB leave the religious and psuedointellectual nonsense out of it. The people have tabloid mentalities, and the media feeds the feeding frenzy. NOT because it is important or the people need to know. The Christian majority seems to be voyeuristic in this regard.
JDB leave the religious and psuedointellectual nonsense out of it. The people have tabloid mentalities, and the media feeds the feeding frenzy. NOT because it is important or the people need to know. The Christian majority seems to be voyeuristic in this regard.
06-30-2009 06:54
Catharyne Stauffer wrote:
To Kathie I hope that answers your question . Like I said before if you were in Gov. Sanford's position my response would be exactly the same .
If the US want to get rid of someone that has had affair on his/her own personal time that is really the business of the American people . However what I am seeing people base their opinions on illegal gained and totally inadmissible information but the media seems to be outside of your laws and have zero accountability .
If the US want to get rid of someone that has had affair on his/her own personal time that is really the business of the American people . However what I am seeing people base their opinions on illegal gained and totally inadmissible information but the media seems to be outside of your laws and have zero accountability .
06-30-2009 06:44
Catharyne Stauffer wrote:
To Kathie, this is not an emotional response, this is about some injustices that go along with your system where information that is gained illegally and is totally inadmissible in a court of law yet the US allows the media to run with such information as if it was gleaned by a court order and gathered by trained investigators .
What I am seeing is your system being manipulated and the some aspects of your media being complicit in blackmail .
Its fine to hold your politicians to a high standard but in all fairness shouldn't that standard be applied equally ?
What I personally know about Mr Sanford you could write on a pinhead but I have seen this scenario play out many times and I have watched how you allow the media to influence the whole scope and field of your politics based on things that are really unimportant in a persons ability to carry out their Public duties . Not to mention information that was illegally gained by someone who has no credibility .
What I am seeing is your system being manipulated and the some aspects of your media being complicit in blackmail .
Its fine to hold your politicians to a high standard but in all fairness shouldn't that standard be applied equally ?
What I personally know about Mr Sanford you could write on a pinhead but I have seen this scenario play out many times and I have watched how you allow the media to influence the whole scope and field of your politics based on things that are really unimportant in a persons ability to carry out their Public duties . Not to mention information that was illegally gained by someone who has no credibility .
06-30-2009 04:18
bridget wrote:
The Sanford affair
This is from the very hot senior citizen who lives in seattle.Why is it with you republicans that spew family values are the most hypocritical? And who is he to charge this trip with this slob on taxpayer money? WHo is he? And as far as i am concerned...the GOP suCKS AND ANYONE WHO IS A REPUBLICAN CAN GO JUMP IN A LAKE BECAUSE THE PARTY IS DYING And since GW has ruined my retirement and caused nothing but grief in my house when it comes to my outdated pension all of you who dont know what it is like to struggle should try it and see how it feels when you work all of your life and you cant do what you want..but I am doing...this is the reason why us seniors voted for Obama and I will vote for Obama again and again.Way to go,Michelle!
Comment archive | Comment FAQ's
 |
 |
|
View Kathleen Parker ezine stories by date or visit the complete archive |
The ArcaMax Politics channel is one of 70 content categories offered by ArcaMax Publishing on this ... |
FreePlay Casino
