Thoughts on Mark Sanford

I used to live in South Carolina, but don't believe Sanford had surfaced on the political scene before I left.  Democrats believed they had a chance to steal the House seat from South Carolina because of the former governor's famous affair with an Argentine woman. 

Today they're sneering at the Republicans who returned the philanderer to Congress over their candidate, who tried very hard to present a moderate image and pretend she would not vote the Democratic party line.  All Republicans who pay attention know for a 99.9% certainty that no Democrat will cross the wall to vote with the GOP on any issue, so they of course didn't fall for the charade.

The question of the day is whether electing Sanford is tantamount to GOP hypocrisy?  They will be pointing out on all the left-wing "news" channels that the party that promotes "Family Values" proves it doesn't really practice what it preaches when it elects an admitted adulterer.  Democrats are subject to no such scrutiny, because they reject "Family Values", so sexual misbehavior by their leaders may be ill-advised, but does not require banishment.

It must be pointed out that the Democrats are disingenuous when they equate Sanford with Bill Clinton.  Sanford didn't break any laws.  He never committed perjury and never suborned perjury or threatened anyone who might testify against him in court.  Clinton did all of those things.  So the key difference between the two cases that Democrats will never acknowledge is that their guy broke the law, while Sanford did not.

I'm disappointed that South Carolina was unable to field a strong candidate for their Republican Primary for that seat to offer a serious alternative to Sanford.  If I were still there, I would have hoped for a better choice, and would be disappointed that Sanford was the only option.  Because voting for the Democrat, Colbert-Busch, means voting for Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.  Which of course is far beyond the pale, and will never justify a protest vote over the adulterer who will at least vote mostly with Republicans.

If Sanford had broken the law while having his affair, that would have been too much for me.  I would not have voted for him.  I would have supported his GOP opponent in the primary, then skipped that race on the ballot yesterday.  If the Republican Candidate is a felon, I could not support such a person with my vote.  But in Sanford's case, I would have grudgingly pulled the lever for him for the chance to at least slow down the Obama-Pelosi agenda.