Still ... in my head I keep hearing a soulful rendition of Don't Cry for me, Argentina ...

His emotional nakedness is so much more appealing to me than anything else about him. Clearly, he loves the Argentenian woman. He's lost in that love, and it's got him totally disoriented. I wouldn't forgive him for his folly if I were his wife, or one of his state constituents, but I do like the idea that his total immersion in this affair might actually end up helping him save his soul. He could become a Democrat!

I look forward to the day (though I'm not holding my breath) when "the rules of the game" don't include delving into ANY politician's peccadillos. I'm not interested in their personal lives or marriages, except to the extent that it directly impacts their job performance. To paraphrase Michael Douglas in The Game: "I don't care if they want to wear nipple rings and butt fuck Captain Kangaroo". The only thing I want from a politician is to do the job for which they were elected in an honest, competent and ethical manner. The rest of it is none of my concern.

However, regardless of his sincerity it does not cover the fact that this is an incredibly shallow human being.

To get so far in life, but society's standards. To be so successful. To have four beautiful children, along with a wife who has been with you from the start. Then to throw it away because you got horny? Because you 'felt the fire?' To sleep with another woman while still married is not only an incredible weakness, but it's a shallowness of spirit that is only compounded by the inherent hypocrisy.

Sad yes, but moreso, pathetic.

Unfortunately, a pol who wears nipple rings and butt fucks the Captain, may be an indication of poor judgment. Gotta take the whole ball 'o wax.

Especially if the Captain's boyfriend is railing against gay relationships.

I thought that meant he'd disappeared and soon we'd hear search and rescue teams were descending on the place he was last seen.

Then I heard about the weepy confessional which once again underscored the perils of mixing private and public morality. Everyone in public life has have the Norman Rockwell family and when some member, particularly if it's the public official, is revealed to be merely human, well his political enemies begin banging the hypocrisy drum.

But according to a Republican relative, this is no zipper job, Sanford's in love with this woman and presumably contemplating some sort of future with her despite the fact he's a married father of four.

is what I find most disturbing.

The media age is fast becoming the public square where broken humans are heaved like bedraggled drama meat to serve as fodder for empty-headed moralists and the clucking masses.

I couldn't watch the strange nakedness. It is none of my affair.

Oh, damn you for making me feel guilty!!! I was enjoying this.

Ya, ya. You're right. But I'm not so good that I can restrain myself from thinking, 'Again! Muahahahahaaha!

re: a pol who wears nipple rings and butt fucks the Captain, may be an indication of poor judgment

Not like that good judgement constantly shown by all those squeaky clean "Boy Scouts" we've put in office, eh?

OK, I grant you that Gov. Sanford let his emotions show at his press conference and it turns out that he is "human." But will he learn from this--will he, in other words, stay "human?" Or will he quickly revert to the sanctimonious prig who denounced other politicians for their affairs, for violating their oath to their wives (that's a pretty close paraphrase of his language). Will he place his political future above the need of his constituents for economic assistance by turning down stimulus money, a move that even his Republican cohorts in the legislature couldn't countenance? Will he continue to deny homosexuals the opportunity to marry, and to insist that marriage is "between one man and one woman" (plus another woman on the side?) Despite my tone, I do not condemn Gov. Sanford for what his heart has evidently led him to do, although it is undoubtedly hurtful to his wife and children. But I will condemn him if he "puts this behind him" and, having extracted the beam from his own eye, continues to denounce the mote he imagines in others.

A very thoughtful piece -- for those that can't conceive of a love affair outside of marriage that might be something other than just sex and grunting, I feel sorry for you - it's more of a reflection of your own limitations than reality. Not that it isn't an event without consequences, but people have absolutely no idea what it is like inside the Sanford house -- because no one besides Sanford and his wife know.

We live in a lonely, alienating society, with surreal expectations for partners in any marriage. That someone in a high-level, stressful job fell in love with someone else is no sin, nor a huge surprise. Judge not, that ye not be judged.

I have hope for you Gary. Enough rational thinking, and you could become a male Paglia.

This has nothing to do with how sincere he may or may not have been. This has to do with the fact that he belongs to a party that claims to believe in keeping the government out of peoples hair while all the time trying to tell them how to run their most intimate personal lives. Unless he has completely rejected this entire philosophy, he deserves no sympathy. For 30 years, gays have had to listen to how they are not "real" Americans and are destroying society from men like him. Men like him tried to impeach the President of the United States for this exact same thing. Unless someone has the stones to confront the GOP about this contradictory philosophy, it will never change. If these guys just get to say their sorry every time this happens, then there is no incentive to do any sort of real intorspection about what is wrong. Either sex is off the table as a political issue or it isn't, the right shouldn't get to simply say they are sorry everytime they don't live up to the smae standards they have built their careers holding everyone, espeically their enemies, to.

Let's call a hypocrite a hypocrite. Most of the people he panders to never forgave Clinton for this exact same thing, no matter how many times he apologized. Looking the other way just because he sounds "sincere" guarantees the GOP will never have to change their ways.