"We don't have the soul mate thing." She observed later, "That was just an excuse to decamp for a life with his high school girlfriend."

My friend, a jaded divorcee, thinks that Sanford is trying to end his marriage with all these revelations which are intended to make his wife act. Then he wouldn't look like a total cad probably get more time with their boys. But she's not playing along with it, waiting for him to give up the other woman and come home.

Joan, it's not a slow-motion crackup. He's doing what many people do who have been profoundly humiliated: he's bathing in shame, even drowning in it, as an unconscious way to free himself of it (check out this book http://tiny.cc/MrCWi). As an unconscious strategy, it's paradoxical and painful, and sadly for all of us, he seems to think it's the only way through the morass.

It has been PROVEN any lying, hypocritical, moralistic, self-deluding, bitter, angry, cow-stupid (or any combo of these) lump - can be elected to the exalted position of Governor of an American State. It doesn't take brains to be a Governor, just get the sheeple rallied behind him/her, herded by the powers that be.

Can we think of a few Governors who fit the criteria? Texas. Alaska. S. Carolina.....

No one should be surprised at anything theses tools say or do. They are all full of it.

The Norm Coleman reference in the headline made this column's conclusion and irrelevance quite obvious yet, I read on.

Sanford had no shot in 2012. The guy makes McCain look like Ronald Reagan.

The great hope of the Republican Party is the ascension of Stuart Smalley to Senator from Minnasowtah. Is that the sign of the Apocalypse? To celebrate it is the sign that the Republican Party will rise from the dead.

Golly, Joan, I'm confused. Are you talking about Bill Clinton here?

PS: At least Sanford had the good sense not to lie under oath. Which puts him one up on Slick Willie. Yep, I guess if Willie had resigned after all the crap he and Monica put this country through, then you could make a solid case for Sanford to resign, too. But Willie didn't resign, did he? So I'm afraid you're plum outta luck. Unless, of course, you plan to continue with your transparent and duplicitous commentary. Which I have no doubt you will.

What a joke, Sanford having a spiritual advisor and what a lot of good this advisor has done for him. This advisor's own wife ran off with guy the spiritual advisor had hired to cut some trees in his yard, leaving him with three small children, AND a girlfriend. We are dealing with South Carolina here, which is too small to be a republic and too large to be an insane asylum.

Get over it, Joan. I have lived in South Carolina for 20 years. It's perfectly acceptable for Jenny Sanford to quote that scripture. She DOES have four SONS, doesn't she? Why in the world would she use a verse that mentioned daughters when she has none? Find something else to criticize about her. You are so pathetically petty.

As far as her giving up her ambitions for her husband's, she has no business running off and doing her own thing when she has four kids at home to raise. She knows the best thing for her children is to be at home, not handing them off to paid help. Please commend her for that instead of slamming her for it. Maybe none of them will end up like Al Gore's son.

And as for Republicans being slimier, I have to LMAO off at your obvious bias there. Elliott Spitzer (at least Mark Sanford wasn't paying for some place warm to stick his), Bill Clinton (at least Mark Sanford was keeping his out of the mouths of interns), Barney Frank (at least Mark Sanford wasn't running a boy prostitution ring out of the Governor's Mansion) - I could go on and on, but you know what I'm talking about.

Sanford is one of those wingnuts who belong to the very secretive religious "Fellowship", or "Friends". They live in a church/townhouse on C Street in D.C. This organization caters to the political elite, and essentially tries to create a widespread old boys club of the powerful, and operates with some very tortured Christian theology that isn't exactly progressive. Their view of themselves is that they have been chosen by god to be leaders and therefore don't have to be moral because they're so special. Sanford's reference to the biblical King David, who did 'great' things but was not a nice man, indicates he believes this horseshit. He doesn't have to leave office because of his philandering because he is above any moral strictures the rest of us follow - regardless of any loud and proud espousal of 'family values' or pontifications on the sanctity of marriage. Or so he believes.

Once anyone buys into such narcissistic nonsense, i.e., that god doesn't hold you to the same standard because he (definitely a 'he') has a job for you to do, you can rationalize anything and everything. Sociopaths in office unite! God doesn't care. George Bush thought he was god's messenger, but these guys believe they have carte blanche.

What's really scary is that there are more of these elected and appointed nut cases who belong to this cabal, and we don't know who they are. The organization deliberately operates below the radar, and only when one of their members gets caught at something do we find out about their membership. A little sunlight just might destroy them. Like Dracula.

Eeesh. we think we're so darned sexually hip here in this country, what with not judging adultery and all. It's time to grow up. Sheesh. If we wanna have emotional, sexual flings outside of committed relationships, how about having an understanding amongst all parties involved and affected? How about an agreement? This sneaking around, the emotional infidelity, the touching, sex acts without the knowledge or consent of the party to whom one is supposedly committed is simply a narcissistic, immature reaction to god knows what.