Ignore SoberInput. He's too stupid for words.

would like to explain why its a plus for the rightist hypocrites that we have a "center right" nation as we watch Ensign and Sanford take their sacred vows of marriages into the twilight zone. This confess your sins get out of jail free thing is outstanding!

You know the center right of us can ponder Sanfords Argentine soul mate who just happens not to be married to him while the mother of his children sits waiting...

The right never walks the talk of morality but somehow Republican alleged christians keep electing them. Never mind their governance and treatment of citizens violates every precept of that savior they all claim to worship and emulate

And when they leave, could they also take Jenny and Elizabeth with them? Who needs whining political wives bitching about the husbands they stay with, who cheated on them? Enough already! If you don't love each other, or want to cheat, get divorced first.

Well said. Mark Sanford does need to go. He has been dangerously irresponsible and shows some signs of not being stable. Is this really the best S. Carolina can do? I think someone should make a clock (a la Sanford's antics) and time how long it takes for the S.C. GOP to man up and oust Sanford for his egregious behavior.

Here's a frivolous thought. Maybe Sanford is very, very smart in allowing his mental and judgmental deficiencies to be seen in this public and pathetic way because then it is easier to be "cured" through drugs, therapy, religion etc. and return again to politics.

I remember Norman Mailer running for NY office decades ago (the 60s?) and billing himself as the only candidate with a certificate of sanity (after being mentally hospitalized for clear craziness). Portents?

On a more serious vein, as a psychotherapist, the Sanford political suicide extended marathon has all the warning signs of a prelude to actual physical suicide. We are witnessing a man systematically and publicly giving away his emotional possessions/props so that he is free to die (soul mate, wife, family, career, respect and more).

Most disturbing is that the Sanford media/personal crash-and-burn event feels like a reality show going wrong and we are watching a man trying to die and we observe and comment on the show instead of getting him help.

Judy

I'm loving these revelatory affairs of the elected and unfaithfully married GOPs Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-South Carolina).

These two hypocrites were a part of "Family Values" bull—and they were plenty vocal in calling for the resignations, from the indiscretions, of 42nd president Bill Clinton (D-Arkansas; Ensign, Sanford) and ex-Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska; Ensign) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho; Ensign).

Neither Ensign or Sanford are about to walk the walk that they had talked. Come to think of it, Sanford has been the best news the apparently-forgotten Ensign could have hoped for.

Ah, yes! First week, it's Ensign. Second week, it's Sanford.…

If some things happen in threes, which elected Republican will represent the third week?

(Come on you Family Values Republicans: We're about halfway thru the week. Maybe you can deliver by, or on, July 4!)

...line is Saford's "I'm trying to fall back in love with my wife."

He said that out loud!

Should Hillary Clinton resign too? She covered up a high level affair thru deal-making (hiding a crime at that) in order to get the office she now holds.

Politicians' sex lives are not news and should not be covered.

The news media are complicit in politicians' attempts to unearth sex scandals to beat their opponents. This is not news and it belies the supposedly noble role of the press in a democracy.

Dear Joan,

This is just the beginning for these shameless, bigots southern conservatives.

No doubt there are more scandals to come: infidelity, bribery, or corruption.

The Godfather of this rotten syndicate, republican party, Ronald Regan was an adulterous himself.

They are morally corrupt and intellectually bankrupt. They have no ideas, no principals. Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and FIX news are their brain power. They will self destroy and implode from within. In 3-5 years they will vanquish into the trash dump of history. We have 60 votes now in the senate. We have the duty to the country to silence them for good and expose them whenever we can.

PS: For this weekend, I like to suggest watching “In the heat of the night”. It exposes the southern white conservatives’ bigots and phony morals.

> "Not only did he deceive his staff, his state and his family about his Buenos Aires sojourn last week, now he's admitting he lied when he publicly and dramatically confessed to those earlier lies."

He learned well from the master, Bill "got lewinskis?" Clinton.

Lying and cheating are horrible things, except when liberals commit them. Then sundry REASONS are traipsed out. Ted Kennedy let a woman suffocate (not drown!) while he swam off to save himself...and got called a hero. Bob Packwood, meanwhile, had to leave the Senate not because he sexually harassed women (Told "No" he always backed off), but because he was shy and clumsy...something women don't forgive (needing "strong, confident" men to blame for "making" them do what they're too cowardly to ask for themselves).

So please: Spare us the faux concern about honesty and loyalty and all that jazz. There's not a dime's worth of difference between men and women, Dems or Reps. All do silly, sullying things. The real difference is that Reps throw their team members under the bus instead of, like feminists, blaming others.

Acting upset about "a clear breach of Sanford's duties" is the height of hypocrisy, coming from a feminist who insists women are never responsible or accountable for anything. It's always "Cherchez les hommes!"

> "major questions about his judgment and stability."

Please. Gerry Studds? Barney Frank? Slick Willy? How many other Dems did what they wanted and got away with it? Lying, cheating, stealing don't matter unless the "Other" does it. And gets caught.

> "she agreed to try to work things out with her husband but sounded creepy Christian right themes..."

Whereas if she;d blamed the patriarchy, etc. she would have been hailed a heroine. Surely she NEVER chose her husband because she liked the perks his powerful position brought....right?

It's the same old sexist shite: "Men cheat because they are beastly bums. Women cheat because beastly bums don't love them enough."

Plus the "other woman" is always innocent. Character-less and childish, she just couldn't stop herself from doing the hokey-poke with a powerful married man.

Aw. Poor baby.

> "sounding more like she was reconciling with a business partner than a lover."

Good thing feminists, always chiding others to never judge, never judge in turn.

> "Sanford is a talented political operative in her own right, running her husband's campaigns."

Just like a daughter doing the books for her dad's company. Since when is being a helpmate the same as being the pathfinder? When is a line-worker equated with the CEO? Only in feminist lala-land.

> "Sanford deserves the most scorn...for his cynical effort to reject federal stimulus funds due to his low-income, high-unemployment state."

Whereas Bill Clinton got treated like a hero despite impeachment hearings, pardoning thugs, womanizing, etc. etc. etc.

It's ALL politics. If your guy does X he's a saint. If their guy does the same, he's a sinner. And women, of course, can't be judged at all.

> "I've resisted writing about the Sanford spectacle to date because it was tawdry..."

Yes, yes. Of course. Feminists only discuss high-toned topics...like how beastly men are. And what dresses to wear. And what to eat. And what beasts men are.

> "Life is hard, marriage is harder, and we all need to grow up about modern love, or at least stop judging."

Sounds soooo adult.

Then comes the disclaimer:

> "some political sex scandals are worse than others..."

TRANSLATION: "Republican sex scandals are worse!"

> "the worst family-values hypocrites tend to be Republicans..."

Declared by an feminist Democrat who remains blind to Dem-Fem hypocrisies...which get euphemized as "complex" and "nuanced."

> "If they can't practice what they preach, maybe these Republican hypocrites should at least stop preaching."

Maybe feminists should lead by example. So when might we expect misandric mewlings to give way to silence?

> "His party should help him do the right thing, and resign."

Worked when Democrats told Bill Clinton to "leave the stadium"...right?