True that, Joan. This is the most pathetic, weird bender of self-flaggelation I can remember. If I were his wife, I'd have a good, long laugh as I cashed that first alimony check. Not because he cheated, not because he lied, not because he publicly humiliated his family and his lover, but because he's a clueless hypocrite, who thinks this is about sex and going against "God's law". What about truth? What about living by the standards you set for your constituents (not to mention your family)? What about having an ounce of character and saying,"I've lied. I've let people down. Now I'm going to go and figure out my truth and leave this job to someone in the place of mind to do it."

I couldn't care less who a married, middle-aged, holy-roller wants to sleep with, but I'm very bothered by a public official who lies about his whereabouts and uses public money to visit his soul mates. Where else has he lied? And does he expect crying spells to excuse him every time he's out of line? Tearful confessions and apologies don't save thieves from prosecution and they shouldn't save politicians either.

>>If we're going to get comfortable using this as a political tool - hunting out sexual impropriety among our legislators and then trapping them in the impossible task of explaining their actions without lying - We'll ruin 70 or 80% of our representatives...

Um, welcome back to Earth. I see you've been gone for some time.

Seriously, you haven't been paying attention since at least 1996, have you?

You're that guy with the "Free Mumia" sign at every rally who makes his(or her) cause look stupid by turning it into an irritant brought up apropo of nothing, aren't you?

I don't disagree with any of your arguments but I am hoping that Sanford does stay because he is clearly the most entertaining politician we have today. I think the five day disappearance qualifies as grounds for impeachment, but also as the five most charming days of American news we've had for a long time. It was like Capra film where if we listened closely we could hear Barbera Stanwick burst into Edward Arnold's office crying "Cubby, Cubby ya gotta put me on this story."

I was a little disappointed that it turned out to be just another sex scandal, but the story only seems to get better with each retelling by the Governor. Adultery is a fairly common human failing and most of the previous scandals have followed a predictable pattern of tawdry narcissism and pointless humiliation for the spouse. Sandford however raised the bar, first by falling in love as well as lust, and not with a staffer half his age,nor with prostitutes, nor with a hot young filmaker covering his campaign, nor even with a younger prettier version of his wife, but with a sultry mature woman from exotic foreign climes. Again Sandford seems to be living in a nineteen thirties film fantasy, where he is played by Joel McCrea, falling hopelessly in love with Carmen Miranda.

And Mrs. Sanford? Well for years people have wondered at the tolerance and patience of political wives who "stand by their man" as they are publicly humiliated. Not our Jenny, she seems to have grabbed Katherine Hepburn's sides from the Philadelphia Story, playing the beautiful but cold heiress with no compassion for human frailty. Hopefully there's a Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant in this fantasia for her.

Again I agree that Sanford should either resign or be impeached, but I'll miss him.

Hello Joan,

I was wondering if Salon considered this to be important News?

Free Gaza Movement: Israel Attack Justice Boat; Kidnaps Human Rights Worksers; Confiscates Medicine, Toys and Olive Trees

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/06/30-0

Thank you.

Vanco52

Salon Reader

Is that woman standing next to Stuart Smalley in all the pictures today his wife?

If we're going to get comfortable using this as a political tool - hunting out sexual impropriety among our legislators and then trapping them in the impossible task of explaining their actions without lying - We'll ruin 70 or 80% of our representatives.

The job of being a legislator draws massive amounts of attention, power, and elitism. It's not an appealing line of work for those typically satisfied with a nice, humble life of simply doing right. I'll bet if we could look into their private lives, we could count on two hands the number of politicians - past and present - who haven't done something seedy if not outright illegal.

So we, the citizenry, should probably decide whether we want our legislators to be good at legislating or whether we want moral leadership from our government. Being good legislators, a viable code of ethics is necessary - related to their jobs, not their private lives.

Once we let go of our easy moral outrage, we can stop being pawns in a loose-cannon political tactic that can be used against just about any representative we have.

Welcome to the wonderful fun filled aftermath of Republicanism run amok! We will be trying to survive the mess of the last 30 years for years to come! Conservatives have all but destroyed the country.

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

Oh so true.

Oxymoron ...... no such thing exists

He is simply exhibiting a fetish

for talking about his sex life. ... He is too cheap, probably, to phone up a sex phone worker so that he can talk to his heart's content to HER, so he is inflicting it on the media, who are stupid enough to listen.

I think we have a winner.

Was Sanford saying his mistress his is soulmate but he's going to try and make himself fall back in love with his wife (something to that effect). Can you imagine if this was a prominent Democratic politician? Oh that's right - there was one - Bill Clinton - and Sanford et al. crucified him for saying basically the same things - "I did not have sex with that woman". . etc. What's next - Sanford sex tapes?

If nothing else Sanford may win the egomaniac of all time award when it's all said and done -- God wants him to be governor; he's like King David - arrrrrg. If you haven't seen it already, tHere's a great post on Huffington today by Chris Kelly called "God is My Doorman: Mark Sanford for Non-CHristians" - which is both insightful and humorous.