The Political Obituary of Mark Sanford

The story of Mark Sanford and his incredibly un-majestic fall from grace has now officially gone from strange and stupid to disgraceful. After starting off the week by comparing himself to King David - in what may quite possibly be the most transparent attempt at Social Conservative pandering ever witnessed - Sanford has now followed up by saying he feels like Jimmy Stewart at the end of It's a Wonderful Life, refusing to shut up about unnecessary details of his personal life, and, now, telling us that his Argentine Mistress is his "soul mate" - despite the fact that he still really wants to work things out with his wife.

Because that's clearly what every woman wants you to say (to the National Press, no less) when you're trying to save your marriage: "I really love this other woman, but I'll try and make it work with you, dear!"

Jenny Sanford, if you're listening, please don't take this scumbag back. Ever. He doesn't deserve you. Hell, he doesn't deserve the hooker that Eliot Spitzer slept with.

In retrospect, it having been nearly a full week since Sanford admitted he lied to his family, staff, and the people he works for, the hypocrisy of this whole situation is both disappointing and disgusting in the truest sense of those words. Indeed, having spent the last 6 years in the trenches, defending Governor Sanford as best I could, this whole scandal has stung me perhaps a little bit more than it otherwise would have - or should have, for that matter.

No more. Never again will you find me down in the arena, as Teddy Roosevelt would have put it, fighting on behalf of the man who was stupid enough to think that, as a public figure, he could have gotten away with something like flying to Argentina for a fling with his mistress. Or who thought it would be okay to take State funds to finance such travels. Or who thought that, despite being entrusted by voters with the responsibilities of the Governor's Office, he could vanish, leaving an entire State without a Chief Executive in one of the most brash examples of Dereliction of Duty I've ever seen. Or who successfully attained the highest Office our State has to offer by promoting family values and then attempted (and continues to attempt, natch) to destroy his own family. Or who made his reputation on being a 'straight-shooter' and then proceeded to purposefully lie to his staff, family, State employees, and constituents. Or who called on Bill Clinton to resign in 1998 and now vows to stay on 'till the bitter end, thus engaging in the kind of absurd hypocrisy only found in politics.

Of all the issues arising with this story, however, the most offensive, on a personal level, is simply that Mark Sanford committed adultery, betraying his wife and kids; and that he is now using this personal transgression to embarrass the State of South Carolina, and those of us he was elected to represent.

To be even more blunt, Mark Sanford should resign the Governorship of South Carolina; in part because, if he is to save his marriage and do what is best for his 4 young boys, he clearly needs some 'away time' to straighten out his messed up personal life. Maybe he's having a mid-life crisis. Maybe he's really in love with another woman. Maybe he needs to spend some time on Bull Street. I don't know. But what I do know is that all of the things he claims he's trying to do - and that he should be doing - vis-a-vis his family are in no way being helped by the continued media circus surrounding him (which he keeps making worse by being totally and utterly incapable of either shutting the hell up or letting a level-headed spokesman write out a coherent statement for him to read).

However, more important to the question of resignation are the politics of the issue; because, let's be honest, adultery is a disgusting thing to do, and denigrates your personal character, but it doesn't affect your abilities to be a Statesman and shouldn't be an impeachable offense. And yes, fellow Republicans, that includes when Bill Clinton does it. However, Mark Sanford, as noted above, improperly used State funds and, by all reasonable accounts, committed what amounts to Dereliction of Duty on his most recent 5-day jaunt to Buenos Aires. Those are both grounds for legal disciplinary action.

Moreover, and of the greatest concern at this point, Mark Sanford is disgracing the Office, State, and People that he represents. He may want to stay on and fight it out, but the fact is that he has no political capital left to work with. He already had a dysfunctional relationship with both the State Legislature and Judiciary (many would say non-functional...), but he was still effective because he had, as always, the support of the people. Indeed, throughout his time in office, both in the House of Representatives and in Columbia, Mark Sanford has always been consistently conservative - and his votes and actions have always reflected the views of the conservative South Carolina constituents he has acted on behalf of.

He no longer has our support. He lost it when he betrayed our trust and our values.

Over 50% of South Carolinians now want Governor Sanford to resign. For the sake of his State and with the servant's heart that I still believe he came to politics with in the first place, he should do us the courtesy of heeding our wishes and acting, as always, on our behalf - one last time.