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- Ronnie Polaneczky: Just a tiny prick of pity for puppy-lovesick guv
- Crying in Argentina? Advice columnists weigh in
- How to mend after an affair
- Sanford's wife says betrayal devastated her
- A profile emerges of Sanford's paramour
- Sanford resigns GOP position
- E-mail to woman named Maria
- John Baer: It's not the first time a pol's arrogance has resulted in stunning stupidity
- AWOL S.C. guv admits affair
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Karen Heller: Sanford set himself up for the fall
Giant pandas. Siberian tigers. Brown bears. Republican leaders.
These are among the world's endangered species.
Reading the florid e-mail of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, it's possible to feel a bit sorry for the Grand Old Party as its dignitaries get charred like so much Argentine grilled meat. For a while, Democrats ruled on this front.
Politicians live better than we do. They secure jobs for mistresses or, in the case of Bible-thumping Nevada Sen. John Ensign, jobs for her whole family. Powerful pols have so many sources for perks and generous friends with deep, deep pockets. While you work, many of them play, and so rarely at their own expense.
In one missive posted last July, Sanford wrote his dulce de leche of that month's agenda: a family trip to China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Thailand, and Hong Kong; followed by a business jaunt to the Bahamas, and another to Aspen before meeting with John McCain to discuss the vice presidential slot. As we all know, that ended in the Arctic sudser Sarah & Todd Plus 5 and Counting. Not much work, but a lot of play.
That was one month after he visited Maria Belen Chapur in Brazil and Argentina, a trip funded by the kind, albeit unwitting, South Carolina taxpayers.
Does politics naturally attract men inclined toward amorous extracurricular activities, or is politics a minefield of temptation that leads the once strong to stray? Or is John F. Kennedy to blame?
Sanford is not the first elected official to cheat on a smart, rich wife. Such unions seem a prerequisite in contemporary politics, as common as American heiresses marrying titled Europeans in the Gilded Age. However, he's the first discovered to be so impractical as to carry on with a woman a 10-hour flight away, and with no direct air service at that.
So, future public servants of America, take heed:
If you're going to act morally superior and politically opportunistic by rejecting $700 million in federal stimulus aid - which the legislature wisely overruled, given that South Carolina has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates and jobs of teachers were at stake - don't do so after taking state money to meet your amante in Brazil and Argentina.
Leave your wife out of public confessions. Jenny Sanford avoided the public humiliation of Dina McGreevey, Silda Spitzer, and Suzanne Craig, elevating her cause. If you get caught, don't cry. Don't claim you spent "the last five days of my life crying in Argentina," because there are better things to do in Buenos Aires and, besides, no one will believe you.
What's worse: the transgression or the cover-up?
It's the transgression and the lies and the confession, doing it on taxpayers' money, and the hypocrisy of criticizing Bill Clinton for doing the same.
Mostly, though, it's the hypocrisy.
If you promote yourself as a traditional family guy, best not to spend Father's Day far from said family.
Don't puff up your importance to bolster your national profile, then be unreachable for almost a week, whereabouts unknown while cavorting a continent away because this proves you are anything but.
Don't compare yourself to King David. Not humble. Also: stupid. Don't quote Corinthians (love "is not arrogant or rude") in an e-mail to your mistress after being arrogant to your state and rude to your family.
Finally, it's time to concede that organized politics and religion are seriously flawed bedfellows. The Republican Party is in free fall partially for trying to stake impossibly high moral ground, then falling far below it, whether in an airport bathroom or on a hike on the Argentine love trail. When Sanford stumbled, who was left in the party to pull him up? Rush Limbaugh. Who, naturally, blamed Barack Obama.
The very nature of politics - the push for power, drive for funds, the temptations, perks, adoring friends - breaks five commandments without a sweat. It can be a scoundrel's game, and an Elmer Gantry recipe for disaster, as Mark Sanford is only the latest to find out.
Contact staff writer Karen Heller at kheller@phillynews.com or 215-854-2586.
