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I DON'T KNOW, maybe these elected, highly visible-in-an-age-of-constant-coverage public servants each think, "I'm the one who won't get caught."
Maybe they think a cloak of power offers privilege and protection denied to mortal men. What other explanation can there be?
And, yet, they do get caught. Or at least enough of them to represent a pattern suggesting that political stupidity extends beyond partisan policy and into private lives.
Not that there are private lives for those in public office. And that's the point. And the mystery. Why don't they see that?
Even by generous standards of acceptable human foible, the case of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford qualifies as stunning political stupidity. And, given its timing, disqualifies him as Father of the Year.
The 49-year-old married father of four who vanished for several days admitted yesterday that he wasn't hiking the Appalachian Trail, as aides had said - but, instead, crying in Argentina with a woman who's not his wife.
This is a two-term governor and former member of Congress who recently made national news for opposing the federal economic-recovery act (even saying that he wouldn't take some of the money) and who was touted as a Republican candidate for president in 2012.
Not any more, I guarantee it.
"What I did was wrong," Sanford said at a news conference yesterday in Columbia (South Carolina, not South America). He said that his yearlong affair with a "dear, dear friend" is now over after he spent "the last five days of my life crying in Argentina."
One can't help but think of the song. The Sinead O'Connor version. It's much more plaintive.
Oh, and he was on this little junket over Father's Day. He has three teenage boys. His fourth son is 10.
He apologized to his wife, who he said knew about the affair for months, and to his family, and he resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. He declined to say whether he'll leave office. His wife asked him to leave the house.
So Sanford joins the growing ranks of politicians finding ways to self-destruct or at least diminish their political futures because they think with the wrong organ.
* Last week, Nevada Sen. John Ensign resigned as head of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, a leadership post, after publicly admitting an extramarital affair with a female aide.
* New York Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer's hooker habit drove him from office.
* Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards had an affair while his wife was battling cancer.
* And who can forget former New Jersey Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevey outing himself (and ousting himself) on live TV a few years back?
* Not to mention former Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig's wide-stanced toe-tapping in an airport toilet stall, former Florida GOP Rep. Mark Foley's lurid messages to male congressional pages, and, famously, Democratic President Bill Clinton's special relationship with a female White House intern - although that last one left no lasting political damage, but just showed how slick Willie is.
Some see the Sanford thing as a major blow to the GOP. It comes after a series of stupid Republican tricks ranging from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's impression of Howdy Doody on national TV, to Texas Gov. Rick Perry's suggestion that his state leave the union, to the comedy and drama (take your pick) surrounding Sarah Palin.
But Sanford was just beginning a rise to national attention. He'll be forgotten for all but this sorry personal episode. And other Republicans will emerge. Politics, like nature, hates a void.
In the end, what Sanford contributes is a new phrase when someone is suspected of fooling around: He or she has gone "hiking on the Appalachian Trail."
Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com.
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