In Re:Mark Sanford

So you have to figure his political career, at least at the national level, is pretty much done. Social conservatives at this point are going to basically tune him out, and if his name appears on a primary ballot, we’ll more than likely remember him as “that guy that wandered off to Argentina to cheat on his wife”- okay, I will, and from that I generalize to all social conservatives everywhere in the country, so take it with however many grains of salt you like.

But even for the millions who don’t think it’s that big a deal – “The heart wants what it wants,” etc – I don’t see how he can be trusted. He wandered off for a week without, as far as I understand it, telling anyone, abandoning his wife, kids and state/employer. If you leave a private sector job for a week without letting your boss know, you are very much risking getting fired, and rightly so, since you’ve demonstrated you are unreliable. Okay, so that doesn’t apply to union lose – er, members – but that’s another post.

Politicians promise us all kinds of things when they run for office. The only way we have to know whether they’ll follow through is to judge their character, which you can only do by looking at their past actions. Mark Sanford has now demonstrated he’s willing to lie and break past promises to scratch an itch. Jim Geraghty suggests that sometimes people marry the wrong person, and the evidence he presents supports interpreting these events that way, but in the end (and as I read his post, Geraghty would agree) Sanford’s judgement is clearly suspect.

You stay classy, Barb…

Making the rounds today:

“You know, do me a favor,” an irritated Boxer said. “Could [you] say ’senator’ instead of ‘ma’am?’”

“Yes, ma’am,” Walsh interjected.

“It’s just a thing, I worked so hard to get that title, so I’d appreciate it, yes, thank you,” she said.

Yeah, you tell him, S.e.n.* Boxer.

*That’s the abbreviation for “Slow-witted, egotistical nimrod”, in case you were wondering – what, you didn’t think I’d ever actually call her “senator”, did you?