By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Whoah. That was not something you see every day in politics. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, after days of literal and figurative evasion, apparently laid himself emotionally bare. His voice breaking at times, Sanford admitted that not only had he lied about his whereabouts but that he had been unfaithful to his wife. And he spoke with (what we presume to be) a kind of emotional honesty one does not hear among politicians. "I have been unfaithful to my wife. I developed a relationship with what started out as a dear, dear friend from Argentina," he said.
Good for him for candor. He managed to sap a political circus of its snarky glee—and that's not easy to do. "This is genuinely painful, sad," TPM's Josh Marshall blogged under the headline "Sanford Trainwreck Presser Liveblogging."
He resigns as chairman of the Republican Governors' Association and pledges an apology tour of South Carolina. I think we can safely assume that he'll be too busy trying to rebuild his personal and political relationships at home to worry about 2012, even if his initial flakiness and moral lapses would not have disqualified him. "The guy could have been president. Now he's finished. Witness the power of the male libido," HotAir's Allahpundit Tweets.
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Reader Comments Read all comments (15)
maidiefort of GA 6:39AM August 22, 2009
Leslie of NY 11:35AM July 04, 2009
Ed A of MD 7:08PM July 03, 2009