You Think This Is the End of It?

by Little Miss Attila on June 23, 2009

Fuck that noise; I won’t stop till follow hiking-gate through to its seamy conclusion.

He’s a bad governor! A bad husband! Bad in every way!

UPDATE: Go back and re-read Cassie’s entry; she’s been adding to it all day. Are she and I married to the only real men left in the entire freakin’ country? Do we only want Momma’s boys or Daddy’s girls in the White House from here on out? Teddy Roosevelt is doing backflips in his grave right now: apparently no one is allowed to go on a writing retreat, take a road trip, or hike, hunt, or fish if they have any political ambitions at all. Unbelievable.

UPDATE: My larger point still stands, even if the specifics of this one show that the jackals were “right.” (Though there is the Shroedinger’s cat problem: would he and his wife have worked things out without this “help” from the press and the opposition? The attention came at a hell of a time for that family.)

The press reports had a higher degree of truth in them than I had grown accustomed to, but if his office knew how to cope with him hiking for days at a time then they probably also had ways of handling the state’s business for a few days while he had a nervous breakdown in Argentina.

I persist in my belief that to the degree we ask our public servants to live in a fishbowl, with no privacy whatsoever, we reduce the talent pool of those who might be willing to go into public life. As for Hilzoy’s remarks about my defense of freedom in public life:

Mark Sanford: secure enough in himself to to leave his state without a governor, his wife without a husband, and his sons without a father; enough of a real man to willfully torpedo his closest relationships. Family values in action.

I assume this standard will hold for all public figures who are discovered to be carrying on in the same fashion? What do you mean, “no”?

And then there is the fact that he didn’t leave “his sons without a father.” His wife kicked him out of the house, and forbade him contact with his sons over Father’s Day weekend. She may well have been justified in doing so–and I’m sure she felt justified–but let’s not rewrite that bit of history.

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Republican marriage [Darleen Click]
June 24, 2009 at 6:17 am

{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

TexMex June 23, 2009 at 7:35 pm

Dude, some people clearly dont’ understand “man time.” Gov. Sanford just wanted to have some alone time and his own peeps in the SC GOP threw a sh*t fit. *shakes her head* Dunno about this country sometimes.

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Darrell June 24, 2009 at 9:22 am

Don’t cry for me Argentina.

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TexMex June 24, 2009 at 12:07 pm

Heh, oh man, well I don’t stand corrected in that Sanford WAS getting in some “man time.” It just wasn’t your typical beer drinkin’, butt scratching, and burpin’ time.

Ouch, Big Mark, you were undone by little Mark.

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DevilDog June 24, 2009 at 10:48 pm

Looking back at the post defending the Teddy Roosevelt of South Carolina . . . looks pretty foolish now.

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beetroot June 25, 2009 at 3:46 am

The affair aside – the problem has nothing to do with manliness or anyone’s opposition to it. The problem is simply dereliction of duty. If GS had said to anyone, “I’m going fishing, here’s who’s in charge,” that would be one thing. But to simply disappear from ANY job is unacceptable; to disappear from a job as chief executive of anything is downright stupid.

And for anyone who doesn’t understand that, try leaving YOUR job for five days without explanation and see how much sympathy you get.

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Varecia June 25, 2009 at 6:13 am

“And then there is the fact that he didn’t leave “his sons without a father.” His wife kicked him out of the house, and forbade him contact with his sons over Father’s Day weekend. She may well have been justified in doing so–and I’m sure she felt justified–but let’s not rewrite that bit of history.”

Um, if Sanford’s been having an affair for some time, he had in effect abandoned his commitment to his family whether his wife asked him to leave this past weekend or not. Stop trying to make excuses for absolutely wretched behavior. If conservatives didn’t lord their moral self-righteousness over everyone, situations like this wouldn’t be such a big deal.

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rea June 25, 2009 at 7:37 am

My larger point still stands, even if the specifics of this one show that the jackals were “right.”

Oh, that’s a classic. I, too, have often been, in a larger sense, right, even if I got all the facts completely wrong.

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Little Miss Attila June 25, 2009 at 7:45 am

But this was written before the facts came out: I was against assuming the worst. And even if, in this case, the public figure in question did have something to hide, that is not a good reason for public servants to live under house arrest.

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Jon Marcus June 25, 2009 at 11:06 am

House arrest?! As someone upthread said, you try blowing off work for 5 days and see what happens. I certainly couldn’t get away with that. Not because I live under “house arrest” but because my employer expects me to be a responsible adult. The citizens of SC aren’t out of line in expecting the same out of their governor.

If he’d just said to the Lt. Gov (ideally with a heads-up to his chief of security) “I’m going to be out of contact for a few days: you’re on,” this would be a different story.

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That Fuzzy Bastarrd June 25, 2009 at 11:19 am

House arrest? Completely aside from the fact that he left specifically to tomcat around, there’s not a job on earth where you wouldn’t get at least a serious talking-to if you left for five days without telling anyone. G’wan, try it—just don’t show up at work for a week, and when you reappear, tell your boss “What, am I supposed to be under house arrest?” That’ll go over great.

Hell, I’m self-employed, and I would never just disappear for a week without telling my clients I won’t be returning their e-mails. If I did, they’d never work with me again—and they’d be right not to! So this is even more for public servants, who are theoretically responsible for a lot more people than your average desk jockey.

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Darrell June 25, 2009 at 3:51 pm

Of course you were right to say what you did when you said it. Everyone deserves privacy, even our public officials.

Maybe we can assign someone to spend 24/7/365 with rea. Who knows what she’s up to when that door closes?

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