Another Descent Into Disgrace, Just in Case...

If you found the tabloid feeding frenzy surrounding the public exposure of extramarital infidelity surrounding Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) was contributing to your nausea and indigestion, now comes the disappearing act surround Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC), whose own recklessness gave the title "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" a whole new meaning.

To recap what went down, Sanford went incognito for five days, flying off to Buenos Aries, Argentina to do some soul-searching while his aides and family were freaking out over where the hell he went off to. One of his aides claimed he went off to the Applilatian trails to do some hiking alone.

But once confronted, he had no choice but to go into Augustinian mode and confess his transgressions to his constituants.

This outrageous escapade leaves you wondering as to who's really minding the store in South Carolina.
As Rebecca Freitag notes at BuzzFlash.com:

"The responsibility inherent in public governance is non-negotiable. To just pick up and leave the country without telling anyone, or contacting your office for what was at least four days, is a strong message of irresponsibility, even if it's not a recreational trip, and a family matter. That's not a quality most people would want in a candidate.

Not only from a government official standpoint, but from a family standpoint, as well, because he left his wife and four kids waiting for him to come home on Father's Day weekend at their beach house. I don't know many Republicans who would stand by that. Although he seems to do this frequently, say some reports, isn't it a little peculiar that his wife Jenny didn't seem to mind? He said at the press conference that Jenny's parents were with her then, and most, if not all of the week."

What started as an innocuous exchange of casual e-mails snowballed into a full-bloom back street affair. And even as he was trying to get his mistress to go back to her husband for the sake of her children, citing "God's law" requiring even bad marriages to stay intact?

And when you have an elected official running off to Buenos Aires, Argentina to spend his time there crying a Niagara of tears over doing his family wrong, this is not just gross negligence or even dereliction of elected duties. It is pathetic narcissism, plain and simple.

And it doesn't take a psychiatrist much to diagnose and treat even this bizarre case of one's acting out.

I have seen politicians from both parties act out in so many bizarre ways, Wilbur Mills's dipsomanical romp in the fountain with the "Tital Basin Bombshell" Fanne Foxe being a classic example. But for all the bizarre acts of political posturing and other strange things he's done, this obviously has to take the cake.

Once again, a politician's sexual indiscretions have come back to haunt him big-time.

And looking back at my previous post commenting on the felony child abuse charges that former WWE wrestler Brian Blair is now facing, this 1980's advertising slogan for Head & Shoulders shampoo immediately comes to mind:

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Once your transgressions are posted on the Internet for the world to see, you better have lots of butter in the Frigidare, for your political career is toast. Professionally and personally, given what one's done, they will have a difficult time garnering support from anyone.

But then, this is the Republican Party, replete with its milquetoast of birthers, unhinged wing-nuts, closet racists, and self-loathing closet cases, where family values and marital fidelity are preached, but not practiced.

So the question remains this: will his wife finally give him the boot? Or do what Tammy Wynette suggests and stand by her man?

After all, Tammy says, he is a man.


6/26/2009 UPDATE: Given his penchant for scapegoating those whom hold honest opinions to the contrary, Rush Limbaugh is blaming President Obama for Gov. Mark Sanford's back-street affair with a married Argentine woman. As Tana Ganeva posts on AlterNet.org:

"Who’s to blame for Governor Mark Sanford having an affair, abandoning his post without telling anyone or leaving emergency instructions, and becoming the latest poster boy for the hypocrisies of family values conservatism? Is it Mark Sanford? Eros? Not according to Rush Limbaugh!

On his show (yesterday), the self-professed head of the GOP — you know, the party of personal responsibility — thinks the person responsible for Sanford’s affair isn’t Sanford, but President Obama.

According to Limbaugh, Obama — in direct contravention of his widely hailed intended purpose — has actually inaugurated an era of hopelessness. The latest victim of Obama’s pernicious plan, which also includes outlawing laughter, is Mark Sanford.

Here’s the sad tale of Sanford’s downfall, as told by Limbaugh: The South Carolina Governor had emerged a broken man from the battle over stimulus funds. (In reality, Sanford was fighting against crucial funding that would have kept South Carolina’s public schools functional and staffed with teachers. In Conservative reality, Sanford waged an epic war for Freedom.)

With the battle lost, and only a limited time before the Federal Government took over and set about abolishing Freedom, Sanford decided: “What the hell? the federal government is taking over, i want to enjoy life.”

At always, leave Rush to play the blame game and point the accusatory finger at other while refusing to take responsibility for what he says and does.

But then, this is conservative talk radio, where unhinged loose cannons need the jaws of life to pull their feet out of their mouths.

This weekend I'll be going to see a community theatre production of Neil LaBute's play Fat Pig. Unfortunately, it will not have Rush Limbaugh in the starring role.