South Carolina Says Mark Sanford is Ethical

An explanation (0.00 / 0)

People with some moral compass who create a private hell for themselves often try to maintain some personal sense of dignity by trying to avoid making other people complicit, which in this case meant disappearing off the radar. He didn't even have anyone help him figure out how to spin his impromptu press conference. His behavior, including leaving the state rudderless, seems erratic, not cold and calculating.

That's bad, of course--being erratic is at least as scary a trait for an executive as being unethical! But I think it explains the perception that he's no less ethical than most politicians. Think about the list of politicians who cheated on their wives: Clinton, Craig, Vitter, Ensign, Edwards, Spitzer, McGreevey, etc.. Did any of them ever appear unhinged by it? No. (Well, maybe McGreevey, a little.) It was more like they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and were sorry for the result, but not truly contrite. Sanford, while quite the opposite to contrite, does at least appear as if his conscience might be keeping him up at night.

And that perception, I expect, plays into the result of this poll.

---

by: SarahLawrence Scott @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 19:39:51 PM CDT

Sanford's Conscience (0.00 / 0)

I don't know -- in one of the articles on Jenny Sanford, she indicated that she wanted to put the marriage back together, and her husband did, too. She respected his decision to go off and think. The ONE THING he was supposed to NOT DO was go to Argentina. Married to her for 20 years, 4 kids, she asks him to take the time to consider the marriage, figure out what he wants to do, and instead he pre-plans a 10 day trip to Argentina?

I'm not buying that "conscience" is keeping him up. Guilt maybe.

Look, people cheat. Well, some people. Others wouldn't hear about it. If you look at a lot of politicians, they don't. And we know that because we live in such a 24/7 web-phone world that it's too easy to get caught. We'd hear about more of them, no matter how discrete they were, if the majority were dallying.

But you can name the cheaters. There are a President, a Veep, a few hundred in the Plum book, 100 Senators, 435 Representatives, 50 Governors and thousands of state/local elected officials, not to mention the wanna-be's, hangers-on, and operatives. So, if there were so many people in public life cheating, the list would be too long to recall.

Further, there are many more women in politics than a generation ago. I'm sure there are some that cheat on their husbands, but off hand I can't think of one who did and got caught. (But, of course, I could be wrong, I just can't think of one.) So, if that holds, it changes the equation.  

---

by: DocJess @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 20:07:43 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Lots of ways to be unethical! (0.00 / 0)

Cheating on one's spouse isn't the only way to be unethical. As far as we know, Blogojevich didn't cheat on his spouse. Neither did Cheney. Or, going further back, Nixon.  

---

by: SarahLawrence Scott @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 20:27:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Might have been how the poll was asked (0.00 / 0)

If your perception is that politicians lie and cheat, and when they get caught they lie some more, then maybe voters in S.C. are giving him credit for at least coming forward with the disturbing truth when he was discovered.

There is no excuse for the disappearing act, but sounds like some staff knew he was going away for up to 10 days. Not sure what all they knew and who the Gov left in charge of contacting him.

Now, he should be crucified by the people in his State for trying to not take any stimulus money. If he had wanted to make a political statement out of the stimulus money, then he should have taken it, pointed out that he didn't want to but that the people in his State could really use the help, but he was concerned about the National debt that it was creating. That would have given him political brownie points.

Now he's just another wacko Republican's that got caught with his pant's down.

---

by: MisterEd @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 19:50:26 PM CDT