Gone Hiking...Or Something

If I were the staffer/s put in the position of lying for Gov Sanford, I'd quit. If I were the American Taliban I might start to get the idea that trying to be moral arbiters to the nation is a losing proposition. It is strange how the guys who tell gays striving to have monogamous relationships recognized that they're destroying the institution of marriage are busy destroying the institution of their own marriages. Since Mark was diddling a female it seems it wasn't 'teh gay' that cracked up his marriage. Joe and Sam or Leslie and Tina wanting to get married don't make me want to chase guys or women other than my wife - maybe I'm not sufficiently developed in the moral arena to be so tempted???

I've been told that since I don't subscribe to any religion that I can't have a moral compass and I've been told by Republicans that since I don't belong to their Party that anything goes. The funny thing is that I haven't run business scams or cheated on my wife or...well there are a lot of things I haven't done.

I've been a part of a rather heated discussion about whether to kick ole Hiker around about screwing around on his wife. I have to be honest with you all, I was embarrassed for him when some of his love letters were read aloud on the media and I really didn't care about them. I also didn't care if his paramour was male, female, married or not and really don't care who was on top or whatever. I only care about the SEX part of it because that is the issue Hiker Boy has made over and over - well there is lying and irresponsibility. You see, I have no intention of telling you who to screw - I do think cheating on your spouse stinks (open marriages are not cheating) and I figure it's just fine if that spouse makes you pay real hard for it. If you propose to make laws and public pronouncements about morality I will hold you to it and I'll mock you unmercifully for doing otherwise. Once you push your version of relationships down my throat I'll puke it up on you for coming up short yourself.

I've heard a lot about the things Sanford didn't do in his "presser," like drag his wife up with him and blah blah blah. As though he had some choice in those matters. He was flat out of dodges. So he gets kudos for honesty? WTF over? He still managed to drag god into it and that trumps wifey who probably was quite happy to watch him twist in the wind from a distance. If you're willing to cheat your wife (and kids) and the other woman's husband and have your staff lie (get caught telling your lies) it isn't a real reach to see how citizens might have some doubts about your representation of them. How does this not play into being Obama's most fierce opponent on the Stimulus, vetoing the Lege, and finally losing a Court case over it in the search to be poster boy for the Republican Conservatives? His State is in the economic toilet and he proposes that doing something to help rescue the losers in his system is socialism? (and evil)

Both actions scream "ME, ME. ME," and "TOO BAD FOR YOU." I just do not understand how these people call themselves Christians and regularly violate the exact quotes of their god. Instead they grab quotes from every latecomer and ancient predecessor to back their meanness and selfishness and outright murderousness. Nailing Hiker to his cross only seems just. He stood that cross up in the public business and just as publicly spit on it. You have got to realize what a disaster South Carolina is to appreciate the aptness of a rich secure asshole sticking a knife in their back in relationship to Christ.

He has been big on this personal responsibility thing the Republicans have. It breaks down like this, that rule only counts if you're suffering under their method of doing things. When something like this blows up you're to respect their privacy and their family - as though they had. When you're rich paying something in taxes is stealing if any of it goes anywhere other than your no-bid contract. Universal single payer health care is socialism as if the current method isn't socialized plutocracy of the most clapped out sort. Somehow, if you're not a mover and shaker getting your head shit on is the natural order of things - including wife and kids.

The Right will now point and call this an aberration and it damned well isn't - it is a feature of their culture of selfish mean spirited ideology - it is screw you 'cause I've got mine and they sell it to their deluded followers as fair and just. Take apart the Right's ideology into its component parts and you'll find its matches all over Mark "Hiker" Sanford's problems. Yes, we are all imperfect beings and cutting each other some slack for it is reasonable - tell his adherents that.

I really don't want Sanford to resign, I want to see him right there in the public eyes so anytime the American Taliban sticks up its Theocratic head I can point and say, "So you're another Sanford?" (Ensign, Craig, Gingrich, ...) Oh sure, The Party Of Family Values ... ask Sanford's kids, or some of the others. It is a foot on your neck while they do whatever they please when it pleases them.

(a note to Democrats - if you play this Theocratic game there are some names that could be pointed out)

I don't portray myself as a better man than these, I've done things I'm ashamed of in my life, but I've never made a career out of being theocratic, either. I suppose it really sucks to be Mark Sanford right now, public ridicule and all that - I bet it sucks a lot more to wonder if you can feed the kids and have a roof in South Carolina - right now. He's got two rich women in his life, current wife and current other, do you suppose that'll work out? That could be called an embarrassment of riches....