Love and Marriage

You probably thought the “’family values’ politician catches his hand in the extramarital cookie jar” story was getting stale by now, didn’t you? There are new twists to be added, and South Carolina governor/traditional marriage defender/globe-trotting philanderer Mark Sanford has proven it. A new interview with Sanford is burning up the wire services. In it, he declares that his Argentinian girlfriend is actually his “soul mate,” but that he is working hard to “fall back in love” with his wife because marriage is such an important institution. He also disclosed that he has “crossed the line” with several other women, thankfully not detailing precisely what that means. Normally, I think mistakes made by politicians in their private lives shouldn’t cancel out their political talents. But this guy’s not only a towering hypocrite, he’s starting to sound like a pathological narcissist who needs professional help.

His wife Jenny – who ran his first political campaign – has made headlines for refusing to stand awkwardly beside her husband while he made his overwrought, self-indulgent public confession of infidelity last week. I just watched a conservative commentator on CNN declare that the “God-fearing evangelical voters of South Carolina” are waiting to take their cue from Jenny. If she forgives him, they’ll forgive him, too.

Is Jenny that stupid? Not by a long shot. I can’t so confidently vouch for those God-fearing voters, though.