Sanford and the Republicans, Screwing U.S. Toward Prosperity

Here we go again. The Republicans have decided the most appropriate strategy to getting America back on it's feet is via getting assorted women off of theirs. Obama works for you, the voter, via the big head, while the Republicans use the little head on the down low.

First it was Senator John Ensign, head of the Republican Policy Committee coming forward with a confession about his affair with a married staffer, and now, but a week or three later, it's Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, all teary eyed and chatty over his affair with a South American theoretical beauty.

Dana Milbank, Washington Post columnist, reports:

As he rambled his way through his confession of adultery, he stumbled upon incoherence: "The biggest self of self is indeed self." He meandered into the trivial: "We called it Jurassic Park because of the kids' dinosaur sheets." And, just off the plane from his last tango in Buenos Aires, he confessed the dark details: "I have seen her three times since then, during that whole sparking thing, and it was discovered."

(W.P.)

Now as a man I can fully understand that temptation lurks, and lurks rather aggressively for those blessed with power, money or extreme good looks. Women can be delightful, with the one you don't have, or can't have, ever more fetching than the one back home raising the kids and washing your dirty, dirty laundry. I understand that. That said, there is probably a more honorable way to have that woman you find oh so lovely.

The problem in too many of these situations is that the politician (or any other soul creeping and seeking) want to have it all. The illicit relationship issue itself is simple enough to solve by giving up the one person--the spouse--for the new person, and taking the hits to your career and wallet. Unfortunately honesty all around is never the initial instinct after the affair starts, honesty increasing exponentially as discovery looms and novelty wares off.

This should be a trivial event, to the extent that we all have "sins" or issues that we carry with us and hide. The reason it is not, is that it shines the light on continued Republican goofery, where real issues get swamped by the ridiculous, in action or rhetoric.

You cannot screw your way to economic prosperity unless you are a prostitute...an even then it's a long row to hoe.