The Careless Whispers of Mark Sanford

I was listening to this song and thought it fit the whole Sanford situation perfectly: 

The meaning- I had to actually look up a good way to word this one but here it goes, from Yahoo Answers: 

"In several of George Michael's songs, he used dancing as a metaphor for a relationship. A "careless whisper" could be gossip, or could be a betrayed confidence, or even a metaphor for a bigger kind of betrayal. So I'd say that he's singing about realizing that he has carelessly betrayed a lover, and now he's seeing how badly he's hurt someone he cares about. He's at the point where he realizes that he's destroyed something that matters, and there's not a thing he can do to make it better."

Kind of fits Sanford's situation in both his personal life (with his wife) and his public life (with the office of governor). And well, since Sanford met his mistress at a dance party, it seems all that much more appropriate. 

Sanford puts back on his Bible Belt

Governor Mark Sanford continues in his attempts to win back the trust of the people of South Carolina. His latest attempt? An editorial written to "The State" (a newspaper out of South Carolina) in which he reaffirmed his faith in God and said that God will make him a better person. Of course, I'm no biblical scholar or even a church-goer but I fail to see how God could help you improve your own personal behavior. After all, He did give us all free will. And if Sanford was such a good Christian, he never would've been in this situation to begin with. "Thou shalt not commit adultery" is one of the ten commandments.

Hopefully the people of South Carolina will see that Sanford is just trying to use their religion to get back in their good graces. As much as I like writing about him, I just wish he'd go away.

I should do a whole blog post about religion, growing up in the South as a non-religious person has given me an interesting perspective on it. When I figure out how not to offend anyone by talking about religion, I'll do it.

The Hypocrite of South Carolina

"I reckon he's a hypocrite," the Democrat [State Senator Minority Leader John Land] said. "He goes before the Christian right and professes to be one thing and yet his conduct is something else. He goes before the people of the state and talks about his fiscal conservatism. But yet when you see him in action, he's going first class and spending the state taxpayers' money."

That quote sums up the entire Mark Sanford debacle pretty well. Over the last month, we have seen Sanford slowly exposed as a lying hypocrite who cheated on his wife and used taxpayer money to fly lavishly while admonishing other state officials for their spending habits. In all, Sanford spent $37,600 of taxpayer's money for his trips in which he flew first and business class while his staffers flew coach for a fraction of the cost.

Remember when Sanford said that the stimulus was an inefficient use of taxpayer's money? I guess paying for his trips was a better use of it. After all, who doesn't want to pay for their governor to travel abroad in style? For a man who took pride in his frugality and even once bragged about sleeping in a cot to save money, this seems out of character. Par the course for a hypocrite like Mark Sanford.

As for the details of his travels, he hasn't exactly been forthcoming with details regarding his trips to Argentina. His staff is only releasing emails from his state account and in many of these released emails, he directs people to email him at his Comcast account. Hopefully, the state can subpoena the Comcast account as part of their investigation into his spending habits.

All in all, Sanford has only reimbursed the state for $3,300 of his travel expenses. Hopefully the State of South Carolina can get some more of that money back so they can use it to benefit its citizens and not their hypocritical governor.

This Week on "The Governor and the Restless"...........

The Sanfords are going to Florida!

Governor Mark Sanford will be vacationing with his wife in Florida in an attempt to repair his marriage. An admirable idea but what would a Sanford vacation be without a little bit of irresponsibility? Before leaving, the Governor skipped a meeting with a key economic advisor that was scheduled to allow them to discuss the worsening economy. This meeting was pretty important because South Carolina's unemployment rate is 11.6% and not showing any signs of improvement.

Here's some advice, if you can't fully commit to the people of South Carolina, quit your job Governor and focus on your marriage. It seems like you're struggling with being a governor and a husband so pick one and stick with it.

The Governor and the Restless

Who doesn't like a good soap opera? Long a guilty pleasure for many people, soap operas provide a form of escapism. After all, nothing that happens in it is real and no one is actually hurt. Soap operas keep us on the edge of our seats with twist and turns. You never know what's going to happen next!

You know what my favorite soap opera is? The one that had the Governor who met a girl at a dance party in Uruguay and then had an affair with her. The twist is that it was no ordinary affair, the Governor had finally met the love of his life. He was conflicted, his political career would suffer if he came out publicly and divorced his wife so the Governor decided to keep it hidden by making secret trips to her homeland of Argentina to see her. The two star-crossed lovers knew that their affair shouldn't happen but they followed their hearts and found a way to let their blossoming love grow.

Of course as you all know, the above does not actually describe a soap opera but a reality for the people of South Carolina. The Governor mentioned is Mark Sanford and the events described actually happened. Of course, unlike an actual soap opera, people were actually hurt and Sanford's actions had consequences.

Sanford behaved incredibly irresponsibly in his quest to live a real life soap opera. He never ceded power to his Lt. Governor prior to leaving the country, he misled staffers into believing he was hiking the AT when he was actually in Argentina and he refused to respond to the attempts of his staffers to reach him. What if his staffers weren't just contacting him to check in? What if something major was happening in the state? Turning on the news wouldn't update him. After all, Governors probably deal with issues that we as citizens never find out about. Had an important issue gone unaddressed, it could have had dire consequences for South Carolina.

At times though, it seemed like Sanford was aware that all of this was unraveling like a bad soap opera storyline. He gave interviews calling his mistress the "love of his life" and said that he asked for permission to see her but was denied so he went to see her anyway. He said that he would try to fall back in love with his wife, a revelation that again sounds like something a character on "As The World Turns" would say and not the Governor of South Carolina. How do you "try" to fall back in love with someone?

Since Governor Sanford didn't actually break the law, impeachment efforts have proved futile and South Carolina Republicans have largely backed off any attempts to do so. South Carolina Democrats are still behind impeachment efforts but since Democrats in South Carolina are an endangered species, it really doesn't matter.

All we can do now is sit back and continue to watch "The Governor and the Restless."