Resign, Mark Sanford
Make no bones about it: Mark Sanford, governor of the state of South Carolina, must resign.
And I say that not knowing whether the lieutenant governor is Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, or anything else. But it doesn’t matter… Sanford must resign.
First, he lied to his family and betrayed them. This is not inexcusable, but any reconciliation must be between Sanford, his wife, and their sons.
Second, he lied to the people of South Carolina. Again, this is not an inexcusable crime but the breach of trust can only be remedied over a period of time during which it’s critical that he step down.
Certain men are held to higher standards. When you preach the morality of marital fidelity, you yourself must uphold it. When you’re in a position of public authority (elected officials, pastor of a church, and so on), you are and you should be held to that higher standard.
Mark Sanford… resign the governership, then go home and work your butt off to make things right with the family you’ve hurt so badly.
From today’s Patriot Post (PatriotPost.us):
So to recap, Sanford lied about his whereabouts on Father’s Day weekend while he met his mistress in Argentina and his family sat at home. Sanford’s penance isn’t enough — he should resign as governor immediately. As Founding Father Samuel Adams said, “Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.” John Adams also wrote, “How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?”
Resign, Gov. Sanford. Resign.
From Newsmax.com:
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford shed his fiscal conservatism on several taxpayer-funded international trips, including a South American jaunt that included time with his mistress, choosing expensive first-class or business-class seats while his aides sat in coach.
Sanford, who once criticized other state officials for costly travel, charged the state more than $37,600 for one first-class and four business-class flights overseas since November 2005, expense records show. Other state employees flew in the back of the plane at a fraction of the price, according to the documents.
The Republican governor, who balked at taking federal stimulus money after arguing it was an unwise use of taxpayer funds, charged the state $8,687 for a Delta Airlines trip to Brazil last year that included a leg in business class, state expense records show.
That trip ended with the governor’s now well-publicized visit to his Argentine mistress, Maria Belen Chapur, and marked what he says was the start of a nearly year-long sexual affair with the woman he’s called his “soul mate.”
Other state employees spent less than $2,000 each on economy seats for the Brazil flight, according to the records, released by two state agencies under South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act.
Sanford has since repaid $3,300 for part of that Brazil-Argentina trip.