Should Sanford Resign?
Soon we’re going to start hearing calls for Sanford to resign, if they haven’t started already. I just want to give one liberal’s perspective on public/private behavior of elected officials.
Sanford: I think he should resign.
Lest I be accused of being a hypocrite about the Clinton impeachment (I thought it was bogus), let me give my reasons. Sanford should resign because he neglected his duties as governor of South Carolina. Sanford didn’t take a vacation – he left the state in a lurch if something happened. He should have informed his staff and the lieutenant governor of how to reach him or turned over authority to the lieutenant governor. Sanford didn’t do that, and that’s one reason that he got caught. I don’t think Sanford should resign for having an affair, that’s his private life and is between him and his family.
Here are my guidelines for when a politician should resign:
Sometimes a politician who fits in category 2 but not in category 3 can hang on and continue to serve (Barney Frank), though I think it hurts their future careers if they’re ambitious. In my opinion, private behavior is private even if you don’t approve of it. I don’t think Ensign should resign and if Sanford hadn’t left the country without making sure the state was running properly I wouldn’t think he should resign either. If Republicans are enduring more ridicule it is because they sell themselves as having family values and experts on the state of marriage. Most people don’t like being preached at by hypocrites, and yes, we enjoy the schadenfreude.
What I’ve learned over the years is that life is messy and some people’s lives are messier than others. Who am I to judge the circumstances of someone I don’t know? I don’t have to live their life and it’s easy to throw stones from a distance. What happens between informed consenting adults in privacy does not affect me so I keep the attitude “live and let live.” That does not mean I necessarily agree with or approve of the behavior, but in the end it’s not me that is affected.
Tags: Family Values, Mark Sanford, South Carolina
Sanford should resign because he neglected his duties as governor of South Carolina.
100% agree. That is the bottom line. He can cheat on his wife all he wants. That’s between him and the voters in the next election.
But he was negligent and therefor should resign.
Bottom line, it’s up to the people of S. Carolina.
Yes, it’s up to South Carolina now. That’s doesn’t mean we can’t watch and learn from the episode.
BTW, calls for impeachment have already started.
Link
So if he just had a nooner with a nice local girl instead, would that have been OK?
You kind of have to admire the magnitude of his failure of judgment.
I agree with you U.I. Before the 24/7 news cycle this sort of thing was largely ignored by the press who only had so much time, or print, and therefore chose to report real news, not gossip. But, breaking the law or failure to perform your sworn duties while in office should require a resignation.
Of course, he thinks he made it all better by resigning from the Republican Governors’ cell. I’ll bet his wife is thrilled that he’ll have more time to spend with her and the boys. NOT.
anon,
I never said it was “o.k.” I just said I don’t think an affair is a reason to force a politician to resign. If Sanford flew to Buenos Aires on vacation to sleep with his girlfriend, I don’t think it’s really anyone’s business. If Sanford was involved with a local girl and disappeared for days without leaving someone in charge it’d still be the same problem.
He had flown to Argentina several time earlier on the Taxpayers’s dime. He also abandoned his duties as Governor.
He should resign or (for more fun) be impeached.
“I never said it was “o.k.” I just said I don’t think an affair is a reason to force a politician to resign. ”
Agreed… wasn’t picking on your comment. Anyway, the only people who can force a politician to resign are his base. And in Sanford’s case, I think his base is up to the task. We can just sit this one out and watch.
“You kind of have to admire the magnitude of his failure of judgment.”
Except I don’t think it was a failure in judgment. Failure in self-control, maybe, but I can’t think of another job except religious leader where this sort of behavior brings down such harsh public judgment.
It’s not clear to me A1 what state business the governor of SC would have in Argentina in the first place (I see trade mission but how many times would a governor go himself – once?). Shouldn’t multiple trips have set off some alarm bells earlier?
Shouldn’t multiple trips have set off some alarm bells earlier?
They were tense and heated negotiations that required a lot of back-and-forth.
Resign, ASAP.
LOL, Smitty!
Damn — I was just about to write a post making this very point.
Instead I’ll offer a very respectful link back to your site.
The questions still seem to be open as to how much this affoar actually compromised his responsibilities as a Governor. If he:
–used state funds or resources to meet this woman
–used state resources to do this “counseling”
–got his staff to cover up his whereabouts while off seeing this woman
–failed to properly transfer (or prepare for transfer) of power
it would look like a failure of professional or political judgment certainly.
Part of the calculation has to be how much the long-term fallout of this thing might interfere with doing the job on a day to day basis.
FYI — http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/288996.php
Honestly, Smitty…your defense is as tintillating as the e-mails! Maybe you should quit blogging too, and take up those milky white thighs novels. Sex sells, blogs don’t.
Good point, JC. I’ll take it under consideration. Hmm….
Well first you have to drop the name Smitty, as an author OK? So be thinking about that nom de plume while you’re at it. You know Marquis or Count Something….
Sir Smitty
I’m with Cassandra. It’s clear he was irresponsible by leaving the state with no one clearly in charge (and, hey, I can say that: I’m living in a state where the governor has been told by legal counsel that he can’t leave the state because no one IS in charge….can you tell it’s NY?)
Beyond that, we do appear to have him using his staff — purposely — to lie for him. Very, very bad political and personal ethics, and strike two.
If it turns out that he used state funds last week or ever for his “sparking”, that’s strike three and he’s out.
Otherwise, it’s up to the people of SC to decide if they want a guy who appears more arrogant than TV’s House and more love-sick than a teenager to run the state for another 18 months.
As for UI’s list, I think any combination of #3 and either of the other two = out. #3 alone (failing to do job) would cast out the entire NY legislature and, tempting though it is, I don’t want to go there.
Well, it’s been a lot of toast served up first thing in the morning this week, huh UI?
Well now we know why he left South Carolina to do the dirty…
Every place I’ve ever worked, three days of no call/ no show was considered job abandonment. Thing is, Governor Sanford doesn’t have an immediate supervisor who can tell him not to let the door hit him in the butt on the way out.
It’s pretty bad when you’re even dumber than Eliot Spitzer and Jim McGreevey.
Of course, Governor Sanford probably did more good for South Carolina by taking off than Ed Rendell does for Pennsylvania by staying on the job.
I’m taking a different path here.
No,
He should not resign, but fight to the best of his ability to stay on..
He’ll have my help…. Unfortunately I notice most of the top Republicans are calling for him to resign.
I read his emails. He has my sympathy. Being elected to office should not mean one as to act Amish in order to stay there.
Second, the emails were leaked to a newspaper.. I’m curious where they came from… The Fed files?
Isn’t it about time we shut down that operation of storing every piece of personal information someone proffers?
One should not be able to pull old emails out of Quantico and slide them over to a newspaper… That entity breeching the trust deserves to be sued…
I hope he fights it.
you are a hypocrite…either both Clinton & Sanford or neither. What about the time that White House staffers had to spend on Lewinski…
Personally, I could care less…but you keep on rationalizing. It’s very humorous.
and you keep thinking your insane backwards views will ever have major representation again. I dont get the repubs. they ones keeping them out of power are the elected republican leaders. not evil marlboro man adolph obama.
Dear kavips,
I have slept on your words before writing back, and know I risk being filetted here. But I am still bothered and nagged by your positioning on this topic. I have reflected on your Addams piece, and thought perhaps an insightful inventory of past incivility across the blogosphere has stirred a soulful examination of our messy lives, and the sheer mortals we are. And Sandford may be your starting point (before you start in-state). I don’t know.
But Mr./Mrs./Ms. kavips, I have tried to engage in civil to light discourse at all levels. But wrong, while evoking a civil tone from your post, seems to have been excused. And that made me WILD!
For all the clarity you have argued across these new progressive ages, and pages, I must say this executed opinion strikes to the core of principled leadership, and I am worried.
Kavips, the Governor is guilty of dereliction of duties. Regardless of the reason, no chain of command was left in place by assignment or inference. It was knowing, willful, reckless, arrogant, and irresponsible to the people of his state. The length of time, and distant whereabouts further compounds his culpability in this matter. Benign neglect, I could understand with a weekend fishing trip to a great Georgia lake. But this dear kavips is a heightened matter. Sanford has made some poor choices that come with consequences to so many. Is it fair the citizens of that state now deal with a major distraction of a fully operating government, with a governor who has just doubled his “To Do” list upon returning and subsequent admissions? I realize you direct your pass to the acquisition of e-mails. Kavips, if this was past history like Obama and cocaine, or Cindy and Percocet, I would be in full agreement. But it is not, it is now, it is the 21st century, and perhaps like the Amish we should accept our consequences, with humility and every effort to restore what was broken, even if it takes another person to get it that way. Gov. Sanford engaged 21st century skills to weave what ultimately tracked him. He can make his choices. He cannot choose his consequences. The man should resign, to limit any further his reign of consequence, since governing these days is not what he chose to do for a protracted amount of time.
I realize I walk a plank probably alone here, when once you have spoken; as it is no surprise the esteem you are held in. But I must as a matter of conscience, not be a fan this time. And that troubles me. But again, we are mortals. Thank you for reading this if you see this.
Joanne, kavips is a romantic and maybe so am I… there is something about Sanford’s mid-life crisis that I totally can understand and even admire him for his comittment; how often in this life do we truly follow our heart?
Nonetheless, he signed up to be Governor, not The Bachelor. So away with him.
I see your comments Joanne, and I agree 100%. Very well stated.
From AP:
“South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday that he “crossed lines” with a handful of women other than his mistress — but never had sex with them.
The governor said he “never crossed the ultimate line” with anyone but Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine at the center of a scandal that has derailed his once-promising political career.
“This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story,” Sanford said. “A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.”
During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he’s trying to fall back in love with his wife.”
Good luck with that. He really is fond of digging holes, isn’t he?
So I guess getting a blowjob is not passing the ultimate line.
Correct. A blowjob is not sex for “Promise Keepers.”
A promises kept on a technicality is still a promise kept.
I want him in office as a visible example of the hypocritical Republicans who sent our debt through the roof, wrecked the WORLD economy and stalled environmental solutions for years.
The next election cycle should finish them.
If we can then get rid of Reid and put in a real leader maybe we can get back on track.
Loved his campaign ads. Do as I say…
Damn, we didn’t win the Watchers Weekly contest. Where did we go wrong?
I’m so sad.
I’d like to point out that I respected your piece enough to nominate it — and that you got votes from a pretty conservative group of voters.
From my perspective, the issue is quite simple. Rightly or wrongly, he has lost a substantial number of people who are willing to support him, place confidence in him, and trust him. A leader needs as many people believing in him or her as possible.
As for resignation, http://www.tinyurl.com/n3vlg3