The Argentine Trail

So, we have part 2, coming much too soon after part 1. On Wednesday, as I sat in the dentist’s office with my wife , I watched the painful news conference of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. Since Headline News was the only viewing option, I saw it repeatedly, with and without audio.and without novacaine. It was somehow apropos to be seeing it such a setting, a   place with which we often associate pain.

The apology seemed almost interminable, as one commenter put it. Striking in their absence was his family, for oblivious reasons , one might think But sometimes, one will se evidence of family support in these instances. Here, no Mrs Sanford or children, although he did refer to her often.

This “affair”or at least the expose therof, had elements even  more bizarre than most. Where was the governor for almost 5 days? Staff doesn’t know, wife doesn’t know, political aides don’t know. Well, when we knew, it was a bombshell. He wasn’t hiking the Appalachian Trail as he had hinted but paying a visit( a last visit, we don’t know) to see Maria Belen Shapur, the Argentine beauty with whom he had had a year long affair. Apparently, his  his wife had known about the affair a few months, but evidently, few others.

The consensus of what I am reading indicates that it is almost how the news came out, rather than the news itself. So said Bonnie Erbe in U S News and Report online. She was not alone in her thinking. Others  said that it  reinforces the truth that private morality is in itself not a needed virtue  for politicians.

So, marriage in a shambles, wife says career in his problem, not hers, says he will not resign, ad nauseaum. One poll indicates 60% of South Carolinians  think he should resign. Certainly, Lt Governor Andre Bauer is numbered among them.

And, oh the fodder for the late night guys. It makes me glad that  I don’t watch them. But, on the other  hand, Sanford  did ask for media ridicule and boy is he getting it via you tube and elsewhere. If you care, our old buddy Letterman as well as Kimmel, Stewart and others have made hay.

Not a good week for the Republicans, but hopefully, someone, somwhere will learn and benefit from events of the past few days.