Fool some people

In a remarkable political rebirth, Republican Mark Sanford has been elected back to the South Carolina House. What is the message from the voters when they put a philandering liar and adulterer back in office, a man censured for misusing state funds, who was accused as late as last month for breaking into his ex wife's home when she was out of town?

I think that the message is that the bible belt is not in play. Red states will stay red, blue states will stay blue. They would elect a murderer before they elect a democrat in some of these states.

Play the jesus redemption card, go straight to the office of the first South Carolinian congressional district, unless you have a little side trip scheduled to visit Argentina or the Appalachian Trail first, of course. You folks deserve him.

"A short while before the wedding, when Mark and I were picking readings and vows, Mark told me that he didn't want to use a wedding vow that included the promise to be faithful. He was worried in some odd nagging way, he said, that he might not be able to remain true to that vow. In retrospect, I suppose I might have seen this as a sign that Mark wasn't fully committed to me, and with the benefit of the knowledge I have about Mark now, I could point to this moment as a clear sign of things to come."

"We were all together the day Mark called to tell me that he had more explaining to do. Another woman, it seemed, had come forward and suggested to a member of the press that she had also had relations with Mark, which meant he would likely have to address the accusation with an AP reporter who would be interviewing him later in the day. I was gut-punched all over again. Mark had sworn to me when I'd discovered his secret back in January that Belen was the only "other" woman. Now he explained that there had been nothing much at all with this new woman, nothing he had felt I needed to know about before. Ever businesslike, he wanted to know what I thought he should reveal in the interview. Here again he was asking for my advice instead of first considering how the news might make me feel. Here again he was only really admitting his indiscretions because the woman had come forward, forcing him to come clean. I would soon learn—secondhand from the AP interview—that Mark had had yet more dalliances over the years, but that in his opinion he had not "crossed the line" as he'd done with Belen. When I pressed him for details when I saw him a few days later, I understood fully that his and my definition of an appropriate line were not at all the same."
Jenny Sanford - Staying True