Mark Sanford

     The Governor doth apologize too much, methinks.

     Or so Hamlet’s Queen Gertrude might have said about South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s flurry of pathetic atonements delivered to whoever would look his way after his return from a five-day tryst with his mistress in Buenos Aries.

     He made sappy out-of-place apologies to two cabinet secretaries, which is quite puzzling, as they had nothing to do with the affair. To the head of the State Law Enforcement Division, who had caused an official search for the governor, Sanford said, “I owed it to you, Reggie, for putting you in a bad place.”

     Oh, please, governor, it was his job! How was he hurt?

     Then he apologized to another cabinet member whose staff had unwittingly helped arrange a tryst for the governor while planning a trip for him to South America.

     In my opinion, he doesn’t owe anyone an apology unless he caused that person pain in some way. Synthetic atonement doesn’t wear well on anybody, anywhere, especially when repentance issues from being caught and not from guilt and conviction.

     But giving the appearance of being in need of forgiveness creates the image of being a needy person in general. Needy people always seem like victims. Bingo! VICTIM . . . the magic word, his salvific status.

     Yep, the goob has actually morphed (in his mind) into a victim who deserves our sympathy and he’s playing the role to the hilt. It’s as if he were the center of the universe and while he has the attention he’s going to make the best of it. He’s in love and that trumps all. Nothing else matters. He feels young and free . . . even carefree.

     He thinks he’s poetic, that Maria’s a poem and wife Jenny is prose. He’s wrong on all three assumptions.

Paul

     Addendum: “JS” made the following comment to my previous post about Governor Sanford. I think it merits “above the fold” placement. Thanks JS for your contribution:

      This is such a sad story. Especially for the wife and children. It was a selfish choice to become involved in a relationship outside his marriage and somewhere inside him he had to know that he was forever changing how those who loved him would view him. It cost him more than he probably even yet realizes. His children and wife will never see him in the same light. The public will not either but that is a lesser consequence. My dad taught me that integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. Sanford clearly lost integrity and no longer has the respect of those around him. I doubt the stolen moments with the mistress can make up for that. Maybe it has always been that politicians and even the public in general think that their private life has no reflection on their public life but in my mind, it is who we are in those private moments that measure who we really are.—JS