My Two Cents Worth

Earlier this week, when speculations were swirling around the location of Mark Sanford, my opinion was that he had snuck away to some swanky West Coast nip/tuck doc to pretty himself up for his 2012 presidential bid.

One of my life story's top ten WTF moments will be the Wednesday afternoon I woke up and while stumbling down the hall in search of coffee, Jason popped into the hallway and said: "Mark Sanford was in Argentina having an affair."

Now that I've had a day or so to watch the now ever so boringly predictable reactions, here is my two cents worth.

For the rabid Democrats who are screaming "hypocrite" and calling for Sanford's head, stop it.

For the rabid Republicans who are screaming "Clinton" and "forgiveness", stop it.

As adults, let's take this opportunity to step back and look at our behavior. When someone on the "other" side screws up, we jump on it with glee. When someone on "our" side screws up, we back peddle and make excuses.

Just like we do in our own personal lives. We love to talk about personal responsibility, but half the problems in this nation today are due to the fact that all we do is TALK about it. Very few people ever practice it. As soon as we do something wrong, no matter how big or how mundane, we have an excuse for it. Someone, something else influenced us to not to the proper thing. (My favorite was the law and order enthusiast who rear ended another car and blamed the other driver for braking too quickly for him to stop in time because he drove a huge monster truck and it can't stop that quickly. It is called following too closely and it is your personal responsibility to drive safely.)

Now, an interesting slant that has come out of this Sanford mess is the treatment of his wife, Jenny Sanford. When Clinton was caught with his pants down (note: in his office, where he was still working and could be found wink, wink), the Family Values crowd excoriated Hilary for staying with him.

Now that same crowd is out for Jenny Sanford's blood, saying she ISN'T standing by her man. Some are even hinting that she is the source of the leaked emails and dragging out the old woman scorned cliche and claiming this is all her fault.

That is beyond wrong. That is a refusal to assign blame where is belongs. Mark Sanford chose to put his penis in another woman's vagina. Period. There is no excuse/wiggle room/justification.

To try to blame his wife is putting political favor above ethics and morality. To blame her is just another way to try to excuse him.

He was wrong. Clinton was wrong. Every other politician or trusted public figure who has committed adultery is wrong. Just because you identify with one or another doesn't make it acceptable to try to find an excuse for them.

Loki sez: What self-deceptive little monkeys you humans are.