Is everyone as excited about Mark Sanford’s political rebirth as I am?
I could have sworn Hiking The Appalachian Trail was a tag here but I guess not.
Reader Interactions
68Comments
Comments are closed.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
I really should read my own blog.
I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.
Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.
If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.
Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.
How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.
Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.
Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?
Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.
Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.
Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?
If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.
The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.
Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.
Their freedom requires your slavery.
New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.
My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.
Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.
Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero
Republicans do not pay their debts.
The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.
If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.
There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.
Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?
You are here: Home / Who can say what led us to this miracle we found?
PsiFighter37
If Stephen Colbert’s sister can pull this off, it would be amazing. I think the district is too Republican, but it will be interesting to see how she does and if the DCCC decides to put any money into the race.
Zifnab25
We’ll see if his rebirth gives us another look under the scandal rug. More likely, everyone will be too busy poo-pooing the idea of minimum wage and pre-school funding to revisit the Gov with the Latin Love.
Face
I see “Sandford” and now I gots Red Foxx on the brain.
GregB
Mark Sanford, a no non-sense conservative Republican who likes to get a little strange on the side.
But for the grace of God.
shortstop
I think it was Riding the Argentinian Tail.
I don’t know why they let me out in public either.
Doug Galt
@shortstop:
I forgot she was from Argentina. I could have titled this “She’s Miss Buenos Aires”
PeakVT
Cole heartily approves of FPers creating new categories. Really. Give it a try.
pamelabrown53
Well, after all someone has to fill Jim DeMint’s hiking boots.
shortstop
@Doug Galt: There will be other chances, my friend. There will be other chances.
Egypt Steve
It’s a conundrum, I do declare! Do you want to see sleezoids of his ilk bounce back so you can kick them while they’re up, or do you want to see them ruined so you can kick them while they’re down? Personally I could probably go either way.
Baud
Did he marry his Latin lover? But for the fact that he had a wife and kids, it was kind of a romantic story.
MikeJ
I think Garmin makes a tracking collar. Somebody needs to donate one to him, in case he disappears and becomes unreachable again.
Amir Khalid
As I recall it, Mark Sanford didn’t just leave South Carolina. He told no one where he was going — lied about it at first, in fact; failed to hand over his job responsibilities to his next in command; and was incommunicado while in Argentina. How does he still have any credibility with voters?
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
It depends on how well he can articulate his hatred for Obama.
MikeJ
@efgoldman:
Three day weekend is the worst possible time to change anything. Unless you don’t want to enjoy your weekend. Tuesday mornings are the best for major changes. You’re already awake and at work, you have all day to troubleshoot and can roll it back if you have to.
BC
@Amir Khalid: He’s a Republican. ‘Nuff said.
PsiFighter37
@Amir Khalid: If you say you’ve had a chat with God, you’re generally all good if you’re a Republican. Of course, no one ever asks to see a transcript of the conversation.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Newt Gingrich won South Carolina. Case closed.
cmorenc
How appropriate that South Carolina’s First Congressional District (a run for which is the “political rebirth” Mark Sanford seeks) includes Horry County (Myrtle Beach) aka the “Redneck Riviera, a place with a history of um…baroque politics, such as ex-Congressman John Jenrette, who had sex with his wife Rita behind a pillar on the Capitol steps in Washington, and who was later convicted of bribery. However, the First District stretches down the seacoast to also include the more genteel antebellum/naval city of Charleston, so it will be kind of interesting to see how Sanford’s attemted “rebirth” plays out: Sunday morning vs Saturday night Bible Belt sort of scenario.
cmorenc
People in the Bible Belt understand about Saturday night vs Sunda morning. They understand letting it hang out quite a bit on Saturday night, so long as you don’t do anything so bad you can’t show your face in church Sunday morning. If you can’t, then you’ve got some repenting to do for awhile before you get back in the good graces of anyone who wasn’t a co-conspirator in your too-excessive escapade Saturday night. Hard to say whether Mark Sanford has arrived at the point where adequate repentence has been shown and accepted by enough of the electorate of the First District.
Mustang Bobby
A friend of mine who once lived in the district he last represented in Congress said that the people there will go for the humble redemption line like hogs at a trough. Jesus saved him, amirite?
Sly
I’m more excited about Ben Carson, who seems to be developing a political career out of griping about “political correctness” for twenty minutes at the National Prayer Breakfast. Maybe next he’ll complain about poor role models for young women, like Murphy Brown and Madonna, and how gangsta rap is responsible for all the violence in the inner cities.
Haydnseek
I just can’t get over the fact that he bears an uncanny resemblance to a Foster Farms chicken…….
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@cmorenc:
He’s tanned, rested and
randyready.Onkel Fritze
@cmorenc: Kinky public sex with his wife? How unusual.
Robin G.
I want to see Sanford’s ex publically kneecap him. IIRC she’s still quite bitter about the whole thing. (Can’t blame her.)
shortstop
@efgoldman: What is this three-day weekend of which you speak? Oh, wait, I get it. FEDERAL EMPLOYEE LEECH! MILLSTONE AROUND HARDWORKING TAXPAYERS’ NECKS! DON’T TREAD ON…just kidding. Enjoy your day.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
I was just catching up my daily calendar (“365 Wrongs from the Right”) and, for Feb 15 the entry was:
Not bad, really, especially for a soulless Republican.
flukebucket
@MikeJ:
Or better yet, implant a chip in his forehead.
schrodinger's cat
DougJ@top
I wrote a post about MoU with a miracle in its heading!
gene108
@Amir Khalid:
IOKIYAR
Explains a lot in American politics.
Also, too Jesus forgives everyone for their sins and Republicans being Christians can embrace Jesus’ forgiveness for their sins. If Jesus has forgiven a politician for some extramarital improprieties, who are voters to object?*
*Unlike the Jew Anthony Weiner, for example, who will never be forgiven for his sins because he refuses Jesus and thus shoulders the wrath of voters.
schrodinger's cat
Test
schrodinger's cat
I is being moderated. HALP!
The Ancient Randonneur
When the Sanford announcement first came to light several weeks ago someone got a comment from his first wife. Shorter ex-Mrs Sanford: He got some ‘splainin’ to do. Rumors back in December were that his former spouse might run against him but the FSM doesn’t love us that much as she knocked down any chance of that happening almost immediately.
Amir Khalid
@Robin G.:
@Robin G.:
Wasn’t there talk, at one point, of his ex-wife running against him herself? In any case I’d have thought that the prospect of her reminding everyone what a shit he is would kill any political hopes he still had.
Chris
@efgoldman:
That really depends who you are. Bill Clinton did a public mea culpa and I seriously doubt if most of them bought it. Let’s just say that as long as you’re part of the tribe, pretty much everything’s forgivable. (The theological argument of “faith not acts” gives them the philosophical backing for it – e.g, “nothing you do matters, all that matters is whether or not you accept Jeebus” – “accepting Jeebus,” in context, meaning being part of their tribe, because they have a monopoly on the True Jeebus).
Ash Can
I would be, if his ex-wife runs against him. Wasn’t that a possibility at one point?
Chris
@cmorenc:
Based on my college experience with fundiegelicals, there’s also a fairly sizable faction for whom sinning is a routine business but accomplished with a wink, a nod, and an understanding that you don’t tell the pastor. (Anecdotal + one case scenario, of course. I’m sure there’s quite a few other cases where the pastor is happily in on it).
You could write a book about the central role of hypocrisy and double standards in Christian fundamentalist life. And people probably have.
Anoniminous
South Carolina. Too small for a republic but the right size for an open air lunatic asylum.
Ash Can
@The Ancient Randonneur: OK, that answers my question. Rats.
Cacti
Also too, I saw that current SC guverner Nikki Haley was named as one of three “other women” in the divorce proceedings of a prominent SC lobbyist.
kc
@cmorenc:
Actually, it no longer includes Myrtle Beach, as of the last redistricting – Myrtle Beach just sent one of its own Republicans, Tom Rice, to DC. Rice is a tax lawyer and is kind of dull, considering his home town.
The Red Pen
@Amir Khalid:
(R)
japa21
As has already beenj commented on, forgiveness for his sexial sins a Republican. Thus, reliving that part of the escapade is not going to have much impact.
However, dereliction of duty is something else all together. Any competent Dem candidate would make that an issue.
trollhattan
@BC:
Not to mention he’s the happiest person on the planet that Mikie Jackson died. The timing was a thing of beauty in how it banished the Sanford story to page fourteen.
I still love how unapologetically pissed his wife was.
Villago Delenda Est
Sanford is a vile sack of shit unfit for any elected office, as his most important, relevant crime the “Hiking the Appalachian Trail” weekend was going AWOL from his position of Governor of South Carolina without bothering to tell anyone on his staff, much less the wife he was cheating on.
grandpajohn
@efgoldman: well since the election is yet to be held, we don’t know if they do.
grandpajohn
@Ash Can: Could be, at last count there were 16 announced candidates in the rep primary.
MattR
@Villago Delenda Est: If voters are gonna be pissed, I think that is the reason. Otherwise I buy into Bill Maher’s opinion that this won’t hurt Sanford too much because it was true love (they are currently engaged) and not just a sleazy affair based on sex. That probably makes it more shitty for his wife and children but I also think it makes it more understandable and acceptable to the public.
grandpajohn
@Robin G.: Probably because she was the brains (and money) behind his political rise
Kyle
“Your hips are as beautiful as upper-class tax cuts, your skin as soft a touch as me meeting a corporate lobbyist. Your hands remind me of throwing people off the welfare rolls, your lips as swollen as my Penatgon budget proposal, your thighs as thin as the education provided by South Carolina’s schools. I love you as much as I hate the gays and the blah people.”
grandpajohn
@Amir Khalid: being a shit can sometimes be a positive in SC politics
Beth
A good liberal friend of mine just attended a breakfast with most of the candidates in this race. Sanford struck him as a very conservative, but not wingnut crazy, Republican. Friend thinks Sanford will have a very hard time rousing the base compared to the other numbnuts who are running.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Erick, Son of Erick, has determined that Sanford is acceptable because DEMOCRATS! and thus he has endorsed his run for office.
Anyone surprised? Not me.
Anya
Mark Sanford was a shitty wingnut governor but him falling in love with a woman should only concern his family.
Cacti
@grandpajohn:
Fix’t
danielx
I can’t say I’m excited about it, but I do sense comedy gold in the near future.
If it’s not it ought to be, although I believe Two Wetsuits and a Dildo would be better. You know, as a kind of catch-all tag for mondo bizarro Republican sexual hijinks.
Another Halocene Human
@Cacti: Oh, Nikki Nikki. Awaiting the glorious Wonkette post *rubs hands, cackles*.
Robin G.
@Anya: Agreed, but as others have mentioned, the more significant part of it is that he vanished to Argentina for several days without telling anyone where he was going and leaving no one in charge of his state. (During hurricane season, no less!)
Another Halocene Human
@Onkel Fritze: He could only get it up if he thought the solons of power were watching.
Robin G.
@Amir Khalid: God does not love us that much.
shortstop
@Anya: Him disappearing for days without anyone on his staff knowing where he was, on the other hand, should concern every citizen he ostensibly was serving.
Another Halocene Human
@efgoldman: Next one’s good Friday. Damned if I know why the market takes that day off.
It must be that near-vestigial organ of shame.
Note: contra the aspersions of anti-Semitic forgeries, Presbyterians were totally on top of and in charge of that shit back in the day.
If I were a Jewish broker I would gleefully spend the day playing in Forex and Asian markets as revenge for losing a trading day on the Day of Atonement.
SensesFail
@Anya:
Not if he plans to run as a representative of the “family values” party.
Nutella
He says he wants to make government more accountable.
Heh.
andy
Turns out “values voters” don’t care who’s fucking whom as long as it’s one of their own doing the fucking: the spoils of war, etc, etc, etc…
RoonieRoo
@efgoldman:
Do not underestimate the power of the Jimmy Swaggart defense (“AH WUZ WEAK!!!!”), especially in the South, and especially if he can somehow put the blame on her. Men are inherently saintly, you see, but are powerless to resist feminine wiles; thus, it’s all the woman’s fault.
A not-insubstantial portion of church-going voters in that region will eat that shit right up.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@RoonieRoo:
Dammit, I didn’t check the name before hitting Submit. That last comment was from me, not RoonieRoo.