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Margo Howard | 07/01/2009 8:25 am

Whatever Happened to Discretion?

Margo Howard unleashes on disgraced governor Mark Sanford — and goes into ‘Dear Margo’ mode to provide the South Carolina politician with some advice.
Margo Howard

Editor’s Note: A longtime journalist, Margo Howard went into the family business (her mother was the fabled Ann Landers) in the 1990s as Dear Prudence. Her broad experience and understanding of human nature provide answers for the troubled — and entertainment for everyone else. Margo’s advice column, Dear Margo, appears twice a week — on Thursdays and Fridays — on wowOwow.com.

What’s up with Gov. Mark Sanford? I cannot remember another public confession so loaded with detail. It’s as though he were a "sinner" looking for forgiveness, and we are Oprah. Sanford is making John Edwards’s stonewalling look positively admirable. (You know … it was only one night and the baby isn’t his.)

I heard a reporter from South Carolina saying on NPR that the governor apparently “wanted to talk." I’ll say. We learned the Argentinean bombshell was his "soul mate," that he "had crossed the line before" — but "not the sex line" — on trips out of  the country to unwind with the boys. He went public with this tidbit: "This was a whole lot more than a simple affair. This was a love story."

However … let’s hear it for the little woman. Three cheers for Jenny Sanford who threw him out. How refreshing to see a political wife act like a woman instead of some humiliated helpmate who is often trying to save a political career. No Silda or Hillary she, in effect saying to the public: "If I don’t care, why should you?"

I am trying really hard not to entertain feelings of schadenfreude about love-struck dude being yet another one in a long conga line of Republican moralists who are caught with, well, their pants down. I am frankly embarrassed for the guy. How much more dignified to have sought out a therapist if he had the need to spill? In one of his confessionals he said he had blown up his career, his marriage and the lives of his children. So: what next? Putting on my advice columnist hat I would recommend that he move to Argentina to be with Chapur and become a gaucho, or something. And also that he sit down and shut up.

513 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Libra Lady
Karen, I do know that!!!  Just posting some facts…that’s all!!!!  Just want to see where our tax money goes!!!!!
By Libra Lady on 07/02/2009 4:28 pm
Zera Lee

If you want to imply things, then lets imply that the increase has slowed since the Dems took control. 70% since 2005 but only 50% since 2006. While the article you cited refers to a few specific instances, it does not analyze which party is the most spendy.

The cost of so-called congressional delegations, known among lawmakers as “codels,” has risen nearly 70% since 2005, when an influence-peddling scandal led to a ban on travel funded by lobbyists, according to the data.
By Zera Lee on 07/02/2009 5:29 pm
Alice Alice
Oh, for crying out loud.  Why are we fighting about which cheating husband is better than the others or which wronged wife is more admirable than the rest?  Just tell Mark Sanford to "shut up."  I’m tired of his tearful, juvenille confessions.  Get a therapist or a diary; but don’t use the internet.
By Alice Alice on 07/02/2009 12:01 pm
Susan Thomas

Dear Alice Alice,

I could not have said it better myself!!!! Shut up, governor and please, move to Argentina!! We will not "cry" for you, you pompous idiot.

By Susan Thomas on 07/03/2009 7:12 pm
Kat Jones
the the republican who made it impossible for me to read any futher let me point out your party made a hero out of a man who had been divorced 3 times and was cheating on the third wife. Newt Gingrich is now married to #4 and probably cheating on her too
By Kat Jones on 07/03/2009 6:26 pm
Sally K

Good thoughts, as usual, Margo.  I don’t care if they’re Republicans, Democrats or Whigs, I’m tired of hearing about how their egos got all tied up with their peckers. I’m also tired of listening to people who , clearly, are letting their politics infuence their opinions of any paticular jerk’s behavior. 

All political men have , by definition I believe, egos that are just over the top.  While they may be brilliant statesman, most  are stupid enough to believe  they are so incredibly interesting that women would flock to them if they were simply school teachers, plumbers or automobile mechanics.  Yeah, right. 

Personally, I care absolutely nothing about the sexual behavior of anyone who is not my partner, given the followin restrictions:  is the behavior consensual, is the behavior with adults, is the behavior not interfering with the job I have paid them do?   Anything else is, or in my opinion should be, between these cads and their partners.  

As far as discretion, I am reminded of  a CD I have by the Great Gladys Knight, ‘We had blue lights in the basement and enough sense not to tell what we did when we got down there."  Amen and amen again.  

By Sally K on 07/04/2009 8:21 pm
CT T

Lets see…he spent a total of 13 days with her and he’s calling her his soul mate. Man, wait till he gets to Argentina, not speaking too much Spanish, no career, no kids, no friends (I would hope his Tom Davises of the world would desert him), nobody he knows except her and add to that her children, her family and a country who hates Americans. Yeah, let’s see when they have their first arguments. Think she’s going to trust him to go on trips with the boys? NOT. She’ll probably have him chained to her V. He knows he can’t survive down there, that’s why he came crawling back to his wife.

By CT T on 07/04/2009 9:54 pm