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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

deber B

Then we absolutely think alike on this, Beth.   The only reason I led with my initial post was because the thread insinuated the republicans and did not mention the democrats.  

I have stated from day one that Sanford should resign.   He has altered his credibility by his own hand.   Further, I stated that the President of the United States, of all people, should not be playing around with a young page in the Oval Office.   He betrayed the American people.   Although he did exit his presidency with a high approval rating, I believe that was directly related to his "bogus surplus" taken from the social security account.   Americans love a surplus but often times they are kept in the dark on how it arrived.    And, finally, I agree that Hillary Clinton earned her opportunity to seek her own place in American leadership and she did.   To divorce Bill Clinton at that time would’ve burned her bridges….she is not dumb.

By deber B on 07/01/2009 3:42 pm
beth willis

I find greater satisfaction in finding the ways we agree, deber B.  Hope you do, too.

Peace and grace

By beth willis on 07/01/2009 5:19 pm
deber B
You are a logical thinking woman.   I agree.
By deber B on 07/01/2009 6:30 pm
James the Game
Sanford isn’t president? (sorry, but I couldn’t resist injecting my corny sense of humor).
By James the Game on 07/01/2009 8:36 pm
Lady Gator
James, thanks for the laugh!  It’s a wonderful relief!  :)
By Lady Gator on 07/02/2009 2:12 pm
S G
DeBurca I don’t think they understand its the religious moralizing and telling everyone else how to live that makes the difference. When your condemning someone else for what they do or loving someone who is the same sex etc you are moralizing to others. They have an issue seeing the difference. I think his wife will come out the winner in all this. His mid life crisis just cost him his lifestyle and probably career.
By S G on 07/01/2009 12:06 pm
deber B
Republicans aren’t "clone", S G, just like all democrats are atheists, gays, lesbians and communists.     We don’t have a problem seeing the difference, we just want it to be an even playing field.   Nothing more nothing less.
By deber B on 07/01/2009 5:12 pm
deber B
"republicans aren’t clones."
By deber B on 07/01/2009 5:13 pm
DeBúrca obj
Actually deber, Republicans pretty much are ‘clone’. They have a right wing moralistic platform and they all vote as a block. No dissenting, no speaking out against their leader, Limbaugh. They most certainly are to be held accountable to their ‘sanctity of marriage’ and ‘family values’ rhetoric and pimping of religion for votes. So when their fellow ‘family values’ soldiers cheat on their wives, either with women OR men, it becomes political fodder. Even the party itself is trying to decide if it isn’t time to cut the moralizing crap since it keeps flying back in their faces.
By DeBúrca obj on 07/01/2009 5:18 pm
deber B
So, is it okay to say that all democrats are atheists, gays, lesbians and communists?    
By deber B on 07/01/2009 6:31 pm
Marjorie C.

DeBurca:   Republicans pretty much are ‘clone’…

Since you are pigeonholing people, which hole do you reserve for Independents.  The Republicans can’t get us out of this mess alone, and we realize that.  A lot of Independents and even Democrats are sliding over.  That is a reality.  That is why there is a rush to pass all these expensive programs…  there will be a limit to the extravagance and I think we’ve reached it.  As soon as a Republican can be elected, this nonsense will be reversed.  I, for one, cannot wait. 

By Marjorie C. on 07/02/2009 8:19 am
deber B
Marjorie, I totally agree with your statements.   No one has any way of knowing how many democrats and independents are fed up with "inexperience" in the White House.   Nothing Obama has done has worked, especially the stimulus and now Tarp 2 Barney Frank wants to spend the capital before it reaches the taxpayer’s hands.   Don’t you just love this "dog and pony show?"
By deber B on 07/02/2009 8:35 am
Dona Howlett

deber B,

Did you re-read your sentence before pressing submit…………I really hope you didn’t mean what you wrote.

"just like all democrats are atheists, gays, lesbians and communists."

Perhaps you meant to write Aren’t instead of are………………If you meant ARE….There’s something drastically wrong with you.;

You ju

 

 

,

D

By Dona Howlett on 07/02/2009 4:59 am
deber B
Sorry if I did not make myself clear…just like all republicans are not Bible thumpers democrats are NOT atheists, gays, lesbians and communists.   My point is one cannot categorize either party as being exactly the same.   Thanks for pointing that out for me.  : )
By deber B on 07/02/2009 6:17 am
Kelly In Texas

Nawwwww….Clinton lied to America…on National TV…"America’s first black President" was given every break from an adoring public…that’s why his approval rating didn’t tank. All about personality there, nothing more.

Sanders is a buffoon. He is a weak livered, testosterone driven, stupid ass. Testosterone knows no political affiliation, so people can just drop the party thing…it doesn’t hold water.

The real story here is the reaction of the wives. Only one has shown the integrity and strength that derserves a high approval rating…and that is Mrs. Sanders.

She is the news…she is the example…she should run for office. She shows the moral fortitude that Hilliary and Edward’s wife both lacked.

By Kelly In Texas on 07/01/2009 12:20 pm