I am generally for staying out of the marital affairs of people, whether public figures or not. BUT they (social conservatives) open themselves up to scrutiny when they keep going on about the sanctity of marriage and "family values" and such, only to be caught with their dick in the cookie jar. If a politician who has made such a big deal out of intervening in the personal lives of others gets caught, I laugh.
It's clear males are just not suited to this line of work, biologically. They simply cannot handle the power. And I'm not so sure about them voting, either.
Wow, Australian politics is so boring compared to this! Although there is a long history of the press just backing off from this kind of stuff. We have an openly gay Minsiter and another high-profile party leader, and it's just not an issue.
Would like to see some of them being caught out as total hypocrites though...
I hadn't seen the news since much earlier in the day when I got to my folks' place and got The Sanford News. Understand, my fam is mega-liberal and we live for this shit; my stepmother literally could barely contain herself from laughing. She took perverse and hilarious glee in revealing to me THE MISTRESS. At first I thought she was merely doing salacious speculation and honestly thought it could not possibly be true. Supposed to be hiking the Appalacian Trail in reflective solitude, and instead in fucking Argentina with a mistress? Come on...
YOU CANNOT WRITE THIS SHIT, IT IS TOO GOOD.
Aside from that, I thought the emails to his mistress were awfully sexy and romantic for a milquetoast Repub, though I guess I should have learned by now that they do dirty in ways we'd never suspect. Gov Sanford, who knew? Hypocrite's a fuckin' poet.
Seeing it all laid out like this makes me realize how motherfucking ridiculous it is. I think Paterson's was the worst. He was like day one, here is an inventory of all the places I cheated on or was cheated on by my wife, itemized recitation of drugs taken, and video montage of impure thoughts. Save it for your motherfucking priests, people! Is there really a problem with saying, it's a private matter, let's focus on passing laws? Who keeps that from being the end of the conversation?
am I the only one... today when I was listening to NPR and they went to "breaking news" and it was about someone's affair, I was sort of annoyed, I was expecting it to be about something a little more ... breaking.
@vamvaki_poulaki: I see it as big news in that it may affect the political future of Sanford, whose name was being batted around as a potential GOP presidential nominee for 2012.
Step 1: Don't admit it. Lie. A lot. And really stupidly and recklessly. ie- I'm going hiking in the appalachian mountains, nah, just kidding, I'm going to go write some stuff, away from my sons. Actually, I went to Argentina just to drive along the coast of Buenos Aires. Nah. I have a close friend there that I am having an affair with.
Step 2: When the house of lies crashes, talk about God a lot. In ways that most normal people can't follow. Bring His name into each sentence at least three times. Then blame everything on Him ("In God's vision I try to walk. But God tested me, God made me fail. His fault for testing me).
Step 3: Talk about how fabulous your wife and kids are. Ad nauseum. Use a lot of God talk here, too. And TONS of self-recrimination-but a tiny bit of blame here too. (...My family is perfect, a perfect shiny gem of god... I wouldn't have had an affair on these perfect Godlike beings had the stimulus package been rejected".
Step 4: Start wrapping up the self recrimination, and jump on the looking forward bandwagon. All should be forgiven with that much self flagellation. In the future, should anyone ever bring up the affair, brag about how much blame you took, and how much God helped you heal.
Step 5: Finally admit the affair was with an 18 year old of the same sex. Go back to step 1.
@lillywolf: I've thought Edwards apology was the worst. I've hoped that Elizabeth gelded him in private. He was so smug about the whole apology. As if he could do it in a cool, ironic way. Which, again, means he just doesn't get what a complete fuck-wit he was. (Dude, I gotta say Elizabeth Edwards is one cool woman which automatically puts Edwards on the universe's shit list)
I don't really require marital fidelity from my elected leaders. Bill Clinton beat whatever puritanical impulses I had out of me early. It wasn't easy loving (in a voter-fan-girl kinda way) that man in the Bilble Belt. So, I don't much care about the sex. I care about the hypocrisy.
That said, I enjoy it when Republicans try and fail to have discreet, crazy sex. Cracks me right the hell up. It makes sense, they try so hard to pretend they don't do things like that that when they do.... On one of the news channels a Repub. pundit was, hypothetically, asking if they should abandon the family values platform b/c Repubs have difficulty practicing them. He then went on to ask if they should abandon the pro-life movement b/c Repubs have abortions. He seemed to think that it was ridonkuolous that the platform should match the politico.
Those people (the ones who expect you to behave in a certain manner- like, You were the one who had sex -therefore you must carry that baby. Rape? Incest? Sorry, your womb is not your own) won't ever get it.
P.S. They are all dicks, though. Including Bill Clinton. You do not cheat on a spouse. You do not subject a person you once loved to ridicule, public humiliation, and STDS simply because you want to have sex with someone else. Divorce them. Or have an open marriage. Whatever. Self-centered dicks cheat.
@lolacat: I wonder if Sanford was trying to repair the Republican image of failed discreet, crazy sex... I mean, Ensign's confession was pretty tame, by conservative standards, and Sanford might have felt that the constituency would be disillusioned by someone who only had sex with another married woman.
Confessing that he went to Argentina, though... that is gonna energize the base.
The way things go with politicians around here, does anyone else live in mortal terror that some day we'll find out Barack cheated on Michelle? I've actually thought about it, and have decided to assume that it happened during that rocky period in their marriage that they always talk about.
Cause him being in politics, it seems like there's basically a 0% chance he's been faithful.
@escapefromny: You know what? If Barack Obama, dreamboat POTUS extraordinaire, DID cheat, I still wouldn't care. Listen here, politicians: I do NOT care about your sexing unless you're doubling your mistress' salary, say, or leaving the country without a security detail, or perhaps checking out the ol' kiddie porn. I get a little crabbier when you're one of the ones who's always bitching about the sanctity of opposite marriage, but otherwise, you can keep your consensual, law-abiding sexytimes to yourselves. Seriously.
I love the women who look like they're about to kick some serious ass. If my (hypothetical) husband dragged me to a press conference where he was confessing to cheating on me, I would so have that "I will cut you" face.
As long as there have been politicians, there have been political sex scandals. But recently, it just got juicier....
And generally, I still don't care...unless you are a hypocrite, disapear on the job for a few days, or put the possibility of electing a Democrat as President at risk.
At first I was upset that they interrupted One Life to Live with this asshattery, but the I was was like "ooh! adultery! this fits right in!" Especially because me and my friends had been coming up with theories for what his "disappearance" meant.
@andonthatnote, JOC: This is better than ANYTHING soap opera writers could come up with. A good sex scandal, especially with crying, can sate your drama desires any day.
@Penny: I was only coming up with people like Princess Diana and Catherine the Great, but Jez article written around the time of the Spitzer thing referenced this newsweek article
06/25/09
06/24/09
06/24/09
Would like to see some of them being caught out as total hypocrites though...
06/25/09
06/24/09
06/24/09
06/25/09
06/24/09
YOU CANNOT WRITE THIS SHIT, IT IS TOO GOOD.
Aside from that, I thought the emails to his mistress were awfully sexy and romantic for a milquetoast Repub, though I guess I should have learned by now that they do dirty in ways we'd never suspect. Gov Sanford, who knew? Hypocrite's a fuckin' poet.
06/24/09
06/24/09
06/24/09
06/25/09
06/24/09
Step 2: When the house of lies crashes, talk about God a lot. In ways that most normal people can't follow. Bring His name into each sentence at least three times. Then blame everything on Him ("In God's vision I try to walk. But God tested me, God made me fail. His fault for testing me).
Step 3: Talk about how fabulous your wife and kids are. Ad nauseum. Use a lot of God talk here, too. And TONS of self-recrimination-but a tiny bit of blame here too. (...My family is perfect, a perfect shiny gem of god... I wouldn't have had an affair on these perfect Godlike beings had the stimulus package been rejected".
Step 4: Start wrapping up the self recrimination, and jump on the looking forward bandwagon. All should be forgiven with that much self flagellation. In the future, should anyone ever bring up the affair, brag about how much blame you took, and how much God helped you heal.
Step 5: Finally admit the affair was with an 18 year old of the same sex. Go back to step 1.
06/24/09
06/24/09
06/24/09
06/24/09
That said, I enjoy it when Republicans try and fail to have discreet, crazy sex. Cracks me right the hell up. It makes sense, they try so hard to pretend they don't do things like that that when they do.... On one of the news channels a Repub. pundit was, hypothetically, asking if they should abandon the family values platform b/c Repubs have difficulty practicing them. He then went on to ask if they should abandon the pro-life movement b/c Repubs have abortions. He seemed to think that it was ridonkuolous that the platform should match the politico.
Those people (the ones who expect you to behave in a certain manner- like, You were the one who had sex -therefore you must carry that baby. Rape? Incest? Sorry, your womb is not your own) won't ever get it.
P.S. They are all dicks, though. Including Bill Clinton. You do not cheat on a spouse. You do not subject a person you once loved to ridicule, public humiliation, and STDS simply because you want to have sex with someone else. Divorce them. Or have an open marriage. Whatever. Self-centered dicks cheat.
I have stepped off my soapbox.
06/24/09
Confessing that he went to Argentina, though... that is gonna energize the base.
06/24/09
06/24/09
Cause him being in politics, it seems like there's basically a 0% chance he's been faithful.
06/24/09
06/25/09
06/24/09
06/24/09
And generally, I still don't care...unless you are a hypocrite, disapear on the job for a few days, or put the possibility of electing a Democrat as President at risk.
06/24/09
06/24/09
06/24/09
06/24/09
06/24/09
06/24/09
[www.newsweek.com]
Here's the jez article: [jezebel.com]
06/24/09
06/24/09
06/24/09