Sanford and Sin: When Will the GOP Give up on Their Claim of Moral Purity?

I always get a good laugh out of observing yet another one of these "family values" type politicians getting caught with his pants down in the town square.

Maybe by the end of the century the GOP will finally figure out that most voters aren't going to hold it a against a male politician if he turns out to be a philandering womanizer. I mean everybody knew this about Clinton and most people didn't care that he was philandering around the White House back when he was president.

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worthless fucking pricks like this who can't keep their shriveled pecker in their pants and do everything they can to break the bonds and vows promised to their wives during their wedding ceremony.

So to keep the heat off themselves and divert responsibility for their cheap immoral actions they blame the gays! Oh but not the cheap Republican ones who are cheating on their wives with other men!

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An important part of the novel is that Dimmesdale is essentially a good person that is tormented by his bad conscience and shame about his own moral cowardice. The GOP does not actually look as if there was any bad conscience and the only shame is in getting caught not in committing the 'sins'.
And, if I remember correctly, Dimmesdale did not preach hypocrisy (although he was tempted to do so) and 'came out' voluntarily in the end, not because he was caught pants-down.

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is no. As long as votes can be squeezed out of a segment of the population that believes in Republican is good, Democrats are bad, the right will continue to hammer this rhetoric to create divisions for their political gain. The same tired old arguments used by both sides to garner political favor will always be played out until legitimate third party representation takes hold in the American system. The impact that claiming the moral high ground used by Republicans has diminished some. However, there will always be those who will either ignore, forget or deny the acts of politicians who "sin" and be persuaded that their "guy" is morally superior to the other. The problem with politicians presenting themselves as morally pure and trying to "out Christian" the opponent is that they are often unable to live up to the Christian definition of sin. I would love to see a good hearted, smart Agnostic with a sense of common deceny who has smoked a little weed, has a beer or glass of wine now and then and is not afraid to admit it become the president someday. As long as America sticks to the two party system, I probably never will.

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One little....Two little.....Three little Indians.....

This is too good to be true.

My schadenfreude is tempered by the sad fact that this guy has a wife who, according to every source, is an absolute gem of a woman. He also has five sons, all innocent victims of this knucklehead's carelessness. God bless them.

My joy should not be directed toward any individual - innocent or otherwise - but to that entire train-wreck of a party. Watching the utter implosion of the GOP, after three decades listening to them moralize about "family values", watching them dismantle the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, enduring their war on the poor and middle class - this is a joy that I can't even put into words.

And to think it started in 1856 with so much promise. That rumbling sound you here is Abraham Lincoln doing somersaults in his grave.

"The Rant"

Tom Degan

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political parties no longer matter.

For some selfish indulgence is a choice for others its in their DNA.

They say if a man cheats on his wife, he'll cheat on anyone.

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she said that she lives by the sanctity of marriage in her actions ha. and rachel maddow showed a campaign clip from 2002 where he pimped out his family and family values to win an election

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It sounds weird, and maybe you've never thought of it this way, but it's a matter of social rank. The power group can criticize and judge everyone else for minor or private matters, while indulging in whatever excesses it enjoys. That means that the lower ranking groups are punished for things like swearing, speaking out of turn, having affairs, getting sick, smoking weed, making payments late, etc., while the higher ranking ones can do what they want with impunity.

The Republicans have neen thinking of themselves as out-ranking everyone else - remember the "we'll tell you what reality is..." line by one of them way back - they define reality for you. And so they'll define morality for you, as well. For you - they themselves are entitled to a different reality.

The other thing that operates is that so many of them operate out of their reptilian brains -pure blind instinct and whatever gets articulated is merely a justifying rationale. This most recent lot of reptiles was so cocky it didn't even feel the need to work out a coherent rationale.

So what you see functioning is two different rule books - one for you and one for the ruling reptile class.

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I've always been amazed that Thomas Jefferson fathered a child by one of his slaves, and yet his political career flourished--suggesting our nation was founded by presumptuous barbarians.

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The holy ones are no better than those "dirty democrats". Sex trumps all else!

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This sort of story, complete with men denying adultery and then breaking down and crying on camera is great free entertainment. We can laugh at Sanford, we laughed at Clinton's denials and then the blue dress, we laughed even more at Jimmy Swaggert.

Men in the public eye, especially those who claim a high moral standing, who destroy themselves for a quick shag or blow job, are setting themselves up as objects of ridicule. At least when they are politicians we are having a good laugh in exchange for paying taxes!

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The Dems have Elliot (take off your black socks when you fuck a good looking hooker) Spitzer, John ($400 haircut) Edwards, and their poster child, Gary ("Funny Business", "Just follow me") Hart.

But Argentina hasn't made the Smut News Circuit since plastered old Ways & Means Chairman Wilbur Mills tumbled into the Tidal Basin with the "Argentinian Firecracker", Fannie Foxx. That was a great story at the time too.

Then there was Nelson Rockefeller, who died in the saddle with Megan Marshack at her NYC townhouse back in the day.

Yup, both sides of the aisle have had their juicy sex scandals, but lately, it's been
the holier-than-thou, family values, puckered at both ends, homophobic, mean spirited fucks like Sandford, David (That's My Cuckolded Wife In The Leopard Print Dress) Vitter, and especially Nevada's Ensign that have been making the news.

Pop those pills, Limbaugh. You need them.

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Seconds into Sandford's news conference it was evident that he is suffering from some serious psychological issues. His rambling comments about morality and his love affair merely confirmed that.

Conservatives -- especially religious conservatives -- are only able to function by compartmentalizing their lives. Most are too intelligent to really believe what they purport to believe, so they hide their real beliefs and feelings behind a wall of respectability to get what they want. The spectacle of an otherwise bright governor kowtowing to Bible-thumping morality police is the perfect example of this syndrome. And Sandford is only the latest to succumb to the stress: Rush Limbaugh, Mark Foley, Bill Bennett, Larry Craig and others come to mind.

But his news conference should not be dismissed as a political gaffe. His Bible-thumping, tobacco-chewing handlers knew exactly what they were doing: They cast Sandford in the role of the prodigal son, the black sheep who sinned but came home to be forgiven. And you wait. The homespun voters of South Carolina, who are accustomed to thinking in the bizarre metaphors of fundamentalist Christianity, will soon forget about Sandford's sins and rally around him once again. (That is, as long as his girlfriend isn't black.)

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.

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Since the right wing has always claimed to be the party of morals and family values, I decided to see if I could stomach Fox "News" for awhile last night to see their take on this. Guess what? Almost no coverage! Every time I looked, they were dissing Obama on either his reaction to Iran's protests or his "socialist" health care plan.

Finally, finally, Bill O'Reilly came on to ever-so-briefly mention Sanford's fiasco. Know what he had to say? Pretty much, "Oh, the Librul media is going to have a field day with this, just you wait and see. We'll deal with THAT tomorrow."

The Liberal Media. That's all he had to say. So all he thinks is that it's time once again to attack the "liberal media" (and liberals in general, I'm sure) - this time, because of Sanford's reinforcement of the truth - that the GOP is a bunch of lying hypocrits. With idiots like O'Reilly and Limbaugh as their true gods.

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...caught with his pants down in front of another woman. It's a given.

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....after all, didn't the holy Rethugs demand that Bill Clinton resign his presidency? But I will not hold my breath due to renown Rethug hypocrisy.

Yeah, Sanford ought to resign, for the good of the party...hehehehehehe

for the good of the party....hehehehehehehehe

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Rethugs always claim they are the party of God. The Pope(s), my religion, always seem to agree with them. Well, I don't agree with any of them.

It seems that if the Dems do it, it just ain't right. But if the Rethugs do it, then it's just peachy keen, fine and dandy. Oh that is as long as they confess it, and it's even better if they have tears in their eyes or a quiver on their lips ala Jimmy Swaggert and/or Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye, that over made up bimbo. Are there names really real--Swaggert and Bakker. Okay, maybe there are people who really have names like that. But I just cannot understand why the Pope(s) love these people so much now when they were all at each others throats since the beginning of time, it seems. Well at least since the days when the pope wouldn't give the King of England a divorce/annulment.

Methinks, they're both wrong and both goofy hypocrites. But, yup, you guessed it: "the beat goes on".

Stupid dumbass bunch of dumb hypocrites!!! They're hypocrites because they think and keep insisting that WE, all of the rest of us --the 240 million Americans who are not them, are the bad people and they are just great and the party of God. I wonder if God knows that. What we are is the stupid people for allowing them and their egregiously slattern hypocrisy to go on and on without attacking them everyday and in every way.

So here is an attack on them, as they go about killing for corporate profits and for truly phony Christian theology. What a bunch of bullshit and phonies.

Lest they forget, their once was a time when they, the Religious Right, and especially my religion stood up for families, the poor and down trodden, the average working parent who sought a living wage to rear their children (clothe, feed, educate and provide medical care, now that's a huge joke!!!). Those times are long gone, they left in the 60's or even earlier when the Popes supported slavery.

Yeah, lets talk about their rampant hypocrisy, and stick it right back in their faces!!! And these hypocrites are the people who have taken over this country beginning with St. Reagen and HOPEFULLY, hopefully ending with Lil' Georgie Bush. These are the people who have sold their souls to Satan for the things they worship, their particular business theology and their particular religious theology.

Every things been stolen, by them. Everything's been turned upside down and backwards. They make reality. It's whatever they say it is, Scalia and Cheney, Bush and all of the Booshes, Rice who loves herself, O'Reilly and Hannity, Limpball and all of the other anti-taxers who hate our government and our country, the Pope and all of his evangelical fundie killers of families, the living people, here in America and Iraq.

Someday mayhap, they will learn that hate never works, and just simply perpetrating more of it still does not work.

OUR America's got nothing left to lose, or as Janis Joplin sang: "freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose".

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...NEVER! As long as their dittoheaded followers follow, they will be hypocrites.

This self righteous bunch has always taken such positions. Be it abortion, family values, religion. These are all positions that you do not have to do anything to put yourself into being right (sic).

The most self righteous position they have is religion, where you now find him hiding. We have suffered enough from the divisive malignancy of belief. Our planet needs a faithectomy.

The only good thing about this affair for Repukes it that is was with a WOMAN, and it did not take place in a restroom. A big step up for them.

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He didn't start crying until he found out his gig was up.
If he was hoping to save his marriage - he would have never went to Argentina - he would have E-mailed his break up.
Funny the first person he claims he hurt was his married mistress, then everyone else, including his wife and kids.
Worse yet he bragged about being on McCains short list of VP's while carrying on this affair- apparently political aspiration take back seat to sexual gratification these days. He didn't think this affair would come out- just like Edwards was beginning to leak?
Heres a lil Hint for the Right Wingers- it's not the sex which gets you in trouble with the public as much as the 'Holier than Thou' attitude you expound.
Vitter and Spitzer are assholes because they were involved with prostitutes, which They claimed to abhor (no pun intended). Craig because he was using a PUBLIC bathroom to elicit sex and maligned Homoesxuals in word and deeds. Edwards because he used the heartwrenching possiblity of his wife dying of cancer to get votes.And Clinton because he already had a long track record of infidelity which was impossible to deny he'd added another notch to his belt.
It's not the Sex, it's the lies,and the claims of being better (moral) than anyone else. Drop the Holier than thou atttiude and most people will let personal issues remain personal.

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dig up a wench...
start an affair...
cry bucketfuls of tears on live tv...
swear to not wander again...
pray to your god for forgiveness...

repeat...

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The irony is the fact that Mitt Romney is probably the most user-friendly,untainted and electable Republican out there.

Here's the problem: the religious bigots who control that stupid party will NEVER, EVER nominate a Mormon.

The national suicide of the GOP is really an amusing thing to watch, is it not?

Freshman Diplomacy 101

Tom Degan

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Kind of makes Bill Clinton look like a choir boy. And that went on for a year and a half. We know who set the stage for these public hangings. It's time for them to pay their dues. ANNA

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...and great timing, too, don't you think? Father's day, and all...

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People from South Carolina don't want any money to stimulate their economy. Instead they want their governor to spend their money on his own stimulation.

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Especially when viewed from the eyes of Rachel Maddow and Campbell Brown.
Rachel was able to keep a straight face long enough to read most of Governor Dipshit's emails to his girlfriend, before commenting on her blushing.
Campbell Brown was so obviously disgusted, she couldn't even read the entire emails, but I got the impression she was making a supreme effort not to break out in hysterical giggles.

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When Will the GOP Give up on Their Claim of Moral Purity?

When they pry moral purity from their cold, dead fingers?

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It's about the (completely staged) ritual of sin and redemption. The tearful apology, the years afterward, working in the "vineyards" (see Chuck Colson), the re-affirmation of "moral values" from the fallen. As long as the fundamentalists, Repubs, MSM and a passive, apathetic electorate get their lurid but ultimately "uplifting" story of sin and redemption, nothing else matters. In an America with no sense of irony, there is no hypocricy. Public groveling is required, however, actual loyalty to one's stated values is not. They're all "saved" anyway, right? No fault, no foul. Jesus has taken care of all that...

They also do not believe in privacy so all this unpleasant business must be conducted in public. Plus that way it's a grand distraction from the piracy they are praciticing in private.

As long as they keep us idly musing about who Gov. Sanford has been diddling, we're not going to be thinking about who is diddling us everyday.

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With reference to the breaking news about Governor Sanford, Gail Collins, a columnist for the New York Times, writes, "Perhaps it is time to rethink the idea of constantly electing middle-aged heterosexual men to positions of high importance." (Read the article here.)
I was recently in a blog discussion with a man who claimed that homosexuality was intrinsically disordered because it "caused" high-risk sexual behavior such as bare-backing. And I thought, "Wait a minute! How do so many unwanted pregnancies occur among teenage girls? And does heterosexuality also "cause" high-risk sexual behavior?"

Now we learn that the governor of South Carolina has risked everything--family, reputation, governorship, perhaps even a bid for the presidency--for a fling with a lover in Argentina.

It looks like high-risk behavior may just be a variant of "human" behavior.

The Bent Angle

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all these righteous Republicans who have public falling from grace in the arms of another woman or man. Maybe this epithet as well as the once divorced ,twice divorced thrice divorced adjective where appropriate would work with Christian conservatives as jesus certainly condemns Pharisees,hypocrites, divorces and moneylenders.

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not now, not ever!

...just in case you were wondering.

#@!

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Actually Sanford wasn't wasnt liked by the Republicans. Fact is many politicians have had lovers on the side. You also have folks like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich who have been married three times who are much more in your face when it comes to moral issues.

As a Libertarian I expect liberals to be free spirits in areas of their lives. Republicans because they have been in your face when it comes to moral issues, I expect to be conservative in all areas of their lives.

Its about walking ones talk.

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They are taking advantage of an intellectual carelessness contained in popular knowledge. They, their think tanks, know that the average man is not distinguishing between individual ethics and social ethics. The is a difference between private morals and social morals.

A person can be quite moral privately and socially immoral. A person can be the opposite. He can have and practice high social values and be privately really poorly behaved. The republicans have played on this. They pretend, quite successfully, that private morals and public morals are one and the same.

This has now come back to bite them. Hooray. As the weaknesses of their private morals get publicized, their claims of high social morals fall into the trap that they set for themselves.

FDR had a mistress. He had high social morals. Harry Truman, as best we can tell, didn't have a mistress. He, too, had high social morals. John Kennedy tomcatted anywhere and everywhere. I think that he was competing with his father. It appears that, had he lived, he would have had high social morals. I sometimes wonder if LBJ had any morals at all. But he did Medicare. That was socially moral. It is the only national health we have had. We have no signs that Jimmy Carter is loaded with moral problems. Jimmy managed to get an FDIC created to protect pension plans. He forced the equal rights amendment for women to a vote. He knew it would fail. He wanted every woman to know where he stood. I think that every woman in the United States knew that Bill Clinton was "a ladies man". They were either flattered or forgave him. They voted for him. He was guiding light on social issues. The articles of impeachment failed. He left office with a high aproval rating.

At some point the electorate is going to have to see that the republicans have been making fools of them. It is not in our self interest to have a president or any public servant with high personal morals and no social conscience. It is the social conscience we want. The other is primarily irrelevant at least to us.

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It is said that the Devil disguises himself as a beautiful woman to entice the rightous. The sperm is wasted on the floor as the devil disappers. Only the Devils laughter
can be heard.

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Please don't misconstrue this as sexist, but I can't think of one woman who actually left their man when he cheated. Are men getting the (unintended) message that they can get away with this stuff because no man ever seems to suffer too badly for it? I say dump the prick!

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Buenos Aires newspaper La Nacion reports that Sanford's girlfriend is Maria Belen Chapur, a 43 year-old bodybuilder and marathon-runner. She and Sanford were often seen last week in Guido's Bar, where "they were all over each other" and nobody was crying. Sra Chapur lives in Palermo (a BA neighborhood).

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geeze, it'd be kewl if they'd get off their moral superiority!

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F'ing hypocrites.

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The sad thing is, the standard is not so tough. Its pretty simple. If you're married, sleep with your spouse.

If you can't do that, then have the integrity to end the marriage.

He failed to have simple integrity. I hope he grabs ahold of the last semblance of honor he thinks he has and resigns.

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about the same time the collective American IQ reaches at least 2 digits i suppose.

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in a state that can't fund unemployment is a perfect example of the hypocrisy of government officials. This guy is choking our schools but, uses public money to fund his sexcapades. I could care less if he loves the woman or not he spent money this state can ill afford for his own pleasure. He is the poster boy for why America is bankrupt in nearly every catagory.

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Why do we even think that an extra marital affair should doom a politician? Why can't we accept sexuality more openly and calmly instead of so judgmentally? I am not in favor of condemning anyone for their expresiions of their sexuality, provided the person is a proper age and it is done consensually. If sanford finds another woman sexually attractive, what relevance does it have in his ability to govern? frankly I tend to trust a sexual person more than others. Just as we want to keep church and state separate, we should keep politics and sex separate. It is merely the purient interest and old fashioned tsk! tsk! plus the absolute need to gossip that too many people love.

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Who said just because 3% or less fail that the morals do not matter? Who said never speak up for morals because you might fail? Who said Churches were only for non-sinners? Who said democrats are secular socialists (I did)?

We have divorce so never defend marriage...we have fornication so never speak of purity.
The sissy secular modern liberals are so pathetic...they have no ethics or morality so they think that gives them a pass to hammer anyone who has if they fail.

The Party of serial adulterers JFK and WJC always has nerve. Always has time to attack so as to rope-a-dope from ever telling America why their secular socialism is superior. They never ever defend their religion of secular socialism with logic or common sense. We are not fooled.

The GOP guys pay and pay and pay for their moral lapses while the democrats are held to no standard at all...we expect no ethics or morals from democrats...why should we?

Morals are inferior to power for the angry secular socialist control freaks. The record is clear.
Sit down and shut up. You have no right to claim any comments on morality. The secular get no seat at the table. The moral have always policed and penalized their own.
Stay in your secular cage.

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