ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style2 { font-size: x-large; } .style3 { text-align: left; } .style4 { font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } .style5 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> Sanford Self-Destructs</b></font><p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright June 24, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="style2">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span><span class="style5">D</span>isplaying a sick case of midlife crazies, South Carolina s 49-year-old governor Marshall Clement  Mark Sanford Jr. joined a growing list of elected officials whose sexual obsessions make them unfit for public office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Sanford, who resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors Leadership Association, should immediately resign from the South Carolina statehouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Disappearing before Fathers Day, Sanford was AWOL from his official duties, telling his staff he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail, when he rendezvoused for his last tango in Buenos Aires with his Argentine mistress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Another rising star in the GOP bites the dust, joining only last week Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), whose dirty love triangle dashed his hopes of presidential run in 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Like Ensign, Sanford s problems stem from not from his affair but the incredibly bad judgment that led to his downfall.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>When New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer went down soliciting high-priced call girl<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Ashley Alexandra Dupré March<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>12, 2008, he faced the microphones utterly humiliated with his forlorn Harvard lawyer wife Silda Wall by his side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Spitzer s 85-year-old real estate tycoon father, Bernard, would have traded his fortune and lived in the Bronx to escape the disgrace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Sanford and Spitzer both believed their narcissism provided magical invisibility to the media, or in Spitzer s case, the FBI tracking the flow of money from clandestine bank transfers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Sanford disappeared Thursday, June 18, fueling rampant speculation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When he arrived from Argentina at Atlanta s Hartsfied-Jackson International Airport he told his hometown newspaper  The Slate, he wanted to do something  exotic, flying to Argentina. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span>There was no mention of whom he met or what he did down under.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>When Sanford s whereabouts were still in doubt,  The State, obtained secret e-mails to an unidentified mistress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love you tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you hold yourself [or tow magnificent parts of yourself] in the faded glow of the night s light but hey, that would be going into sexual details, Sanford wrote on official government time before his jaunt to Buenos Aires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Going AWOL, without any transition plan, reveals how Sanford s peccadillo clouded his thinking, eclipsed rational judgment and left himself and the state of South Carolina in jeopardy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Realizing he was caught red-handed, Sanford joined Spitzer, and, more recently, Ensign, facing the press for a contrived mea culpa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> What I did was wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Period, said Sanford, manning up.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Telling the press June 24,  I ve been unfaithful to my wife, admitting he spent the last five days  crying in Argentina, apparently knowing the mess he d be returning to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>If he really spent five days crying, he s probably suffering from a mood disorder or some other mental condition making him unfit for office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>His constituents and the South Carolina legislature need him to take responsibility for grossly mismanaging his duties and step down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While it s OK to apologize, phony excuses don t undo gross acts of professional negligence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Sanford, as a young congressman from South Carolina, voted in 1998 for Articles of Impeachment against former President Bill Clinton, for  lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Lies, Lies, Lies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>That&#39;s all we get from his staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>That s all we get from his people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>That s all we get from him, said state Sen. Jake Knotts (Rep. W. Columbia).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Sanford s malfeasance stems not from his affair but from his lies and dereliction of duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> He left the state unattended, said Columbia resident Glenn Mitchell, echoing the views of legislators that the governor showed a lack of concern for the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> There s nothing left to save, said State Rep. Todd Rutherford (D-Columbia), calling for Sanford s resignation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> There is no reason for him to remain as governor, reflecting the collective disgust sweeping the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Expecting elected officials or voters to  forgive and forget totally ignores the unforgivable lapses of judgment that warrants Sanford s immediate dismissal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Consumed with sexual obsession, the governor put his own sickness before his constitutional duties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While such problems deserve professional help, he must solicit such services not as governor but as South Carolina citizen, resigning his post immediately.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Sanford s problems are symptomatic of the kind of personalities that too often intrude into politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Elected officials must be held to higher standards not of morality necessarily but of professionalism and rational judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Reckless behavior has no place in elective office responsible for managing the ship of state and well-being of taxpayers to whom they re accountable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I hurt a lot of different folks, said Sanford, not realizing that, above all, he hurt himself, someone with so much promise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Like Spitzer, whose obsession with call girls destroyed his career, Sanford became a victim of his own narcissism, getting too much mileage out of cheap thrills, not considering the consequences of his self-desctructive behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>For the prophet of fiscal conservatism and family values, Sanford gave his the GOP another black eye, blurring the distinction he likes to make with Democrats.</p> <p class="style3"> &nbsp;<span class="style4">About the Author</span></p> <p class="style3"> &nbsp;<b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet </a>and <a href="books.htnl">Operation Charisma</a>.</p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Homene.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>