Wednesday, June 24, 2009

"A Conservative Government Is An Organized Hypocrisy."

This post's title comes from British Prime Minister and novelist Benjamin Disraeli.

With South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford back from Argentina and admitting to an extramarital affair, there are these reminders of hypocrisy from
ThinkProgress.com:

While serving as a U.S. congressman, (South Carolina governor) Mark Sanford was incredibly critical of his colleagues’ marital misdeeds, including the affairs of former congressman Bob Livingston and President Bill Clinton:

“The bottom line, though, is I am sure there will be a lot of legalistic explanations pointing out that the president lied under oath. His situation was not under oath. The bottom line, though, is he still lied. He lied under a different oath, and that is the oath to his wife. So it’s got to be taken very, very seriously.” [Sanford on Livingston, CNN, 12/18/98]

“We ought to ask questions…rather than circle the wagons for one of our tribe.” [Sanford on how the GOP reacts to affairs, New York Post, 12/20/98]

“I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally (to resign). I come from the business side. If you had a chairman or president in the business world facing these allegations, he’d be gone.” [Sanford on Clinton, The Post and Courier, 9/12/98]

“The issue of lying is probably the biggest harm, if you will, to the system of Democratic government, representatives government, because it undermines trust. And if you undermine trust in our system, you undermine everything.” [Sanford on Clinton, CNN, 2/16/99]

Sanford has also been an opponent of same-sex marriage, saying in 2004, “As Jenny and I are the parents of four little boys, we’ve always taught our kids that marriage was something between a man and a woman.” [The Post and Courier, 2/11/04]

Gov. Sanford, I am not an expert on matrimony, but I was unaware that the man in your ideal marriage can leave his wife and fly to Buenos Aires to hook-up with his mistress. Is that a brand-new definition, or just a Southern thang...

BeltwayBlips: vote it up!
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