What a couple of weeks it’s been for the GOP (again).
Senator Ensign
On Tuesday, June 16, 2009, Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada confessed to having an affair with a female campaign staffer who was married to one of Ensign’s office staffers. Not only that, there are some significant ethics violations involved and not just the obvious ones.
Ensign hired his mistress’s 19-year-old son as a “research policy consultant” at the NRSC (over which Ensign is in charge), doubled his mistress’s campaign committee salary, and doubled her pay for her service on Ensign’s PAC. When the affair ended, Ensign fired both his mistress and her husband, and the son’s service at the NRSC ended at the same time. Ensign got the husband a job at a company on whose board Ensign is the chairman. The husband left that job to go on to another job with a company whose owners are very large supporters of the Senator.
There are serious questions as to whether Senator Ensign violated campaign finance rules and Senate ethics rules by being involved with staff members and effectively paying them off. This wasn’t just an affair between Ensign and another woman, it involved a considerable amount of Republican campaign and PAC money.
Senator Ensign’s wife knew about the affair for a year before his public confession. Why he confessed now my have to do with the mistress and her husband going public, or that they may have been trying to extort money from him.
Governor Sanford
On Wednesday, June 24, 2009, Governor Mark Sanford, Republican of South Carolina confessed to having an affair with a woman in Argentina after disappearing 6 days earlier. No one knew where he was; not his staff, not the Lieutenant Governor, and not his wife. Two told differing stories about why he would have just gone off without letting anyone know where he was; hiking and time alone were the excuses from his staff, writing something and taking care of some tasks that had ended up on the back burner were the excuses from his wife.
His wife had known about the affair for 5 months prior to Governor Sanford’s clandestine trip to Argentina over Father’s Day weekend. He left on Thursday and returned on Wednesday morning. She had kicked him out of the house two weeks before that. She and the children are living at their beach house while the Governor is living in the SC Governor’s mansion. They have apparently been in marriage and family counseling for 5 months.
I actually feel a little sorry for Governor Sanford (not significantly; he lied to his wife, family, SC government, his staff, etc. and he broke his wedding vows). He seems truly emotionally torn between his family and his mistress. Unlike others, he seems to have really fallen in love. This wasn’t an affair to confirm his political virility or give him an adrenaline rush. This wasn’t using prostitutes. He and this woman had been friends for 7 years before a romantic component entered the picture during the 8th year of their friendship. The mistress lives in Argentina, so it could not have been just about sex, though it is clear from some emails that they were sexually involved. They were physically too far apart for that to be the primary part of their relationship. The emails are sexually explicit, but quite romantic and sensual as well.
The saddest thing about Governor Sanford’s affair? He and his wife have 4 young boys, looking to be around age 10 and younger.
Governor Sanford stepped down as the chairman of the Republican Governors Association. He hasn’t stepped down as Governor. But has he come completely clean? Has he stopped lying to everyone?
Apparently, no. Governor Sanford revealed some more details on June 30 that he saw his mistress in New York City 2-3 times and 3 times in Argentina over the past year. One trip to New York was to end the relationship, but it didn’t end. He spent multiple nights seeing her whenever they could be together.
He also admitted to some pretty serious flirting with 5 other women, but “never crossed the sex line”, whatever that means. It would depend on your definition of what sex is.
He calls his mistress his soul mate, and professes to be trying to fall back in love with his wife.
Governor Sanford, you are obviously head-over-heels in love with your mistress, and no matter how hard you try, you cannot fall in and out of love at will. My advice to you is to leave your wife, get the best custody deal you can to see your sons, move your mistress to South Carolina, and marry her as soon as your divorce is final. Or you could move to Argentina and see your sons less often. As a divorced parent myself, your decision will depend on visitation with your boys. Your career is over, so you might as well be happy and let your wife move on with her life.
Past GOP Indiscretions
Previously, Republican Senator David Vitter, the junior Senator from Louisiana, confessed to using prostitutes in both Washington, D.C. and in Louisiana. Republican Senator Larry Craig plead guilty after being caught in a public sex sting in an airport mens room.
Granted, both sides of the isle in Congress have extramarital affairs. Presidents of both parties have affairs, too. We all know it and can name several culprits. You can have a lot of personal failings and still remain in public service. It’s embarrassing and humiliating when your dirty little secret comes out, but you can get on with your life and your job.
Unless…You’re A Hypocrite
What sets these men apart from their fellow governing philanderers is they suffer from terminal cases of hypocrisy.
These men are hypocrites because they ran for office on family values, and betrayed their wives and children. In the case of Senator Craig, he spewed anti-gay rhetoric and voted against gay rights issues while being married and in the closet himself.
Prior to being outed for their own infidelities, they fiercely condemned other Congressmen, Senators and Presidents for similar acts, calling for their immediate resignations. They declared if they were ever in the same situation that they would resign their offices immediately. None of them resigned their posts. Senator Craig left at the end of his term.
It’s one thing to have an affair and apologize for it. But if you’re going to fiercely condemn others with extreme moral outrage for extramarital dalliances or being gay, you had better not be doing the same things, and you had better not have run for office putting your family and yourself on a moral pedestal on which you cannot balance.
Hypocrisy is the one thing that takes away all your credibility and effectively emasculates you as a public servant. No one has a sufficient amount of political capital to overcome being a hypocrite.
extramarital affairs, family values candidates, GOP
July 1st, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Will you be writing a similar post about the Dems?
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I will write about the Dems being in the same position when one of them does one of these TMI confessions. I will examine their history of infidelity when it comes up again, and it will, it always does.
December 12th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Appreciate you for taking the occasion to deliver this topic. I like your perspective on this matter.