Is it Just me or is Mark Sanford the Picture of a Man at the End of his Rope

I started watching this story on Jon Stewart at 8 pm, and at that time, this was just a really hilarious comic piece about a high-ranking politician going totally AWOL. By the time Rachel Maddow rolled around, Mark Sanford was discovered at the Altanta airport, returning from a very poorly-planned, impromptu trip to see a woman in Argentina he is apparantly having an affair with. So by the time you read this - who knows? Maybe we’ll find out he has a whole other family down there, with four daughters and a poodle named Fifi (not terribly unlike a subplot in a Sidney Sheldon book I read many moons ago)

I’m going to jump on this bandwagon right now, before everyone with a Twitter account and their grandmother has weighed in - I feel bad for the guy.

I shouldn’t - he’s cheated on his wife, he left his kids on Father’s day to be with his girlfriend in Argentina, AND, most important of all - this is a Republican so dedicated to party politics that he would rather turn down federal stimulus money than assist his fellow South Carolinians in the the midst of the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression.

From the sounds of that, Mark Sanford should be the poster boy for arrogant jerk.

Except it’s pretty clear from his pitiable press conference that he’s not. Or at least not just an arrogant jerk. Look at the guy!

This is a dude who seems like he went to sleep reasonably happy one day, woke up in a completely different one, and has no clue how he got there.

What’s notable about the media reaction to all this isn’t so much how a guy with such a bright future ahead of him had an affair and “blew it all up” to quote one pundit, but that he was caught being…well… so emotional and flaky about it. How dare he appear human on television, admit to crying, when a sterile statement from his chief of staff would have sufficed? How are you supposed to mindlessly bleat stupid party lines after you’ve shown your human side?

And you know what else? He doesn’t actually sound that repentant! He’s sorry he hurt people, like his wife and sons and staffers, but the guy isn’t sorry he hopped a flight to BA to be with his darling after his wife kicked him out of the house.

Obviously, this is a guy who did not “have it all” to quote another pundit. And we’re not talking about a sleazy affair with an intern or who hired a hooker, or going to public bathrooms in search of a thrill. This was obviously an unstudied move - with no premeditation or planning - and the press conference delivery was heartfelt, if not polished. The “crime” is notable only for its humanity, its all-too-familiar ring of man’s inner struggle against society’s expectations gone wrong.

It reminds me of a recent case of a very popular Latino priest based in Miami - Padre Alberto (who also happens to be quite the looker) - who was caught… wait for it… cavorting with a woman on the beach. A woman, who it had been revealed, was his girlfriend of many years. Was teh Catholic church relieved that he’d been caught with a consenting adult rather than molesting a minor - the church’s usual MO? Of course not! The man had to choose between the little lady and the Catholic church and Padre Alberto is now an Episcopalian.

I wonder how much longer before we acknowledge how much hyprocricy hurts us all by enabling us into believing other people’s lies and therefore making us feel doubly guilty for our desires, controversial and upsetting though they may be? Isn’t honesty also an important Christian/Muslim value - and wouldn’t it include honesty to our own selves?