The Mark Sanford files: Hiking up the skirt
June 25, 2009 at 8:54 am by Peter Schweitzer
By Peter Schweitzer
PoHo contributor
He was supposedly hiking — getting away from it all, clearing his head.
When 2012 Presidential wannabe South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford went AWOL late last week, most observers pointed to another case of Sanford being Sanford. As time went by and no one including his own wife could account for his whereabouts, the rumors began to fly. Yet, no one imagined the truth would be as bizarre as what the governor himself revealed on Wednesday afternoon: he’d been unfaithful to his wife; leaving all to wonder about the little side trip to Argentina (first reported as a hiking trip in the Appalachians).
What a week for white, male, conservative, Christian politicians. First, Sen. John Ensign caught with the wife of a staffer, then former Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair charged with putting a real life smackdown on his two children, then the coup de grace-Sanford and his hike up a skirt.
Some will cry foul. I’m picking on the conservative, Christian Republicans again. Nope, not this time. The facts speak for themselves. I’m not moralizing here. I think I have a pretty decent understanding of human nature and its foibles. I’m not critical of their weakness and their failures.
Rather, I find fault with their prior history of moralizing and judging others, holding themselves above the rest of us plebes because they’re men of values, family values no less. My issue with these men lies not in their professions of faith.
There’s a rule in journalism that holds true in life as well: Show me, don’t tell me. If you’re a man (or woman) of faith show me that faith by your actions toward your wife, toward your fellow human being, and toward those whom you serve. I’d prefer to discover your faith in your actions, not in your pronouncements. Let me discover your work with the poor, disenfrancished, and those who can’t offer you a political donation or a position of power. Let me discover your service to the community. Don’t talk about it, just do it. I don’t want to hear you talk about it.
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