In the aftermath of the Governor Sanford scandal in South Carolina, it comes as quite a surprise at how many politicians are caught having affairs. Some stations did lists which looked like the checkerboard pattern from the Brady Bunch, but in looking at that I realized there were many left off. I could be safely said in the last twenty years there have been 15 prominent politicians who have been caught in affairs. This isn’t counting state and local officials who have been caught in affairs. Adding those numbers in and we could be in the 100s.

Why do they do it? I’m not an expert, but one day I was at an adult bar in San Diego and the discussion came up about going to the bar and cheating. I was the only single guy there, and I said as a single guy I would hang out at an adult club no problem, but I would have a problem being there if I dated someone. The married men there, and I knew these guys for a long time, said as long as they looked and didn’t touch it was OK. Yeah, but I’ve seen the guys touch. I’ve seen those same guys who talk about how devoted they are to their wives and kids spend hundreds of dollars on dancers. To my knowledge none of them ‘went out’ but I have been around when some of the women would get in a jam, like needing a ride to work or needing money to pay for rent, these same devoted men would come to their rescue.

You’re not cheating in the sexual way but the money and time spent at the club could have been spent on the wife and kids. Isn’t that kind of cheating, at the very least?

While I might not agree with some of the puritanical rhetoric that is fostered in the holier than thou stance many make, it has to be said that the mistress behavior is reckless. Governor Sanford, at the very least, put his staff in an awkward position when they had to come up with a cover story as to why they couldn’t find him. It may have been he told his staff we was going hiking to cover up his trip to Argentina, but being a governor you can’t just disappear. You can’t expect the press to be quiet when you are off on an affair.

According to the paper, they had emails between Sanford and his lover since December, and they got them anonymously. There are still questions as to who would have access and who would have passed this along to the press. Only because the information couldn’t be independently verified did the press not release the information, but who would benefit from the release? It was just learned that South Carolina has a separate election for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. Considering they have been rivals and the airtime the Lieutenant Governor has had on the news, it does make some sense he or his staff could have leaked the material. Other political rivals could have leaked the material. It was even suggested, as a joke, that his wife released the emails to the press.

So we have this entire speculation going, a state which will now probably have to get a new Governor and all of this because Sanford couldn’t stay faithful to his wife.

There are married men who aren’t famous who get caught in affairs. How can someone who is followed by the press and has many examples of those who have tried and fail, think they can get away with an affair? I will say this; judging by the emails you knew Sanford was in love with the mistress. The letters were bad in a Harlequin romance novel bad. It was embarrassing to read and only a man in love would write such bad stuff.

 

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Sanford Can't Escape Infidelity Like Other Politicians - June 25, 2009
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