Tag: Mark Sanford

Wounded rulers

Apparently, “wounded healer” is the new paradigmatic qualification for public office.

First, South Carolina’s Mark “Appalachian Trail” Sanford rises unrepentant from the ashes of an utterly disreputable and brazen breach of public and private trust.

Now this from the more diverse northeastern seaboard:

Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s decision to enter the race for New York City mayor on Wednesday immediately turned the election into a national spectacle and raised the question: Can the subject of a constant barrage of bawdy late-night TV jokes be a credible candidate to run the nation’s most populous city?

Mr. Weiner’s announcement came as the contest to replace Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is stepping down in December after 12 years in office, has already become a soap opera of sorts. Last week, one of Mr. Weiner’s main rivals, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, spoke publicly about her struggles with bulimia and alcoholism. And the wife of another Democratic hopeful, Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, has talked about her past as a lesbian.

Weiner Seeks Redemption With Mayor Race.

I’m not sure what adultery, bulemia, alcoholism, sexual harassment, exhibitionism, and being married to a former lesbian (a category that’s not even supposed to exist) adds to one’s fitness to rule, especially when the first-person experience of human frailty seemingly has produced no humility. Don’t expect to hear any persuasive explanation from the candidates: if they were reflective enough to learn any truly human lesson from their falls from grace, the press wouldn’t report it because it doesn’t fit the 5-second sound bite format.

The Benedict Option looks better and better.

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“The remarks made in this essay do not represent scholarly research. They are intended as topical stimulations for conversation among intelligent and informed people.” (Gerhart Niemeyer)

Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes.

Double Standards

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni scores some plausible points against double standards in Sex and the Single Murderess.

But until noon yesterday, I’d not heard of Jodi Arias and had no idea such a person was on trial. I must rummage my memory banks for who Amanda Knox is, and I probably wouldn’t know at all were there not some legal news in there like reversal on appeal.

Yet I have been beating the crap out of Mark Sanford — not because he strayed, and not even because he’s not still hiding in shame, but because his mumbled apologies are excuses in disguise. In my Church, if a man went to confession and said “I committed adultery, but she was my sould-mate,” any Priest worth his salt would say “go away and come back for absolution when you can leave off the part after the comma.” I consider the self-consciously Christian Sanford voters of South Carolina to be enablers, not forgivers.

And Frank Bruni? Does he want us to hold men to a higher standard or women to a lower one?

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“The remarks made in this essay do not represent scholarly research. They are intended as topical stimulations for conversation among intelligent and informed people.” (Gerhart Niemeyer)

Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes.