My initial reaction, besides horror, to the shooting death of former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair was to try to hide from the story. I was always a fan of McNair, and will never forget the heartbreak of the Titans’ just-a-yard-short drive against the Rams in the Super Bowl. Like Kirby Puckett, McNair was a guy whose virtues on and around the field of play were such that I’d prefer to remember him only as he was in uniform.

That said, the saga of McNair’s death at the too-young age of 36 is the proverbial train wreck you can’t look away from, and the details are ugly: McNair was involved with a 20-year-old mistress while he was married to his wife of 12 years, with whom he had four children. From what we can tell, his mistress thought he was leaving his wife, and his wife didn’t know about the mistress. McNair’s death has been ruled a homicide, and while the police haven’t wrapped up the investigation, it appears that the mistress shot him and turned the gun - which she had purchased days earlier - on herself. The motive for the killing is likewise murky, but the obvious likely explanation is that McNair’s deceptions in one sense or another caught up to him.

The McNair story brought me back yet again to the downfall of Mark Sanford and a basic point that the cultural Left, with its pervasive hold on our culture, has fundamentally wrong.

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Recent admissions of extramarital affairs by Mark Sanford and John Ensign resulted in heavy media coverage and constant generalizations about Republicans’ hypocrisy concerning family values.  The mainstream media’s fascination with GOP affairs is likely fueled, not by a desire to “get” Republicans, but by a worldview that makes it difficult to view those who preach conservative social values as sincere. That said, it’s fair for the media to highlight hypocrisy.  I just wish the MSM applied a more bipartisan standard to hypocrisy, such as when sensitivity-preaching Democrats make racially insensitive remarks (e.g., Joe Biden), pro-labor liberals shaft their workers (e.g., Al Franken), or self-righteous greens contribute far more than their share to mankind’s carbon footprint (e.g., Al Gore).  Instead, the opposite rule seems to apply: a politician’s history of liberal rhetoric is taken as evidence that no harm was intended by what would otherwise be viewed as hypocritical behavior.

Cross-posted at Politico.

Perhaps the most telling moment in the past few days’ controversy over South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s absence and subsequent revelation that he’d been visiting his mistress in Argentina came during the period when his staff was putting out the story that Sanford was hiking the Appalachian Trail, and the Democratic National Committee rushed out a press release blaring that the Trail had received stimulus money, and therefore Sanford - as an ardent opponent of the stimulus bill - was a hypocrite for walking on ground that had been touched by Obama’s pork-barrel bill. Once the reach of the federal fisc had touched that ground, no possible alternative is permissible but to agree with the political dictates of the hand that holds those purse strings.

The incident speaks volumes about the peril the nation faces to its way of life, and the depth of the trust Sanford breached by engaging in a reckless affair at a time when he was one of the small handful of people in the country well-positioned to do something to stop it.

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Well, what I wrote yesterday was wrong. Sanford’s lies spread through his office and out to the rest of us.

The left is linking to yesterday’s post to laugh at it. What they are missing is that most of us tend to give people the benefit of the doubt — even people like John Edwards.

We live in a fallen world and we ourselves are fallen. I am disappointed in Sanford, but not angry. The default for politicians seems to be unchaste. All we can do is work for ideas and try to find men of good character to fight for those ideas.

I think one thing I have noticed in the past five years is that Democrats and Republicans tend to elevate politicians to such a level that there is no accountability. It is insular. There is no support group, no small group of friends, and no authority that can guide, admonish, and correct politicians privately.

We have each other. I’m off in a bit to hang out with friends from my Bible Study. Sanford probably has none of that. I’m sure John Edwards did not. Nor Bill Clinton. Nor John Ensign.

What Mark Sanford did was wrong. He needs to go in a dark hole somewhere where no one can see him or hear him and rehabilitate himself. On the bright side, I doubt his indiscretions will affect the FisCon movement. The left is going to spend the next week making Sanford into the second coming of James Dobson to smear real marriage advocates and social conservatives — positions Sanford was rarely vocal on.

Blessed is the Lord God Jehovah who brings forth bread from heaven, water from rocks, and men like Mark Sanford from the dust of the earth. His will be done.

By all means report the facts. I’m sure you’ll be happy to cover every salacious detail. Have at it. Be sure to cover the pain and suffering of Governor Sanford’s family. While you are at it, cover the depth to which all South Carolina and nation-wide Republicans and conservatives rightly feel betrayed.

Beyond that, just shut up. Shut your lying, hypocritical, power-above-patriotism, hyper-partisan, two-faced, shamelessly double-standard bearing pie hole.

You don’t get to judge.

.

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Consider this an open thread.

First, we need to be clear on the facts — not the media speculation:

• Sanford did tell his staff and family where he was going.
• Because he was traveling without a security detail, it was in his best interests that no one knew he was gone.
• His political enemies — Republicans at that — ginned up the media story.
• When confronted by a pestering media, things went downhill.
• Again though, at all times there was no doubt that Sanford’s staff and family knew where he was.

Now, here is all you need to know about this whole entire story — the reaction from the erstwhile Republicans angry at Sanford for not being a fiscal squish and from the media all go back to their core belief that without Sanford manning the barricades of government at all times, the government will collapse and people will starve, die, and forget how to read and write.

That’s it.

But that did not happen. Life in South Carolina went on. The world did not end. Government did not go off the rails. That the media and politicians would react as they did says more about their world view than anything else.

It is refreshing that Mark Sanford is secure enough in himself and the people of South Carolina that he does not view himself as an indispensable man.

Sanford’s lies spread through his office and out to the rest of us.

The left is linking to this post to laugh at it. What they are missing is that most of us tend to give people the benefit of the doubt — even people like John Edwards.

We live in a fallen world and we ourselves are fallen. I am disappointed in Sanford, but not angry. The default for politicians seems to be unchaste. All we can do is work for ideas and try to find men of good character to fight for those ideas.

I think one thing I have noticed in the past five years is that Democrats and Republicans tend to elevate politicians to such a level that there is no accountability. It is insular. There is no support group, no small group of friends, and no authority that can guide, admonish, and correct politicians privately.

We have each other. I’m off in a bit to hang out with friends from my Bible Study. Sanford probably has none of that. I’m sure John Edwards did not. Nor Bill Clinton. Nor John Ensign.

What Mark Sanford did was wrong. He needs to go in a dark hole somewhere where no one can see him or hear him and rehabilitate himself. On the bright side, I doubt his indiscretions will affect the FisCon movement. The left is going to spend the next week making Sanford into the second coming of James Dobson to smear real marriage advocates and social conservatives — positions Sanford was rarely vocal on.

Blessed is the Lord God Jehovah who brings forth bread from heaven, water from rocks, and men like Mark Sanford from the dust of the earth. His will be done.

With all the reports of a missing Governor Mark Sanford whose staff and wife allegedly have no idea where he is and have not heard from him, I figured it was worth checking in with his office. His Communications Director sent us this statement:

The governor put in a lot of time during this last legislative session, and after the session winds down it’s not uncommon for him to go out of pocket for a few days at a time to clear his head. Obviously, that’s going to be somewhat out of the question this time given the attention this particular absence has gotten. Before leaving last week, he let staff know his whereabouts and that he’d be difficult to reach. Should any emergencies arise between the times in which he checks in, our staff would obviously be in contact with other state officials as the situation warrants before making any decisions.

For the record, Governor Sanford is hiking part of the Appalachian Trail.

Whether or not Republicans can ever get a meaningful mandate to significantly cut government spending, the political climate has unmistakably shifted to one in which one of the great domestic issues of the day is simply putting the brakes on runaway expansion of government and the concomitant diminution of the true private sector. Frank Luntz thinks that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is making headway in selling the message that it has to stop somewhere:

H/T

Unfortunately, a court order from the South Carolina Supreme Court may cost Sanford this round in the budget fight no matter what the public thinks. But the battle to win public opinion never ends.

Thanks to my chairmanship of the Executive Roundtable for the Republican Governor’s Association, I have had the privilege of knowing some of the party’s most influential leaders. This, plus concerns on the current Administration’s direction (think assault on free enterprise and march toward socialism) have led me to some early thoughts on who might both lead our party back and who might be our nominee in 2012.

So, for better, or for worse, based on my personal experiences, here are my top ten who are leading the debate today, some of whom we should be looking to for 2012. Given that I believe the solutions to most of our country’s problems aren’t found in Washington, you will find few on my list who serve in Congress.

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[Note: Google hasn't caught up yet. Her official campaign website is here.]

It’s official:

Haley Officially Enters South Carolina Governor’s Race

State Rep. Nikki Haley is adding her name to the list of Republicans hoping to become governor of South Carolina in 2010. Haley, a staunch anti-tax advocate, confirmed Thursday that she will mount a run for the seat currently held by Republican Mark Sanford, who is prevented by term limits from running for a third term.

“For more than five years I’ve sat in the statehouse and watched - sometimes in disbelief - as our state government has spent with abandon and in the process wasted taxpayer dollar after taxpayer dollar,” Haley said in a release. “I know what good government can look like. I’m running for Governor so the people of this state will know what it feels like.”

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This just in from Politico’s Andy Barr:

Hoping to recapture the grassroots energy of last month’s “tea parties,” Republican Govs. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Rick Perry of Texas will host a tele-town hall Thursday that’s being dubbed “Tea Party 2.0.”

The Republican Governors Association said it is expecting 30,000 people to participate in the town hall, which will take place roughly one month after the much-publicized anti-tax tea party rallies held in hundreds of locations across the country on April 15, the tax filing deadline.

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If the GOP is going to renew itself, Republican governors will need to play a major role. Fortunately, we have some good ones. Several of us from RedState participated in a blogger call with one of the best, South Carolina’s Mark Sanford.

Gov. Sanford, best known as a critic of excessive government spending, is leaving office in 2010 due to term limits, and there is plenty of speculation that the two-term Governor and former three-term Congressman will run for the presidency in 2012. Like all potential candidates, he’s been coy about the speculation. For now, he has his hands full governing; all eyes are on a budget battle that will come to a head with a vote in the legislature next week on his plan to use federal stimulus funds to pay down state debt (Newsweek has a look at Sanford’s view of this battle here).

My summary of the call, along with the views of other RS participants, below the fold.

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The Hope for America caught Sen. John McCain’s recent appearance on Jay Leno’s show:

Leno: Who is running the Republican Party? Is it Rush Limbaugh? I mean…

McCain: We have, I’m happy to say, a lot of voices out there: Bobby Jindal, T… Pawlenty, Huntsman, Romney, uh… Charlie Crist. There’s a lot of governors out there who are young and dynamic. Uh… Mitt Romney did a great job and continues to. There’s a lot of good people out there, and I’ve left out somebody’s name and I’m going to hear about it (laughs).

Leno: Right.

Yes, the Senator is hearing about it. Not only did he omit the name of Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina from that list of young and dynamic governors, but McCain somehow managed to “forget” the name of the running mate of his own choosing, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. I’m sure the three months that she tirelessly campaigned with him and for him are just a blur to Maverick now, but the election was less than six months ago. This was either a thinly-veiled snub of two conservative Republican governors, or the onset of senility. You decide.

The video of this exchange is here.

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Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) sent a letter to the South Carolina General Assembly today in which he outlined his intent to request a waiver from the Obama administration that would allow him to use the $700,000,000.00 in Porkulus cash due his state “to pay down South Carolina’s sizable debt and contingent liabilities,” rather than to fund new pork-barrel, make-work projects.

Sanford has said he will refuse the portion of Porkulus funds that carry with them the requirement that the state expand unemployment benefits, but the fact that he is accepting them at all is somewhat of a surprise to me, as he had, it seemed, been hinting that he would be refusing to accept them altogether (hence the inclusion of the Clyburn Clause in the Porkulus bill, which allows state legislatures to override executives who refuse Porkulus funds). Here’s what he had to say on the topic:

Our objections to the so-called stimulus bill have been well-chronicled for the way it spends money that we don’t have and for the way that this printing of money could ultimately devalue the American dollar.

Those of us opposed to this package lost the debate on these merits, and I now think it is important we look for creative ways to apply and use these monies in accordance with the long-term interests of our state.

Color me, well, whelmed with the decision not to leave it up to the legislature, but to go ahead and apply for the federal cash with the stated intent of simply trying to direct it better than other states intend to. I’ve got an email in to a contact within the administration, and will be sure to update this when he gets back to me.

Last November, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (R) took to the pages of The Wall Street Journal in an effort to publicly repudiate the ongoing talk about states increasing personal and national debt by accepting multi-billion dollar bailouts from Washington.

In an op-ed titled “Don’t Bail Out My State,” Sanford wrote:

I find myself in a lonely position. While many states and local governments are lining up for a bailout from Congress, I went to Washington recently to oppose such bailouts. I may be the only governor to do so.

But I suspect I’m not entirely alone, as there are a lot of taxpayers who aren’t pleased with Christmas coming early for politicians. And I hope these taxpayers make their voices heard before Democrats load up the next bailout train for states with budget deficits.

Though only written three months ago, the dollar amounts Sanford mentioned in his op-ed (”Washington…will borrow every dime of the $150 billion to $300 billion for the “stimulus” bill now being worked on”) seem like a quaint reminder of a pre-porkulus time long past.  You have to admit, $150 billion sound like a drop in the bucket only days after all but seven House Democrats, and every Senate Democrat plus Republicans Arlen Specter, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe, voted for an $787 billion “stimulus” package that not one of them had read.)

In part because of Sanford’s vocal opposition to accepting bailout money from a federal government that simply borrowed the funds for the loan in the first place, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) inserted a clause in the “stimulus” bill that allows state legislatures to, through passage of a concurrent resolution, override Governors who refuse to accept bailout cash, and take the money anyway. Clyburn couldn’t be expected to allow even a portion of his state to get cut out of the free trip to the candy jar, you see, so he needed to make sure an actual fiscally-responsible executive like Sanford couldn’t put an ixNay on the andoutHay for the Palmetto State.

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Here’s a nice little tidbit: the so-called “stimulus” bill includes a provision that allows state legislatures (like, perhaps, South Carolina’s) to override their Governors’ (like, perhaps, Mark Sanford, R-SC) decision not to accept borrowed bailout funds, simply by passing a concurrent resolution.

In other words, state legislatures can override the GOP Governors out there who have kept their respective spines and integrity intact, and force the state to accept this dirty money over the wishes of that state’s chief executive.

The text, taken from pages 490-91 here (warning: massive .pdf file), reads as follows:

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