So I've been hearing a number of Republicans, Lindsey Graham and to a lesser extent Bill Bennet for example, who have said that Governor Mark Sanford's political career is only salvageable if he reconciles with his wife. This implies the real problem is the infidelity. It's not. There are two problems here. First, there is this politicized moralizing. It's asinine. No one can really live the way these Christian Politicians say they want. Second, there is fraud. Sanford has been accused of using public monies to finance his trysts with Evita or whatever her name is. And now he's refusing to turn over his travel records (three guesses why). But the Republicans are mainly upset about the sexual infidelity.
This is an interesting difference between Republican voters and Democratic voters. Democratic voters are forgiving of Democrats who get caught with their pants down but not those who get caught in financial scandals. Republicans think that a little shady financial dealing on the side is the next thing to civil disobedience but are ruthlessly unforgiving about sex scandals. If the only the Democrats had against the Republican leadership in 2006 was Henry Hyde's real estate deals, it would only have been a marginal thing and might not have had much national impact. But the pages sex scandal was a nuclear torpedo below the water line for Republicans because it demoralized the base and kept them home in 2006 - leading directly to the HUGE win for Democrats that year.
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