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Friday, June 26, 2009

Dispatches from a Glass House



Updated - Try to comment without stating the obvious. I don't want to hear another word about hypocrisy. I get it. And if that's the nail on which you choose to hang your umbrage, be sure to go out and check your archives for slams on Michael Jackson before you post your memorials to him. You know, if you're going to be horrified by Sanford or any politician's hypocrisy, you might want to address your own, as well.


A few words on L'Affaire du Sanford.....

Could we please stop assuming that the other woman is a hussy, slut, whore, siren, jezebel, or any of the other sexist labels that have been tossed all over the blogosphere?

As a fellow hussy, slut, whore, siren, jezebel, etc. who has slept with the husband of another woman, or husbands of women, if you want to get all technical about it, I take offense.

Signed,

A very flawed human being

P.S. I'm also a cheater, a hypocrite and a whole bunch of other unpleasant things. But I hope never again to be someone who finds great pleasure in another person's private pain. (She said with her own kind of sanctimony.).

30 comments:

  1. here here Lisa!
    I agree, I'm less than thrilled with the governor's hypocrisy, but I could care less about the woman.
    All kinds of people do foolish things, I can say I've been there done that. I was many things in my younger days, pure was not one of them. I'm not too proud of those choices, but they are like many things, in the past.
    Leave the mistress alone, the Governor has enough problems to deal with, like eating crow for all the high and mighty crap he's slung in the past.

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  2. Geesh, and here I thought the Guv was the hussy and bad poet. Besides, this story is so not finished ... can't wait to see and hear the woman's story. I bet there are multiple flights winging down to Argentina crammed full of paparazzi.

    It would be so cool if she totes a bullwhip, wears high leather boots and is wicked beautiful like Rita Hayworth or Catherine Zeta-Jones or Elizabeth Hurley.

    Whoops, that my fantasy, sorry.

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  3. It's not that I'm taking pleasure in their pain. It's that for years people like Sanford have lectured us about how we should live and then he doesn't follow his own lectures, it's called hypocrisy and I take pleasure in pointing that out each and every day.

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  4. Anita - You get it. We are all flawed. May this be the end of the culture wars once and for all.
    Bill - I'm no more interested in meddling about in Sanford's life and the life of his mistress than I am in having politicians meddle in mine.
    Dr. MVM - I know what it's called. We all practice it. I'm just tired of the back and forth. These are real people and I don't see the point in all the nastiness anymore.

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  5. It's the hypocrisy for me regarding Bill Clinton and Monica. And the coverup is always ALWAYS the crime.

    What else bothers me is that he left his state without a leader..and something could of happened that needed him..a tornado, massive wildfire..hell..the list is endless and he was MIA.

    I don't give a whit about his fucking around..as I did it once as well. Although I found it unfulfilling and never tried it again. As for the woman involved..she has her own pain to deal with..and I actually feel bad for her. I also feel bad for his wife and his kids.

    But Mark Sanford is a lying hypocrite..and thats all that is important to me.

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  6. Hi, Lisa,

    Sorry I haven't been by much lately, or haven't been commenting when I have been by. Anyway, too bad you weren't able to make it up to Madison. Suzy and I were looking forward to meeting you all in person. Hopefully it will work out another time. Sounds like you had a good trip!

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  7. I bet the French are laughing at us right now.

    Listen closely... can you hear them? Chuckling over their wine and Gauloises at our ridiculous sexual puritanism and hypocrisy.

    I mean, can you imagine a French politician WITHOUT a mistress/paramour? I could use one myself these days.

    A paramour, not a French politician, that is.

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  8. Well it clear the Governor is a hypocrite of the highest order and I'm sure he will pay for his misdeeds. However, having had many affairs in my early years, I can't judge him for the affair. My heart goes out to his wife and children who have now gotten in the middle of all his mess.

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  9. don't know about that Argentinian woman (altho I bet she is HOT).

    The only slut is Sanford.

    My 30th reunion this weekend. I'd tell you all about it, but mine won't be near as exciting as your was.

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  10. On a personal level I feel bad for his family. I also do not believe it should impact his staying or not staying in office.

    No, the woman in question is none of those things; neither are you. Neither is Sanford.

    My own take, as I explained it to you, and have been quite open about, is that I believe, from watching the news conference, and the way this whole thing played out, that Sanford had a bit of a nervous breakdown - the dude just took off! That's between him and the people of South Carolina to untangle - the taking off without telling anyone part, not the reason for taking off.

    He's just a man, a human being no more or less perfect or hypocritical than any of the rest of us. His pretense to the contrary, while certainly creating a certain frisson at the circumstances of his very public humiliation, should not distract us from the reality that, governor or not, he's just some guy. The powerful are even more susceptible to the temptations of the flesh, I think, because others find it so attractive.

    I certainly take no joy in the pain his family is experiencing. I am frustrated that his wife said nothing, even though she now claims she tossed him out two weeks ago. That might have been some helpful info.

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  11. I agree with Dr. Monkey, politicians and religious leaders suffer the wrath of the public as many of them make careers of lecturing the masses on how they should behave.
    I also agree with you and wonder why it is a big deal. It's not that he did it, it's that he was found out, because a large number of his critics are guilty as well.
    It confirms my theory that marriage should be a one year lease with an option to renew. I think monogamy is biologically unlikely.
    As for Michael Jackson, I woke up this morning and HE IS STILL DEAD! There will be no tears or memorials here. Only a feeling that the young boys of the world might breathe a sigh of relief that this pedophile is gone. Now, if only we vould do something about Catholic priests.
    Alan

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  12. Yes, but it was another Rebooblican "promise keeper". Another one toting family values and had lots to say regarding Bill Clinton back in the day. So all I can say is karma and I feel sorry for his family that it was so public.

    I am finally putting them in the mail. First I could not decide which ones and then had to find a padded envelope,,,excuses I have many. But, I hope you enjoy them. Do you wear abklets?

    Happy Friday.

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  13. Everybody focuses on the sex part, but to me... the guy abdicated his duties for days! I don't think many people would have a job after that sort of behavior, and he's the fucking GOVERNOR. I don't care if he was off building model airplanes.

    Can I still hope they fire his ass?

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  14. May I... please... as a person of the LGBTQ persuasion, whom Sanford has used his bully pulpit to bash and vilify... may I... please... just enjoy it the teeniest little bit?

    I'll enjoy it quietly, if that helps.

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  15. There is one bright spot in all of this: this makes room for Haley Barbour to be the next POTUS.

    I know you are all are standing in front of your PC's in ovation for this fine thought.

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  16. You are 100% right about this whole post. She is not a whore, he is not a whore, they are people with warts and all (I love that phrase). But I do have to admit, that I was enjoying the drama surrounding the events before we found out he was in Argentina having an affair. Where was he? Did he get kidnapped? Was he hiking the Appalachian Trail? Did he take a nice little beach vacation, South Carolina has some nice beaches and he could easily have gotten to the North Carolina beaches as well. If I needed some time away, there is where I might have gone. So yeah, the drama was interesting the final result, I could care less about. He had an affair, good for him.

    Also, I was a little jealous, I want to be able to just take off on a flight to wherever I want to just because I need some time off.

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  17. May this be the end of the culture wars once and for all.

    Five bucks says it ain't. Wait, the economy is still crap. Three bucks.

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  18. My feelings on the whole thing steer less toward schadenfreude than just astonishment at how bizarrely the whole thing played out. I couldn't be less interested in the details of his personal life, nor do I judge him (or the woman involved) for falling in love or even acting on it. Like some of the other commenters, I'm disgusted by the hypocrisy of someone using their bully pulpit to bash proponents of same sex marriage on the grounds that it somehow harms the sanctity of marriage, all while pissing all over the sanctity of his own marriage. But I take no joy in any of it. I feel sorry for everyone involved (including the gov), particularly his poor children.

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  19. Great post! I love what you have to say. Didn't his wife have a lover too; same applies.

    As an aside at the other extreme, I feel similarly about a gaper's block; everyone gauking over someone else's pain.

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  20. I don't get why everyone is so fast to call "the other woman" names either. Men aren't pets, wives don't own them, they're creatures with free (and often flawed) will. If a married man decides for whatever reason to mess around, it's not because some woman was deliberately trying to screw up his life. He made that decision himself. And if Sanford hadn't made such a big deal of the whole Family Values package and been one of the Repugs ragging on Clinton for getting a blow job, I wouldn't care if he had half a dozen mistresses.

    I just find myself wondering what she (the mistress) saw in him to begin with. He comes across as not too tightly wrapped, he's not that good-looking, and the governor of South Carolina actually wields less power than (as I saw noted elsewhere this morning) the typical game warden.

    I do think he needs to resign, but not because of the affair. He abused his position and used state money to advance his love affair -- and that strikes me as an impeachable offense. If the average civil servant used a government travel card to go visit a paramour, he or she would face criminal charges and hefty fines.

    I am, incidentally, still disappointed that the scandal turned out to be something so banal. I was really hoping the media would find Sanford in a crack den in southeast Atlanta, or in a Thai brothel specializing in little boys or bestiality.

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  21. Seconded what people say about hypocrisy.

    I don't care about his affair, actually I don't care about Sanford much at all besides finding the lies his staff told about hiking amusing.

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  22. I can mock Sanford and his kind because I am perfect in every way.

    Of course, if Hugh Laurie showed up on my doorstep, I could become a hoor really fast...

    But I'm not a powerful decisionmaker who has publicly spoken out to deny a segment of the population their right to marry. Defining marriage as one man, one woman makes him a big jerk in my book.

    This is what bugs me about Sanford. C'mon, click the link; you know you're curious.

    PS I'll call the schmuck a hypocrite if I want to. Because I try really hard to examine my own behavior before condemning others. When Chenoweth castigated Clinton for his affair and then we found that she'd been doing the same thing, it was more than fair to label her a hypocrite.

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  23. Normally I don't give a rat's ass who politicians are seeing on the side, unless they are underaged. That's personal.

    But I DO enjoy the backlash against those men, like Gov. Sanford, who have been cramming their sanctimonious BS down our throats for years, and who wasted everyone's time trying to drag down Bill Clinton for HIS affair. These emperors have no clothes and it's our duty to point that out. Now perhaps the GOP can get off this silly "family values" kick and get to work on some real issues.

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  24. It's an odd story, to be sure.

    In a fascinating kind of way. [I love bizarre things, so this is on my radar for the WEIRD factor...]

    That said, I MISS COMMUTE CHAT, and anxiously await the next installment.

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  25. I don't know what's goin' on, but YEAH, DAMMIT....

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  26. you know my bottom line is I really don't care about who is sleeping with who(m?)

    It's none of my kneeswax.
    sanford and sons and wife have to figure out the way forward for them.

    and yes i totally understand the hypocrisy argument but after reporting on it let it go.

    my one and a half cents worth.

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  27. I'm not so worried about the crap he's slung in the pat, it's what he WILL sling in the future that bothers me.

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  28. Lisa, I understand you point.

    On a side note, I notice that one called Suzy made typo. But it not nearly as amusing as my Facebook typos. Or is pat somebody I should know.

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  29. Sanford is no worse a Womanizer than Edwards. Of course, when it comes to Womanizing, there is none better than Bill (All Hail to the CHief) Clinton!

    Llort

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  30. Better a glass house than a beige one. I'm so sick of people's "dream homes" painted entirely in beige, with beige furniture and dishes, you know, to up the resale value. Because there's no reason to have color in your home or in your life. Jesus, Lisa, you are lovable. Judgers need to piss off.

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And then you say....

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