In the News: Cheating Former SC Governor Against Gay Marriage

The things that come out of the "Red states" continue to shock and disgust me. Remember Mark Sanford (R) - the former SC governor who disappeared from the country to hang out with his female lover in Argentina while cheating on his wife? 

Well he is back trying to re-enter politics and now he is engaged to his new girlfriend. Mr. Sanford is against marriage equality & against the legalization of same-sex marriage. 

So it was okay for him to cheat on his wife and then seek a second marriage, but he's against gay marriage? 

AND Guess what?  The SC people have put this lying, cheating man as a front runner for the latest political race - SO, If they're such "devout" followers of the Bible, why aren't they stoning him and his girlfriend after he cheated on his wife?  How does THAT work?  

ATTN SOUTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS - REMEMBER THIS?  

2009: Mark Sanford disappearance and extramarital affair 

For six days in June 2009, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's whereabouts were unknown and there was media coverage of what was described as his disappearance. Subsequently the Governor reappeared and reported that he had been in Buenos Aires, Argentina with a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair. He stated that in 2001 he met and became friends with this woman and that they started having a sexual relationship in 2008. His wife became aware of the relationship in January 2009, and it was later revealed that two weeks prior to June 24 Sanford and his wife had begun a trial separation. The woman was later identified as Maria Belén Chapur, an Argentine journalist.  During the six days of absence, one of the excuses offered by Sanford's spokesperson was that Sanford was hiking the Appalachian Trail.   

 The new  article is below. *******************************

Former SC Cheating Governor Mark Sanford Against Marriage Equality

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/04/mark-sanford-marriage-equality_n_3011558.html
As marriage equality has emerged as one of the Beltway's topics du jour, inquiries as to when lawmakers intend to "evolve" on the issue have been in abundance. But whither former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford?
Sanford, famously, has made his feelings about traditional marriage quite clear. As his history of mistress-having and telling-constituents-lies-about-the-mistress-having demonstrates, he's clearly not too terribly impressed with the "sanctity" of the institution. "This was a whole lot more than a simple affair," said Sanford in June 2009. "This was a love story. A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."
So, newly minted as his party's nominee for the South Carolina 1st Congressional District seat in the House of Representatives, Sanford made an appearance this afternoon on CNN's new show "The Lead," and host Jake Tapper threw the high, hard stuff at him on marriage equality: “Who are you to deny love between two men or two women, when you are somebody who talks about following his heart, regardless of the laws and traditions of the state of South Carolina? Why are you sitting in judgment of same-sex couples, when you have had the life you have had?”
A good question, which Sanford immediately opted to address in bloodless, philosophical terms rather than through the prism of his personal life:

SANFORD: Well, I think that it's important not to redefine my view, which to an extent, what you just described, is. What I've said is, I indeed back in 1996, voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, I was a member of Congress, you know, just as President Clinton signed the bill into law, and just as President Clinton, and just as President Obama up until about a year ago allegedly believed and prescribed that same law.

Sure enough. But times change, people "evolve," and now the Obama White House isn't even making an effort to defend DOMA. Clinton, who like Sanford, was hardly an exemplar of husbandry circa 1996, has disowned DOMA as well. (And, fun fact: during Sanford's last stint in the House, he cast a vote to impeach Clinton over the president's famous infidelities ... a stance from which he has since "evolved.") So what of it? Sanford continued:

SANFORD: What I have said is I think the current debate has little to do with same-sex marriage and a whole lot to do with democratic traditions in this country, and a whole lot to do with the courts. I think that if you’re a conservative, you believe in this notion of federalism, that one size does not fit all and that we shouldn’t have prescriptive answers coming out of Washington, D.C., for any of the different things ultimately that we have got to resolve as a family of Americans. And so to have an unelected set of judges decide what is or is not for all 50 states to me does not make sense.

Sanford didn't go on to express any criticism or condemnation of the states that have created the space for marriage equality through the legislative process. But as to Tapper's point -- how does Sanford's own experience breaking with the sanctity of marriage inform his opinion on the subject -- well ... he'd rather not get into it.
Interestingly enough, as Michael B. Keegan, People For The American Way president, pointed out on these pages, Sanford doesn't always shy away from talking about what he's learned from his mistakes. And in a 2011 interview with Piers Morgan, Sanford offered the following insight:

SANFORD: I think we all need grace and we all need love. There's plenty of judgment to go around and there's certainly a role by folks in the media and others to be played in getting things uncovered and wrongs right, but I think that there is abiding need for human grace and love. I got it that day on the street and I've gotten many times since then with people across my state.