FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The arrogance of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford knows no bounds apparently. And the hypocrisy of the South Carolina Republican Party doesn't either. In the wake of his admission that he's been cheating on his wife, the state GOP voted to censure Sanford. Which amounts to looking the other way.
The reason for the censure was his secret travels to Argentina to visit his mistress, which officially translates into what the GOP is calling "Repeated failures to act in accordance with the party's core principles and beliefs."
One of those core principles is family values, except when it's inconvenient. Sanford also refuses to resign on his own, thus joining the soiled ranks of Larry Craig of Idaho and John Ensign of Nevada. Proud Republicans all.
Sanford also gets a slap on the wrist for falling below the standards expected of Republican elected officials. Deliberations reportedly went on for nearly four hours on a conference call and there were multiple rounds of balloting. This patty cake gesture on the part of the Party of family values is meaningless.
Just to be clear, Sanford's own party is saying they don't trust him and don't think he can effectively perform his duties as Governor; but it's okay with them if he continues in South Carolina's highest office. Pathetic.
Here’s my question to you: What does it say about the Republican Party in South Carolina that they won't call for Gov. Sanford's resignation?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Jeff from Ocean City, Maryland writes:
I find it interesting how much difficulty the members of the "party of family values" have living up to the standards they want to mandate for the rest of us.
Alex from Seattle writes:
Many in the GOP sermonize about America's moral failings and situational ethics. In fact, Governor Sanford railed against former President Clinton's dalliance with an intern. And yet, in this situation, the GOP won't live up to their high ideals they espouse for everybody else if it would cost them power or control. How very sad.
Michael writes:
Well, being a resident of South Carolina, I must say that I am disgusted with my Governor. But as far as what this says about the South Carolina GOP is that they don't care about anything but being in power and staying in power, no matter what the character of the leader is.
Karl from San Francisco writes:
Jack, you can put hypocritical, redneck, backwoods, cross burning hicks in three-piece suits, but they are still all hypocritical, redneck, backwoods, cross burning hicks. What else do you expect from them?
John writes:
Cafferty, what it says about the S.C. GOP is quite evident to anybody with common sense; that is, a fiscally conservative, adulterous Republican is better than any Democrat, period.
Jason from Koloa, Hawaii writes:
Better question. What does it say about a politician in 2009 that is still dumb enough to call themselves a Republican?
K writes:
Can you spell B-I-L-L C-L-I-N-T-O-N? How about J-O-H-N E-D-W-A-R-D-S?