Don’t Cry For Him, Argentina
I can’t believe Joe didn’t make that joke in his first post about Mark Sanford’s extra-marital adventures. Nor did Patrick or any of the commenters. Has America lost its sense of humor?
In the blogosphere, it shouldn’t be long before this becomes a story that is more about the media than it is about Sanford. There will be an avalanche of coverage and we’ll have to ask whether the media should waste so much time on a sex scandal while Tehran is burning.
A bit of speculation: The first complaints about excessive media coverage will come from Republicans. Democrats will respond that Democratic governors also became instant sensations when caught with their pants down. Republicans will remind Democrats of their own complaints about excessive coverage and claim a double standard. Democrats will say the real double standard is all the GOP blather about family values, which clearly means nothing to elected officials. And so on.
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9 Responses to “Don’t Cry For Him, Argentina”
Nice predictions of the future coverage. I would add that Sanford's actions will reveal to Democrats that all Republicans are hypocrites, while Republicans will discover that all Democrats are hypocrites. In fact, on partisan blogs, poor Gov. Sanford will be forgotten entirely as the two camps war over which party is revealed to be the worst by his actions.
Has American lost its sense of humor, you ask, David? I would argue that there is nothing humorous about what Sanford did — not just the affair itself, but disappearing on Father's Day weekend; betraying his wife and his four sons; making his staff look like damn fools, telling the press they had no idea where he was, while all the time they knew and were lying to cover up his true whereabouts; and flipping the bird to the people of South Carolina for all the reasons Joe set forth.
You may find all of this funny, David, but the rest of us don't.
Yes., David, your colleagues here at TMV are all a bunch of hypocrites for covering this when they could be covering truly important issues like fast food restaurants.
Plus–they're not exactly Shecky Greene!
Excellent points!
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David:
No, it is neither about the media nor about Sanford.
It is about a Party that touted–had in its platform–moral values, family values, God-fearing labels and rubbed the other Party's nose in it. And now?
I live in South Carolina and Sanford wasn't a “Family Values” politician, his support came for fiscal conservatism, something he still has, along with my vote. I vote for a governor who can manage the State, not a good husband that can manage his marriage. I really don't care what his homelife is like if he can do the job of governor.
Kathy, let us join together in a boycott of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Humor has taken on too great a role in American politics.
Naturally, I agree with you that there are some very serious aspects of the Sanford scandal. I'm certainly not against treating those seriously.
To be frank, I wasn't really chastising Joe or Patrick for their failure to make the necessary reference to “Don't Cry For Me Argentina” (later picked up by Mr. Cagle). Just a little surprised, knowing Joe.
To sum up, I never meant to convey that there is nothing serious about scandal, while disagreeing with those who say there's “nothing humorous about it”. There's plenty of both.
PS George, I certainly didn't mean to suggest that any of the contributors to this site are hypocrites. But I think you may have twisted the meaning of my words for comic efffect, so that's fine. I'm clearly not against lighter fare on this site, fast food or otherwise. I was simply sharing my sense that sex scandals tend to provoke mindless partisanship — the precise opposite of what Joe and Patrick offered.
Here is another Sanford joke:
“If Mark Sanford had cheated on his taxes instead of his wife, he would have been a cabinet member by now.”