Posted on 06/30/2009 9:37:45 AM PDT by steve-b
S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford sent the following e-mail apology Monday evening.
I write to apologize and ask for your forgiveness.Well beyond the personal consequences within my own family, I know that at so many different levels my actions have upset, offended and disappointed friends and supporters and for this I am most sorry. As I mentioned in last week's press conference, I've always believed God's laws were there to protect us from ourselves, and what has transpired over this last week vividly illustrates the damage that comes personally, and to those you love and respect, in doing otherwise.
So in the aftermath of this failure I want to not only apologize, but to commit to growing personally and spiritually. Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign -- as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword. A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise -- that for God to really work in my life I shouldn't be getting off so lightly. While it would be personally easier to exit stage left, their point has been that my larger sin was the sin of pride. They contended that in many instances I may well have held the right position on limited government, spending or taxes - but that if my spirit wasn't right in the presentation of those ideas to people in the General Assembly, or elsewhere, I could elicit the response that I had at many times indeed gotten from other state leaders.
Their belief was that if I walked in with a real spirit of humility then this last legislative term could well be our most productive one -- and that outside this term, I would ultimately be a better person and of more service in whatever doors God opened next in life if I stuck around to learn lessons rather than running and hiding down at the farm.
They have also made the point that a good part of life is about scripts -- that the idea of redemption isn't something that Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake should just read about, it's something they should see. Accordingly, they suggested that there was a very different life script that would be lived and learned by our boys, and thousands like them, if this story simply ended with scandal and then the end of office -- versus a fall from grace and then renewal and rebuilding and growth in its aftermath.
I won't belabor all these points, but I did want to write as expressed earlier to say that I'm sorry and that more than anything I personally ask for your prayers for me, Jenny, the boys and so many others who have been impacted by what I have done.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Take care.
Mark
"The lurkers support me in e-mail!"
that for God to really work in my life I shouldn't be getting off so lightly.
Nice try. Trying to hold on to your job after your dereliction of it, and of the trust of the people who voted you into it, is what would be "getting off lightly". This pathetic attempt to claim that God wants you to not take any consequences for your actions would be blasphemous if it were not so risible.
Mark, I forgive you...now resign.
Why is is so clear now, and so hard to see two weeks ago?
Sanford’s selfish behavior, IMO, is reprehensible and unforgivable. He put himself and a feel good time before his wife and family, his State, and his country.
Office holders that violate their trust then attempt to remain in office are dangerous. RESIGN!
Few if any of the top banksters, congress, the POTUS, Wall Street insiders, all of them that helped drive our economy over a cliff were not held responsible, and few if any of them had the honor to admit responsibility or resign.
This AH is no different.
Resign Mark. Then hike the Appalachian Trail (all of it) to think about what you’ve done.
Exactly.
It really ticks me off that Sanford is clinging to the adultery as the only wrong done, he and too many in this country, on this forum and others I patronize using the *private matter ... between him and his wife ... what difference does it make he's having sex with another woman ...* excuses, when the most important thing in this whole story is as you write, his dereliction of duty, he abandoned his post after lying to staff and security detail, left the country, NO ONE KNEW WHERE HE WAS.
I am curious, all those who think this was just sex, would it make any difference with you had Gov. Pataki been found to have been out of the country engaging in extra-marital relations, no one knew where he was when the planes hit on 9/11? Would you be a mite upset had Sanford been meeting with foreign operatives rather than a mistress? (Which he obviously could have easily done, considering ...)
Did you even read what I wrote? Vacation?? I said put Pataki in the same place, he lies to his staff and security detail, leaves the country without ensuring the state is secure, the planes hit and NO ONE KNOWS WHERE HE IS IN ORDER TO GET HIM BACK TO DEAL WITH THE SITUATION.
Where in that scenario do you find *vacation*??
Also, an official who conducts a secret affair puts himself at risk that the two will turn out to be one and the same....
Yes indeed, this aspect is constantly overlooked.
Recall Kennedy sharing the favors of Judith Campbell Exner with Sam Giancana, not a foreign op, but if I have the story correct, she was passing secrets between the two.
It also makes the official susceptible to blackmail -- this is not a *private matter* when it involves a holder of public office.
What was your take on David Vitter, did you consider his engaging prostitutes to be a *private matter* along with so many others??
The big issue, is in spite of all the humiliating apologizing....he hasn’t said a word about whether the adulterous affair is over...
You cannot say, “I’m so sorry...” while still committing the sin.
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