Rambling Sanford's show of contrition a painful spectacle

The straying husband emotionally fesses up to infidelity as a television audience raptly sops up the melodrama.

That's become common small-screen fare on assorted talk and so-called "reality" shows.

But that wasn't some obscure philanderer our state — and nation — were watching Wednesday.

He wasn't on "Maury" or "Jon & Kate Plus 8."

That was Mark Sanford.

And that strange show from Columbia was the most cringe-worthy "news" conference by an elected official from this state in this native South Carolinian's memory.

Our modern culture craves full knowledge of political stars' personal foibles with the same voyeuristic zeal it exhibits for the personal foibles of entertainment stars. And incredibly, just as nearly all of the entertainment stars reciprocate by craving the harsh, tell-all spotlight, nearly all of the political stars do, too.

Thus, Sanford took an appalling image dive in a mere day.

No, not just because he cheated on his wife. Also because he made such an unflattering — and unnecessary — spectacle of himself.

It was a steep descent:

On Tuesday, Sanford still looked like a swell poster boy for the nostalgic notion that even public officials deserve some private space. By apparently going off on his own for a few days to clear his head from another frustrating legislative session, Sanford was cast again as a real-guy, straight-talking anti-politician.

But he wasn't hiking on the Appalachian Trail as reported by his staff. He was stepping out in Argentina.

Sanford has won plenty of applause from plenty of conservatives, including this one, by playing the fiscal-hawk role to the defiant hilt for six years as our 1st District congressman and more than six and a half years as our governor.

Then on Wednesday he switched abruptly from Mark the bold conservative maverick to Mark the contrite, confused, cheating husband. America gawked at the figurative political train wreck in stunned fascination.

OK, so the personal crisis in Sanford's marriage required a public explanation after he went AWOL.

Why not a simple written statement with just the pertinent facts instead of a rambling, stream-of-consciousness performance that, when over, left more questions dangling than it answered?

OK, so good newspapermen — and women — want more, not less, information.

So sue me for feeling like Sanford was simultaneously giving us more and less information than we needed.

And whether his wife eventually sues him for divorce, or whether he wants to save their marriage (could you tell from what he said Wednesday?), that's his affair, not ours.

The word "hypocrisy" is routinely fired at Republicans who voted to impeach President Clinton then later were caught cheating on their wives. Sanford, who voted for three of the four articles of impeachment, has now joined that group.

That tired anti-GOP canard is based on the fallacy that the case for impeaching President Clinton was that he cheated on his wife.

The impeachment case against Clinton was that he committed perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of power. Though Clinton kept his White House gig thanks to the Senate rejecting that case after the House voted to impeach him, he did lose his law license for five years for lying under oath to a federal judge.

Clinton didn't, however, lose his marriage.

Sanford might.

And Sanford's already lost any shot he had at the presidency — or vice presidency.

Then again, he won't lose the red-hot media scrutiny that he fired up with that debacle of a media event Wednesday.

As TV, it was a riveting show.

But as the closing act on Sanford's lofty political hopes, it was downright depressing.

Frank Wooten is assistant editor of The Post and Courier. His e-mail is wooten@postandcourier.com.