Jenny's revenge: 'Spectacle' revived

Jenny's revenge: 'Spectacle' revived

He had it coming.

We didn't.

But just as he brought an embarrassing scandal down on all South Carolinians last summer, his soon-to-be ex-wife's return engagement in the victim spotlight has brought it back.

Oops. Make that the strong-woman-who-refuses-to-be-a-victim spotlight.

Jenny Sanford's been playing the latter role to the self-serving hilt while making the national TV rounds promoting her book "Staying True."

She preposterously denies vengeful intent, insisting on CNN's "Larry King Live" six nights ago that she is "not trying to get even" with her cheating husband. Given two possible writing motives by King, she responded: "Catharsis yes, retribution no."

She added: "I've always considered myself very private, but I didn't make this public. As a matter of fact, if you read the book you'll see that I spent a good long time trying to keep it very private and keeping it from becoming the spectacle in fact that it became."

Yet she's extending "the spectacle" -- and the tacky trend of seemingly logical people trading dignity for celebrity. Why make that losing deal?

She told King: "Once it was public, I just figured, you know, there are so many women out there that have connected with me and said that they either admired or that I stood up, and stood up without losing a sense of who I was. I hope that if I can even help a couple of women out there it'll be worthwhile."

Sure. And this Valentine's Day topic was chosen not to reel more readers into this column but to decry media exploitation of what enquiring minds want to know -- including the inside scoop on our governor's bizarre request for wifely permission to visit his paramour in Argentina.

Citing that revealing plea, King reasonably asked: "Did you accept the fact, hey, he's in love with this woman?"

Jenny: "Well, what was funny is he didn't just, I mean, I would have accepted it if that was what he said, 'I'm in love with this woman and this is what it is.' But he, it was like he didn't know. He had to see her to find out."

King: "But he wanted you to stay."

Jenny: "But he wanted me to stay. He didn't want to give up what he had, and that to me was painful."

King: "And that's called chutzpah."

Jenny: "Um-hum."

Larry: "Gall, right?"

Jenny: "Um-hum. But he said it in a way that was, was -- he was almost oblivious to the pain that he was causing."

On Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," she called Mark "the cheapest man on earth."

Whoa. That's why so many of us voted for him so often.

She did defend him, sort of, when Stewart asked, "Are you surprised he's still governor?"

Jenny: "He sinned against me and against our God, but I'm not sure that he sinned against the office that badly."

"Sinned" sounded sanctimonious.

Then again, Mark sounded divinely delusional last June when he likened his travails to those of King David. He also sounded creepily goofy when he compounded infidelity to his wife and irresponsibility to our state with other self-absorbed, self-destructive ramblings. Lasting lesson:

Telling not just anybody but everybody that your mistress is your "soulmate" undermines your shot at not just marriage reconciliation but divorce harmonization.

At least Mark's eased up on his previously relentless apologizing.

And Jenny should give up on getting even. Nothing she writes or says can ever match the humiliation he dumped on her in a lovesick news conference that's lately gotten plenty of replays thanks to her publicity blitz.

So mark Mark down as the villain of this reprised tragi-farce -- and as a fair target for his wronged wife's persisting wrath.

But mark Jenny down for unfair play against another target. On ABC's "The View," she explained why her four sons can handle the book fallout: "If you're raised where there's a lot of stuff in the paper -- stuff that's true, stuff that's not true -- you learn to kind of tune it all out."

She even said a teacher told her that one of the Sanford boys once responded this way when asked about a story regarding his dad: " 'Oh, he looked at me and said, "You don't believe what you read in the darn papers, do you?", and he walked away.' "

Now that's chutzpah.

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