Do we rush to judge our leaders too quickly?
Before we could even digest the news about Governor Mark Sanford’s affair with a woman from Argentina, people were calling for him to resign.
Before the politicians called for his head, reporters asked him if he would stay on during the news conference where he announced the affair and apologized to his family, mistress, staff and constituents (not necessarily in that order). It seemed a silly question to me. Let’s see, Gov. Sanford was going to spend roughly 15 minutes laying out what had happened and apologizing to everyone and then wait to announce his resignation until a reporter asked about it? Yes, this entire situation has been weird from the get go, but not that weird!
Sometimes our leaders make mistakes so egregious they need to resign for the good of the government and the people. This may be one those situations, but can we be for sure at this stage? Aren’t there many questions that need to be answered before we can reasonably come to that conclusion? Questions like: Did Gov. Sanford misuse taxpayer money on any of his trips to visit his mistress (we got a partial answer to that the day after the affair was revealed)? Did he break any laws in misleading his staff about where he was going? Can he effectively govern for the next 18 months?
Why force him out of office before we know all the facts or the answers to those and many more questions? Remember, the South Carolina Legislature is out of session and will not reconvene until next year. So, there is no pressing business for the governor to attend to.
So, it seems to me everyone should calm down and let the process work. Gov. Sanford should be judged once all the facts are in.
Posted by Jay Warren at 05:39 PM. Filed under: main •
(0) Comments • Permalink
