Sanford Won't Budge

Calls are mounting for disgraced South Carolina Governor King David Mark Sanford to resign, mostly from his own party members, but Sanford is making like a New Kid and hangin' tough, because staying governor is all part of God's plan for him.

[I]n 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.

So, his larger sin was the sin of pride—and he's going to atone for that by exhibiting a real spirit of humility, exemplified by bragging about having the right political positions on issues most damaging to the sorts of people to whom the man central to his religion most passionately ministered: the poor, the starving, the ill. In other words, he knows better than Jesus. But humbly so!

This guy's a trainwreck.

And, worse than that, a bully. He invokes his god as a battering ram with which to swipe at those who would levy legitimate criticisms. "God wants me here!" he insists. "Would you question God?" Because he knows there are people who won't.

[Standard Disclaimer: Just to be clear, I don't think that anyone axiomatically needs to resign from public office over an infidelity. I do, however, think that someone who goes AWOL from his post for a week and charges taxpayers for international trips to get laid does. Sanford has a few more problems than a guy who gets caught with his pants down but does the job he was hired to do.]