“A cheat in private is going to be a cheat in public”
Bill Bennett tells the National Review that Gov. Sanford should resign. He gives a quote from Chuck Colson on integrity to explain why:
Integrity means every part of your body. It does not mean every part of your life. It means every single part of your existence. All those water tight doors are shut tight. And then there is integrity. You cannot say that someone can do something on the private side of their lives without it having public consequences, because you’ve opened one of those watertight doors and that ship will eventually sink. A cheat in private is going to be a cheat in public. Someone who lies in private is going to lie in public, and you can’t trust someone who does that.




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back to top45 Comments to ““A cheat in private is going to be a cheat in public””
And that’s exactly why I don’t trust Clinton, and exactly why this guy needs to resign.
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I would tend to agree. It would also be nice to hear from Bennett about his own experiences regarding public integrity. I remember a couple of years ago learning of his gambling issues, and how he went through a similar experience of being “outed” publicly, before experiencing a period of withdrawal from the public eye. If Bill Bennett wants to speak of public integrity, I would like him to start with gambling, and then move on to adultery, since the Bible speaks to both the underlying causes of greed and discontent and lust and envy of both.
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I still believe the governor should voluntarily step down. Once you have violated so much trust, it seems like the only right and honorable thing to do.
Doing so would send a strong signal that he realizes the seriousness of his actions and is willing to accept all consequences. In effect, he has forfeited the right to being his state’s leader.
It also gets him out of the spotlight to begin the hard work of some deep and serious spiritual self-examination, as well as time to try to put his family back together again.
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Kennethos: From what I recall, Bennett did — after the publicity, granted — deal with that issue.
We are all frail as dust — which is why it’s so hard to be a public figure. We all stumble in many ways, as the book of James tells us.
Big reminders of that this week, but really all I have to do each morning is engage in a bit of hard, honest self-examination and it all hits so much closer to home. We all need God’s grace and mercy.
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Jenny did the best that was possible for 20 years of marriage, sacrificed, stood by her man, and still believes in the sanctity of marriage.
Mark caused this harm.
Jenny is no Hillary. She had the foresight to protect her own dignity against implications of “enablement.” Ever the successful campaign manager, Jenny carefully arranged for Mark not to contact her when he left home. If you want to know about Argentina, you have to ask him.
Mark’s not home anymore. The marriage is dead. Saving it would require Mark to resurrect it. And he’d have to do all the lifting. Love is primarily an act of will, she reminds us. Coincidentally, she’s done her part 100%. The rest is all up to Mark. He’ll have to come down off his high horse and be humble, and work hard as he can. Jenny will show the wisdom of Solomon. Mark will have to perform miracles of renunciation and willpower.
If he tries real, real hard, he’ll get back a marriage devoted to the sanctity of the institution of marriage. Woo-woo!
Mark was right to follow his heart. That’s probably the only time he was right in his miserable life. The best thing he can do for his boys is go back to the woman he loves. Better yet, stop crying in the capitol rotunda and move her into the governor’s mansion.
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Scroop: “Mark was right to follow his heart. That’s probably the only time he was right in his miserable life.”
For a sinner such as all of us following our hearts is the worst thing we can do. We should be following Jesus, not our desperate wicked hearts.
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I believe there can be public cheaters who are nevertheless loyal in private, but private cheats will almost always be willing to become public cheats. Esp if the opp exists for blackmail.
Bennett is absolutely right.
All the adulterers of either party should have to resign and abandon all the perks they’ve enacted for themselves over the years to include gold-plated health and other bennies. I’ve seen soldiers–often those I’d categorize as “good ones”— made to resign their comission or face UCMJ court martial for infidelity/adultery.
I’m outraged that our elected reps exempt themselves from the standard they impose on our service men and women
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#7 Clarified:
Little old man who worked for 50+ years at a bank as Sr VP never ever took any type of vacation. Actually died at his desk on the job. He was praised to high heaven for his dedication to marriage, family and church. Then at last auditors discovered an elaborate embezzling scheme
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So far I’ve not seen photos of the cheated-upon wife or the gal Sanford went ga-ga over. Dont need to really but I suspect tabloids will have a field day
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From gamblin’ Bill’s mouth to felon Chuck’s ears…
Or vice-versa
Yep, they’re all just hypocritical sinners—right up until the day they’re caught. Then we’re supposed to believe them even more because they’ve seen the light.
Having met Colson, he does seem sincere in his faith, but it seems sensible to remember that he admired and was very close to Nixon, whose charming personality and views we just read about once again yesterday.
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Colson has logged decades of service ministering to prisoners. I’d say his faith, by all appearances, is quite genuine.
One of the things I remember reading by Colson was how we humans can so easily succumb to the trappings of being around the most powerful man in the nation, the president.
But I suspect Colson’s come a long way from those days, based on what we’ve seen of his life since those years.
And I agree with Andrew, our “hearts” — when they conflict with God’s moral law — are not to be followed.
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Bennett was gambling legally, wasn’t he? Gambling is now a lawful form of entertainment, with the government itself often running various games.
And wasn’t Bennett doing so with his own money?
Some of the hypocrites here are the critical commentors.
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I see Scroop has created a macro for his take on this Sanford thing–maybe Shift-F9.
I’m not entirely convinced a private cheater will be a public one as Colson via Bennett describes the link. I wouldn’t vote for a guy fresh off of one of these scandals, but I don’t think this private sin is particularly more indicative of one’s public behavior than other sins one seeks to hide.
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Colson is genuine. A decent man whole-heartedly committed to advancing the Gospel of our Savior. He had achieved so much in his life when he was WH advisor: first to do this, youngest to do that (I believe he was the youngest ever to command a USMC Bn or company) Prison Fellowship literally reaches out to lost, lonely and dying men with the Gospel. I believe they also do ministry with men who’ve been paroled but lack out-of-prison support.
Bennett was gambling his own money. If Elayne had no problem with it, why should you or I?? Its not as though Bill Bennett PhD was gambling away money for a terminal child’s medical care.
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How come only Republicans get pilloried? What happened to Teddy after he killed Mary Jo? – Nada! What happened to Barney Frank’s pimp lover? Nada! What happened to the young Kennedy? Nada! So to all the libs – put a cork in it!
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But Ivan, to be fair, the folks you mention don’t “campaign on family values.” There is an extra degree of hypocrisy in many of these Republican cases.
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#13 reminds me, YEAH, nobody has explained what Jenny means by “earned.” How does crying five days in Argentina earn anything at all?
My post was all fresh material. No cut and paste. I give the reader full value, YEAH.
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Any day now I suspect the Senate Ethics panel will come out with a policy mandating RESIGNATION for any Senator guilty of adultery/infidelity.
I cannot understand why elected officials are exempted from punitive action for adultery when members of our military are routinely convicted of the offense!!
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Scroop, this situation is like trying to figure out what should be done if a Polar Bear attacks your Cancun bungalow. A complex, emotional issue like adultery exposed is complicated enough; now throw in a prominent politician in an era of divisive politics and hungry media, just days after hitting the headlines. This woman has four young boys. We should expect all the moves and statements to make perfect sense, and get all gleeful at the debacle?
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Sawgunner 18-
You’ll be relieved to learn Sanford is facing potential criminal prosecution under South Carolina law:
Any man or woman who shall be guilty of the crime of adultery or fornication shall be liable to indictment and, on conviction, shall be severally punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars or imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than one year or by both fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court. . . . “Adultery” is the living together and carnal intercourse with each other or habitual carnal intercourse with each other without living together of a man and woman when either is lawfully married to some other person.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/25/adultery-criminal/
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Ivan,
>How come only Republicans get pilloried?
Easy. Read what Scroop said: “Mark was right to follow his heart.”
One of the differences between “liberals” and “conservatives” is that liberals have less respect for traditional cultural institutions like marriage commitments, particularly when they stand in the way of individuals doing whatever the hell they feel like. That’s especially true when it comes to sex. Some liberal people might claim that they go after the Mark Sanfords of the world because they hate hypocrisy, but I don’t think that quite explains it. For many of them, when someone like Mark Sanford cheats, it validates how they think the world works or how it should work. They delight in rubbing in the faces of conservatives what they see as a failure of their worldview. On the other hand, when Barney Frank or some other D gets busted, that’s just business as usual. They might make a little noise for the sake of appearances, but they don’t think he did anything fundamentally wrong.
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a Polar Bear attacks your Cancun bungalow
What a wonderful figure of speech, YEAH. The enthymeme is utterly false (because sexual transgressions are very common and easy to understand, of course), but your scheme of misdirection works to magnificient effect, thanks to your zoomorphic polar bear. As clever a trope as anyone could ever hear. The governor’s delictum was a phenomenon of nature, so we must think about it as though it’s a polar bear, until we’re able to explain the mystery of the polar bear attack in Cancun. This argument isn’t your every-day “moral equivalency.” This is clock-stopping meiosis.
I’m speechless.
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LOL! Excellent analysis, Scroop!
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Whoa! Got me Scroop! You’re like RPN with a thesaurus. I know your schtick is to be the analytical, sometimes sardonic, conservative foil here, but the fact that you have no heart is, if I may, a disgusting waste of a sharp mind.
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Is that a fact. At least I encourage Sanford to follow his heart, which y’all warn against.
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Scroop’s gotcha there, Yeah
Also, I want to give you kudos for #16. Well put.
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Attakid, Scroop. On cue, on script. Shift-ctrl-n.
Thanks, RPN. Hey, no doubt, Scroop’s gotchme, but can you explain how?
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He’s right, RPN. All I’ve got is a dorsal vessel that pulses peristaltically. No heart, and I’m a pest. The least popular insect on the blog.
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Must I really?
Ctrl-W
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I had a moth in the house last night. I failed to note the peristaltic pulsation before I tossed him out.
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Mm hmm #28. There’s the dispassionate aside to the fawning peanut gallery–Alt-f4. It’s all programmed, folks. I smell a bot.
Bummer, RPN. Thought you’d be willing to deliver the goods. What was I thinking, eh?!
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You wouldn’t notice. Our hemolymph circulates slowly, as we don’t use it to deliver oxygen. Air enters little holes in the abdomen and difuses directly to the cells. The cycles of gas exchange are very hard to see.
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You call it fawning, but you would have used a fly swatter and and scattered camphor balls. I call it pro-life.
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Such is life with an open circulatory system.
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No napthalene in my house. Can’t stand that smell. Just catch the moth and put him out.
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Good, people. Good. The fanciful mentor-sycophant banter. Just when I was worried the thread wouldn’t see it! Only thing missing was a wink smiley. Can’t you eke one out for me?
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Night, Yeah
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Ahhhhh….
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Bill Bennett talks too much. Don’t really uderstand his moral authority, just because he edited a book of moral tales? If bloviating was virtue, this guy would be the virgin Mary!
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#39 LOL
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#39
I can see the bumper stickers:
Looking for Jesus? Pray to Bill
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#41: Hail William, give me an ace.
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Ivan the Terribly One-Sided: How come only Republicans get pilloried? What happened to Teddy after he killed Mary Jo? – Nada! What happened to Barney Frank’s pimp lover? Nada! What happened to the young Kennedy? Nada! So to all the libs – put a cork in it!
‘k …let’s review:
Gary Hart’s presidential campaign: Sank
John Edwards’ political future: Gone
Eliot Spitzer: Resigned
Jim McGreevey: Resigned
John McCain: Republican standard bearer, 2008
Rudy Giulani: Republican hopeful and respected member of the party
Newt Gingrich: Likely Republican candidate 2012
Sen. John Ensign: Still in office
Gov. Mark Sanford: Still in office
Sen. David Vitter: Still in office
The Democrats named about have three affairs and one prostitute customer on that list, and all of them were drummed out of office in disgrace.
The Republicans named above have six known affairs and four divorces among them; they are all still either in office or credible candidates for office, and still are respected members of the party. (Time will tell if Sanford and Ensign remain so, but the others are secure.)
So, put a cork in it.
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STEVEG — a revalatory list.
Every Republican is a Defender & Protector of The Institution and its Sole Definition. Their campaign ads were Hallmark cards. You should perhaps add this:
Bill Clinton: Impeached and denied a successor
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Good point, Scroop. Oh, and Ted Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, and there was no evidence that he was under the influence of alcohol. Mary Jo Kopechne’s death was tragic, but it was an accident, no matter how badly the right wants (still, 40 years later) to use it to smear him.
I’m not sure who Ivan means by “the young Kennedy.”
I will say that although Barney Frank was reprimanded for his relationship with Steve Gobie, that probably was too light a sentence. However, Larry Craig was the leader of the Republicans urging his expulsion, which is kind of ironic.
Add Larry Craig to the list of Republicans who get off scot free on the exact same scandals they try to punish Democrats for.
Ivan has no leg to stand on here.
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