In my lifetime, it started with the very handsome President Kennedy who was known in his inner circle for his wandering eye. There was the “blue dress” saga, and when the detailed Starr report was published in the newspaper our elderly ex-nurse neighbor came over in shock. “I worked for years in a hospital and I have seen things in places they shouldn’t be, but I have never heard of something like this.”
What are you talking about, Marie?
“Phone sex. That girl putting a phone there. How in the world……….”
No, no we told her. That’s not what phone sex is. Then we explained it to this very prim woman who was in her 80’s and she was so rattled she ended up taking to her bed.
Now, a politician who is involved in some affair or unseemly behavior pops up every few weeks and it doesn’t even make the front page.
They weep. They apologize to their wife. They hang their head and resign in disgrace……………..
Then some time goes by and they pop right back up in front of the camera and tell their district they’re a reformed man. Done their penance, met a counselor a few times so they know why they did what they did, things with the wife and fam are cool again and they’re ready to represent the people in Washington.
Jesus works very, very fast when it comes to saving public servants.
It may be a sign of our times that we barely pay attention, and perhaps Newt Gingrich paved Redemption Road years ago when he turned Catholic after dumping Wife #1 and Wife #2. He does go to church regularly now with this one and she’s even in the choir so he knows something about family values.
The Road of Shame to Reelection is littered with these men, but there is one who raised the bar on disgrace to a new level……………..the ex-governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford. When he got busted for lying to his staff about hiking the Appalachian Trail to clear his head, (when in fact he’d skipped town to see his girlfriend in Argentina) he took the gold medal in sleazy.
His tearful admission to doing his wife and four sons wrong came with repeated weepy references to his girlfriend as his “soulmate”, and he just couldn’t stop himself from waxing poetic about the love they shared while the rest of the country watched a slow motion train wreck in real time. And wondered, God forbid, if his four sons were watching him talk about his girlfriend when he was still married to their mom.
There was no kissing and making up this time as the Mrs. dumped him faster than he could spell Appalachia.
Now he is attempting a comeback by running for Congress, and even asked his ex-wife to help advise on the campaign. She declined. Hmmmmmm……….
Their divorce agreement stipulated that each of them must respect the privacy of the other, and so letting yourself into the ex’s home without permission is a rule breaker. He has repeatedly failed to abide by that stipulation and was recently busted again inside Jenny’s house, using his cell phone as a flashlight while he creeped around.
She has filed criminal charges against him for trespassing and his party has dropped financial support of his campaign.
Redemption is the work of the Lord. Revenge is the work of the ex.
