“I've been unfaithful to my wife. I developed a relationship with a...which started out as a dear, dear friend from Argentina…"
Another politician, another sex scandal.
How do you say you’re sorry after you’ve really messed up?
We’re covering different takes on South Carolina governor Mark Sanford’s press conference.
First, The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart feigned disappointment at the governor’s mea culpa.
“Oh, marital infidelity, you're just another run of the mill human being whose simple moralizing about the sanctity of marriage is only marred by the complexities of their own life. Well just another politician with a conservative mind and a liberal penis."
For HeadzUp, Sanford’s apology sounds like something from the musical “Evita.”
They parody a song from the musical chronicling the rise and fall of former Argentinian first lady Eva Peron.
“Don’t cry for me right wing media the truth is I lied just for you, my infidelity, my disappearance, I broke my promise, don’t keep your distance.”
Slate.com looks at the issue from the point of view of politicians who have a colleague “caught with his pants down.”
It offers them a handy guide on how to respond to the guilty party, including:
• Sanctimonious condemnation
• Praising the apology, not the apologizer,
• Making a limerick
“It's never easy for a politician to cop to an affair...But it's also hard for colleagues to react to the revelation. And what they say can make their lives difficult if they ever make the transition from scandal commentator to scandal subject.”
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough had a different perspective on a man he calls a friend.
He said that Sanford didn’t help his cause at his press conference.
But:
“The only people that Mark helped by having that performance and just laying that all out there were people in the media who got higher ratings, people who mocked him and may I just say people who have no room to mock Sanford were mocking him.”
How do you feel about the media poking fun at politicians and their private parts? Is it OK or are they asking for it?
