Sanford tells NPR’s Renee Montagne that she did not attend her husband’s news conference for two reasons.
“One, he didn’t ask me,” she said, “but if he had asked me, I would’ve said no. Two, we were separated. I don’t know what I would have stood by him about….”
“Talk about another gut punch,” Sanford tells Montagne. “I said, ‘gee whiz. He saw me as an adviser and wanted me to give him political advice about how he was received.'”
Asked what she told her husband, Sanford recalls saying, “‘Are you kidding? You cried for your lover and said very little of me or the boys.”
I’ve now seen several interviews with Jenny Sanford. I believe her strength of character is an important lesson for our time. While I usually do not care for the incisions inflicted by television interviewers, one observes while listening to Mrs. Sanford the deep intricacies of betrayal and the ever-widening wounds of scandal. Tell-all books don’t interest me, but I would purchase this one and hopefully feel I could recommend it to others. The Sanford’s have experienced a public nightmare which will colour the rest of their lives. May they bear fruit under God’s loving and fierce protection.
I’ m sorry, but I disagree with baring one’s soul with the press. One shouldn’t suffer in silence of course, and one needs a circle of friends (NOT THE PRESS) when one has marital problems no matter how public.
Both of these folk are a total embarrassment to the folk who elected him. I’m glad they didn’t impeach him, since it would have been very bad timing, and unnecessary, but I wish she would follow his latest statement and just STOP! What a “legacy”…!
One can only imagine when in days to come, their great grandchildren reading about all this, including the book, and hoping they haven’t inherited the nutcake gene.
Grandmother
I have a feeling that Mrs. Sanford would have remained silent had not the treachery and scandal become so public and protracted. I have a sense she could have forgiven her husband with an altogether different outcome earlier on. We require so much of our elected officials and they give so much of themselves far beyond what is appropriate for their privacy. However, once made public, I respect her explanation which has been of benefit in quite a different way than most others.
I have no problem at all with Jenny Sanford expressing her distress and sense of betrayal at the actions of what appears to be another sociopathic politician-husband. These guys all too often have their excuse-makers, special-pleaders, and ideological supporters who try their best to pretend that it is really the wife’s fault for the husband’s transgressions. What especially galls me is the “rehabilitation” of these frauds. So we have Gingrich putting himself forward as a thoughtful statesman (forget the wife he dumped while she was trying to cope with cancer) – Larry Craig and his senatorial friends pretending that their adultery really doesn’t spill over into corruption in their political activities. Sanford will be “rehabilitated” – he will embrace his soul-mate and rise to ever higher levels in his political party. I have trouble understanding the assertion that Jenny Sanford is as much an embarrassment as her former husband. Please. And spare us the expression that one is glad he wasn’t impeached. He deserves worse – unfortunately, his political supporters and allies will now put Jenny Sanford on trial. At least, the book provides her with an opportunity to tell the truth about a person who apparently is, like so many politicians, incapable of telling the truth.
Well, #4, if you’ll put Bill Clinton on your list of outrage over rehabilitated frauds, I’ll agree with much of what you say. Mark Sanford’s public behavior and statements, though, make me think that he is very unlikely to be rehabilitated in his political career, not as a Republican/conservative. It’s Gingrich himself who thinks he might be presidential material; I don’t.
My problem with Jenny Sanford’s reflections is that they will have to be dealt with by her sons, not just her putative grandchildren. I respected her previous dignified silence and am sorry she has left it.
She’s got a book, already?
She needs income to raise her 4 sons – i.e., a hefty advance and a % of book sales. Remember, her husband is probably not going to have too many job opportunities after he is retired from office.
Billy, it is my understanding that Jenny is an heiress to the Skil tool money. I doubt the book money is needed to provide for her and the boys.
# 5 I have no trouble putting Mr. Clinton, Mr. Kennedy, and any other adulterous Democrat you’d care to name on my list of rehabilitated frauds, but I don’t believe that is really the issue, is it? The issue is who dares stand up for Jenny Sanford? Apparently, some of those who find her husband’s behavior distasteful are willing to condemn her for wanting to take the opportunity to tell her side of the story. I happen to believe it needs to be told, especially to that group of South Carolinians and Republicans who believed Mr. Sanford was the hope of their party on the national level, and perhaps still hope the fuss will soon be over and he can resume his charming career built on principle and frugality.
As Katherine said in #8, Jenny Sanford has no worry about money. And speaking for those I know in South Carolina, Mark Sanford has very little to no hope of resuming his career. The entire episode was just too strange for anyone to trust his judgement in holding office, but I can see him becoming, like Gingrich perhaps, someone who offers ideas on how to handle budget deficits, etc. But no elected office ever again.
“He became disconnected from the person he was originally.” That about says it all.
Dan, are you implying that Sanford was a hypocrite? I don’t think the story is about hypocricy. Jenny Sanford says he was principled and frugal. This a classic tale of a fall from grace. Like the prodigal son, I pray that he comes to himself.
#11 I’m not implying it. He was a solid “family values” man. As for him being wayward son, I see very little in his behavior to date that suggests repentance and any awareness that he needs to do more than consult his wife about how successfully he has conducted his post-adultery PR campaign. I’ll let God judge the state of his soul. I too pray Sanford comes to himself. I do hope we lay off criticizing a woman who has considerably more character than Sanford has so far displayed.
I’d agree that I see little to indicate genuine repentance in Mark Sanford. And I agree that she’s got considerably more character than he does. However, when I was driving this afternoon I heard her on the radio here in Raleigh, NC, talking demeaningly to the local radio host about her husband from the days when she first knew him. I don’t think we “need” to hear this. I doubt South Carolinians need to hear this. They know what he did, and his career in elective politics is shot, even before this book and promotional interviews.
Can’t wait to read his book.
Mrs. Sanford may or may not say everything just perfectly; but what she is doing is adding the leavening agent of the Christian into the culture – a culture which desperately needs it. She is offering herself; be kind and hope it will be heard by those who have ears to hear.
RE: “I happen to believe it needs to be told, especially to that group of South Carolinians and Republicans who believed Mr. Sanford was the hope of their party on the national level, and perhaps still hope the fuss will soon be over and he can resume his charming career built on principle and frugality.”
Although Sanford is a political conservative and thus values individual liberty, the free market, and the Constitution as I do, I have no interest in his resuming his career as a politician. Unlike so many . . . others in . . . other . . . parties . . . I prefer that adulterers leave in disgrace.