Gov. Sanford and covering scandals

You have to love the story about South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford who was supposedly hiking the Appalachian Trail for four days but now says he was actually in Argentina ending an affair.

Sure, I feel sorry for Sanford's wife and four boys, three of whom are teens and the youngest of whom is just 10. I don't feel Sanford's pain but that's probably because he lied and left his state without a governor while he was off fooling around or whatever he was doing.

Then there's the story of Nevada Sen. John Ensign, who resigned from a party leadership position early this month, after news came out about an affair with a former staff member. Ensign is vocal about family values and opposes gay marriage. So much for the sanctity of marriage. What more does he think homosexuals could do to marriage?

In each case, there's a legitimate news value to these stories. Sanford apparently left the state with no one in charge and Ensign is violating his own holier than thou principles. But here's the thing: you can always find news value in public officials' family life or to put it another way, the personal life of politicians has become fair game for better or worse.

I love a scandal as much as the next guy and I guess I wouldn't advocate going back to ignoring personal issues. F.D.R. couldn't hide the fact that he was crippled today and J.F.K. certainly couldn't hide his numerous affairs. But it's amazing how we accept the fact that politicians' personal lives are up for grabs and then find ways to justify it afterward.

As for the politicians who know the rules of the game and are well aware that the world is watching, their inability to keep it in their pants will never cease to amaze us. The Republican leaders are dropping like flies and that's because they're using the wrong organ to do their thinking for them.

But I don't want to get all sanctimonious here. I love a good scandal and I'll be following all the details of Gov. Sanford and his long, long detour around the Applachian Trail.