Tfgray’s Weblog

According to South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, God wants him to continue drawing a government paycheck. God apparently also wanted him to–how do you put it? Oh, yeah–”Cleave to his wife,” but apparently some commandments are optional. Not, like, engraved in stone, or anything. This is another example of the standard Republican  rulebook:

Rule #1: It’s only bad when they do it. Followed quickly by

Rule #2: They must be punished for their transgression, and

Rule #3: But not us.

God notwithstanding, Governor Sanford will not resign for one simple reason. If he does, the next question will be, why not Senator Ensign? I mean if Clinton can get impeached over a bimbo, what’s Diaper Dan Vitter doing in Congress? Why are people still listening to potifications of thrice-married philanderers Rudi Giuliani and Newt “Impeach Clinton for his disgusting immoral behavior” Gingrich?

The Republicans have put themselves in an interesting predicament. They built a power base by cozying up to the holier-than-thou crowd. If they do the right thing by taking their lumps when they violate the principles they supposedly stand for, they lose votes in the Senate in the short term, but might redeem themselves with their Base in time. If they claim that their behavior should not be measured by the same standards they apply to everyone else,  they keep their votes in Congress but risk losing voters who cling to those values.

But when’s the last time they thought long-term?

Yeah, I know, Carl Rove thought he was building a “permanent Republican majority.” The Neoconservatives thought they were initiating an era of permanent US world dominance. However, if you look at the means they used to try to achieve these goals, you’ll see that it was one short-term trick after another. Telling lies: about WMD, about 9/11, about Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, about the parentage of John McCain’s adopted daughter, Al Gore and the Internet,the list goes on. They demanded that lobbyists contribute to only their candidates, utterly failed to enforce laws that would rein in business behavior that profited their contributors,  another list that  grows with every headline.

No. They’ll stick with the short term strategy, and trust that their most fervent supporters will continue to be blind to their actions. They’ll count on our collective memory not extending all the way to November 2010.