Sanford and forgiveness and so forth

Governor Mark Sanford gave a recent interview with the Florence Morning News in which he droned on about moving on and about how South Carolinians have a large capacity to forgive. Fair enough. South Carolinians can be a forgiving people. That is a good trait. We all have our moments.

A couple of things come to mind when someone so embraces a people's forgiveness. Cynically, the first is that the person who wronged the people counts on their forgiving nature to get away with a transgression. It is sort of the "suckers" will keep me anyway approach. The second thing that comes to mind is that most people, who sincerely want forgiveness, make some of sort of sacrifice. Some call that sacrifice repentance. In other words, to be truly forgiven, you have to repent, and repenting often involves giving up something, or at least admitting the true wrongdoing.

Since the Sanford scandal broke, VUI has not cared about the personal indiscretions of the Governor. That is between the Governor and his wife and the other woman involved. Frankly, it does not matter in the grand scheme of things how sorry he is for cheating on his wife. If someone knows the Governor personally, it might help him in remaining as his friend, but for the rest of us, it comes to down to his job.

And, that, Governor Sanford has not truly repented for. The Governor was AWOL, incommunicado, gone, however one wants to put it. It was a dereliction of duty that embarrassed the state in the eyes of the nation. That is the crux of the issue regarding him. A Governor went missing. The legislature and the pundits have lost the focus on that, and for that Governor Sanford gets a pass and talks about how sorry he is for his personal problems.

But, the Governor seems not one bit sorry for going AWOL. He has not offered to refund the state for the pay he got while missing. He has not offered any concrete plans on how he would never let that happen again and how he would communicate with SLED and the Lt. Governor on such occasions. Instead, he blows smoke about his personal life.

Think of it on your own terms. Suppose you were AWOL from your job for about a week. Could you come back to your job? Would your employer keep you on if you apologized for cheating on your wife?

Of course not, but politicians do not live in the real business world, even those like Sanford who claim to understand business.

Sanford's acts also defy political logic. The Sanford machine was once outstanding at politics. But, the Governor's choice not to make any real sacrifice in the wake of his act of disappearance has all but destroyed his political career and wiped away any hope of the Governor accomplishing anything but late night talk show jokes for the rest of his term.

While VUI holds no personal hard feelings against the Governor, the Governor is bigger than the rest of us, be we teachers, doctors, lawyers, legislators or garbage collectors. The Governor of South Carolina represents South Carolina, right or wrong. As such, we give the Governor a car, a security detail, servants, staff, and respect. In return the Governor owes us a sense of responsibility that gives the people true sacrifice and repentance before public forgiveness for transgressions against the public can be given.

Governor Sanford and the people around him missed that. A simple resignation or an act of dignified contrition could have prevented the past few months and could prevent what it likely to come in January. This is not about a Governor cheating on his wife. This about a Governor letting his personal life interfere with his duties, and then showing absolutely no remorse about that interference. It is about a Governor not realizing that has caused him to be politically inept, costing South Carolina time, jobs, and investment money.

To put it plainly, if Governor Sanford had written bad checks, ran up bad debts, drank himself to sleep, cursed out staff, and cheated on his wife, we could forgive him for all that, as long as his personal indiscretions did not interfere with him carrying out his duties. People mess up. The Good Lord knows the staff of VUI has from time to time. But, when people's mess ups keep them for doing their jobs, their employers might not judge them, but they often fire them. Customers walk away. That is how the real world works.

Mark Sanford had an affair that consumed him. It led him to be derelict of his duties as Governor. It continues to hamstring his effectiveness as Governor.

The sad and ironic thing is that Mark Sanford could have received the forgiveness he speaks of had he knew his own power to either resign or be sincere in his repentance for his public transgression. Instead, the Governor limps out the rest of his term, dogged by impeachment rumors and seeking forgiveness from the public in personal matters that only his wife and loved ones can truly give him.