Terence Samuel on the unique undoing of Mark Sanford by love:
Mark Sanford’s press conference on Wednesday — the most recent in what seems like a weekly series of GOP infidelity apologies — made for riveting television; the more you listened to the South Carolina governor, the less interesting the story’s political implications became compared to the raw human drama of a man getting crushed by the consequences of falling in love. Sanford’s sudden implosion seems that the political fates have decided that to save the GOP they must destroy it, or, in their own parlance, the party must be born again. Sanford was that rare figure who fought at the barricades of the GOP revolution in 1994 and who survived its collapse with enough credibility intact to think about a future.
The Republican Governors Association, which Sanford chaired until his resignation this week, presently blares this headline: “The GOP Comeback Begins with Republican Governors.” Sanford was to lead that comeback. Now he can’t.
