Get ready for more from the Appalachian trail
by David Atkins
It looks like prodigal son Mark Sanford will be coming back into the fold:
Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's opponent is showing some momentum in the closing days of the Republican primary campaign for the state’s open House seat — but it may be too late to help him win Tuesday's vote.
Attorney Curtis Bostic, who finished second to Sanford in a preliminary vote March 19, has secured some high-profile backing in the final week of the campaign.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) stumped with him last Wednesday in the district and conservative commentator Ann Coulter also endorsed him.
Coulter called Sanford the “Todd Akin of South Carolina” — a reference to the failed GOP Senate candidate in Missouri — because of scandal over the ex-governor’s past marital infidelities...
But Bostic, a social conservative and former Charleston city councilman, has a steep hill to climb if he is to mount an upset.
He finished a distant second in the first round of voting, with 13 percent, compared to Sanford’s 37 percent.
And despite the high-profile endorsements, there are no clear evidence Bostic has done much to rally the voters who backed other candidates in the first round of voting.
I don't much care about the sex lives of politicians. It matters far more how they vote on issues than what they do in their private lives, which is mostly a problem for themselves and their families. But it's jarring to hear the hypocrisy of those who make a big deal of of sexual morality in public claiming to know that God has forgiven them when they transgress themselves.
Of course, "redemption" is an important part of the social conservative ethic as well. It's part of the culture that one can preach fire and brimstone about the moral lives of others while committing flagrant ethical transgressions oneself, provided that those transgressions be followed with sackcloth and ashes contrition and even more vocal protestations of faith. Sanford knows his audience, and he's playing them like a fiddle.
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