Rachel Maddow: Gov. Mark Sanford's 'Hypocrisy Rap Sheet'

Run time: 06:06 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0sIZQr5X7Y   Posted on YouTube: June 25, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 25, 2009 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 6627

 
MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show - 24 June 2009: Rachel Maddow & Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's 'Hypocrisy Rap Sheet.'

RACHEL: ...if his value as a politician has been built up on a foundation of attacking other people for doing what he just did. Is he a hypocrite? Has he built his political career on saying he'd never do anything like this, and on condemning people who do? Moral superiority isn't a prerequisite for public servive, but it is a prerequisite for those public servants who publically claim that they are morally superiority.

Gov. Sanford's record on claims of moral superiority, after about 2:30 p.m. Eastern today, started reading like a 'hypocrisy rap sheet.' In late 1998, then Congressman Mark Sanford was preparing to vote to impeach President Clinton. His analysis at the time: "I think it would be much better for the country and for (Clinton) personally (to resign). I come from the business side. If you had a chairman or president in the business world facing these allegations, he'd be gone."

The allegations against Pres. Clinton, you may recall, were that he had had an affair and then lied about it, though not in Argentina.

Meanwhile, Republicans in 1998, had chosen as Speaker of the House Louisiana Bob Livingston, who then admitted to an extramarital affair. Congressman Sanford also gave Congressman Livingston a shove out the Speaker's door when he told CNN at the time: 'the bottom line ... is he still lied. He lied under a different oath, and that is the oath to his wife.'

We've also unearthed a Mark Sanford campaign ad from 2002...

VIDEO: "Jenny and I try our best to teach our four little boys Christian values, character and honesty. You'd like to think that those values apply to government, too, and that starts with keeping your word. When I ran for Congress, I said I would support term limits, never take a dime from special interests, and not waste the taxpayers' word."

RACHEL: You know, it wasn't just prostitutes that sank Elliot Spitzer's career. It was the combination of the gung-ho law-and-order profile plus the prostitutes. It wasn't just a wide stance in a men's room that sank Larry Craig's career. It was the wide stance, plus the anti-gay holier-than-thou traditional values public record. And for Sen. John Ensign now, even before you get to the ethical issues of his mistress and her family all being on and off the Ensign and Republican party payroll, it is likely to be his demands that other people resign because of their sexual affairs that will sink Sen. Ensign for his sexual affairs. It's do as I say, not as I do, and it really really never works.

his strong moral values, and against Gay marriage, and his holier than thou tone. I'm not laughing about this at all when it comes to the kids - won't someone think about the children? as we like to joke, in this case - truly! What a LOSER of a dad... on Father's Day weekend of all things...