Sanford's Affair Sparks Debate In GOP Over Family Values Emphasis

Gov. Mark Sanford's admission to an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina has sparked a debate within the backchannels of the GOP over how strongly the party should emphasize morality and religion going forward.

For decades, the GOP has used issues like respect for the sanctity of marriage and the notion of family values as a key component of its political platform and a point of divergence between Republicans and Democrats. A series of sex scandals involving high-ranking officials, however, has drastically altered that equation. And now some strategists are questioning whether the party should rethink the way it emphasizes these matters.

"It creates a very interesting tension for Republicans because they understand that there is a very interesting constituency that they have to appeal to, particularly in places like South Carolina, by resorting to that kind of moral values rhetoric," said Mike Maslansky, CEO of Luntz Maslansky, a predominantly conservative communications firm. "I don't say rhetoric as a means of demeaning it. Talking in those terms is a way to appeal to the base. In an election season they find it is a significant advantage to talk in those terms. Maybe for the other three years out of their term they wish that they hadn't."

The GOP, to be certain, will never get to a point where it willfully cedes the moral high ground to Democrats. The social and religious conservatives who comprise a large and vocal portion of the base won't permit such a drift. Nor, for that matter, does it make political sense. The failings of Sanford and others, they argue, were isolated and personal events and not reflective of the party as a whole.

"It is a personal tragedy that he talked about some length," said Frank Donatelli, chairman of GOPAC, a conservative political action committee, and former political director for President Ronald Reagan. "But I don't know that it has implications beyond that."

That said, conservatives have hit a rough patch in the last few years on the family values front, with Sen. John Ensign, Sen. David Vitter, and former Sen. Larry Craig all setting the stage for Sanford's own marital misconduct controversy. And there is a growing belief among strategists that Republicans might -- at least for the time being -- be better served to stress the economic components of their platform rather the social or moral aspects.

"Look, of course, we are the conservative party and we are going to have a conservative message," said Donatelli. "But I do think by talking a little bit more about economic opportunity that we as a party want to offer both at the national and state level, that is what we can do I think to broaden our ranks."

Craig Shirley, a long-time Republican strategist who has been vocal in his criticism of the party, added: "The problem with the Republican Party today is not having principles; the problem is the betrayal of principles. Frankly, I think the whole issue of 'family values' is overstated as a problem in the GOP. The Republican Party has a lot of problems, no doubt, but for every John Ensign or Mark Sanford are ten so-called conservatives undermining the Jeffersonian message of individual rights, individual dignity."

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Comments

[KYlawyer]

RNC = R@cists, Nutz and Cheaters.

[Knowledgeseeker]

GOP don't have anymore Family values.

[LemonMeringue]

Palin perfectly epitomizes their family values.

[Athena123]

Yeah. A mother who works a couple of days after the birth of a special needs child (and probably wouldn't recognize the kid in a lineup), teen pregnancy, forcing women, even victims of rape, to carry babies to term...yeah, these are the things that make up strong and bonded families.

[Halter]

Using her children like fashion accessories to decorate her political ambitions-appalling values

[janpradder]

Stein must be joking with the paragraph. They are not morally superior to anyone, and to even suggest it is ridiculous. In fact, their stance makes them look even more ridiculous. The worst is that most of these people say they are christians, and chastise others for different beliefs. And yet they do not follow the words of their god.
Totally hypocritical.
"The GOP, to be certain, will never get to a point where it willfully cedes the moral high ground to Democrats. The social and religious conservatives who comprise a large and vocal portion of the base won't permit such a drift. Nor, for that matter, does it make political sense. The failings of Sanford and others, they argue, were isolated and personal events and not reflective of the party as a whole."

[myoungholt]

Someone else posted early here that they can't cede what they don't have.

[BrickSykes]

If Republicans in America hope to simply SURVIVE they must do a handful of very important things. Among the first should be to QUARANTINE the Evangelicals and the Church/State Revisionists! The 'Family Values' issue will quiet down on its own after they've contained the Fundamentalists, the folks mainly responsible for the present downfall.

The next thing they should do is revise the list of draconian behavioral 'benchmarks' they all seem to have adopted as 'social standards.' Nearly all of them are highly subjective, arbitrary, and capricious. Nearly all are simply opinions that various of their leaders change and move around daily. No wonder their membership is erring on nearly all fronts! They're impossible for any honest person to follow!

Brick

[Athena123]

The GOP seemed to be infected with all kinds of problems once they were highjacked by the evangelical right in the 80's. It's dangerous to mix religion with politics (see Iran). The christians were no better when they controlled the state (crusades, witch tortures and murders, inquisition, promotion of slavery, oppression of women, etc.). It is secularism, and rational thinking, that provides accountability for religious people.

[LemonMeringue]

The Republicans seem to be having a great deal of trouble protecting marriage between a man and a woman.

[ztck5356]

Here is a link of all the politicians, including Stanford, who criticized Clinton about Monica Lewinsky and called for his resignation. See where they all are now!

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7930748&page=1

[dwillisno1]

Let me see if I understand this. If you conduct fails to live up to your rhetoric, don't change your behavior or condemn the conduct, just tone down the rhetoric? Gives new meaning to hypocrisy!

[myoungholt]

Dang! You get an A+ !

[dessertsfirst]

At the least, the Republiconservative christian right may need to relinquish their robes of self-righteousness... as in "he who is without sin, let him cast the first stone"!! These are Christ's own words to a group of religious wing-nuts of His day, who brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. They wanted to stone her, which was the punishment then, for adulterers.
Of course, the problem w/ Sanford, is that he abandoned his job at the helm for the State of South Carolina... to me, that is the issue which should be addressed for Mr. Sanford, and let him and his wife deal w/ the infidelity issue. The rest of us get entangled in the Christian conservative family morals thing in politics... While family morals need to be applauded, really they have no place in politics. We want our leaders to live exemplory lives, but Mr. Sanford had apparently been at odds w/ the opinions of his cabinet, and he was really not serving well the people of his State. Whether the affair had an impact on the way he did his job might be speculated, but again the affair itself should not be the real issue here.

[learneddemocrat]

Ah, com'on guys. We let Bill get away with it.......after he lied to us. "i did not have sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinski." Are you saying the Republican party has morals or standards that have been violated here, but the Democrats do not. I don't think we can have it both ways. We cannot say it was okay for Bill but shame, shame on Mark. It has, rather should have nothing to do with party affiliation. We should hold all elected officials to the same standards, to high standards.

[sviolette]

The republicans know they can't live up to the standards so they are just going to ignore the standards. Let's see how that'll work out for them.

[learneddemocrat]

Sorry to inform you of this sad fact, but neither party can live up to the standards.

[FlamingLibrul]

I don't recall Bill Clinton ever invoking biblical passages and all things holy while running for office, or while running the government. And Bill lied about an issue he should never have been asked about, period. He broke no laws in his admittedly sleazy conduct with Ms. Lewinsky, except for the pledge he made to his wife when he married her. Same goes for any other Democrat caught with his pants down- the hypocrisy factor is just not the same. When you've got sanctimonious, self-righteous moralizers denying American citizens the right to marry or adopt children, because it's against their morals and values- and then they soil the very institution they supposedly hold so sacred- they deserve every amount of ridicule and ignomy they get.

[notb observer]

Exactly ! Bring out the dunking chair ! Funny that none of those psycho extremist christians have tried to exorcise the adultery demons out of him like they tried to do to that gay teen.
One adjective that I am seeing repeatedly in this thread is the word "HYPOCRITE". No word describes the current GOP better than this, so much so that I'm surprised there isn't an 'H' in GOP... And it's not limited to the political figures, no, you can even see it happening daily at FoxNews, O'Reilly and Limbaugh. The Daily Show has done a great job of juxtaposing these gas bags ranting about something the "libruls" are doing in one breath and doing it themselves in the next. They are either so caught up in their own moral superiority that they cannot see their own failings, or they are just so damned stupid that even the painfully obvious reality of their hypocrisy escapes them. I suspect it's a little of both.
Whatever the case, their continued attempts at claiming the high moral ground is beginning to fall on deaf ears. To some extend Dems are inoculated from any moral failings by Clinton's Lewinsky scandal (it's not surprising if it's a Dem...), but the Repug stance makes it worse when it happens to one of their own. As the saying goes, "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones."...

[dizzypdx]

Couldn't put it better myself.

[Athena123]

Agreed. I'm still amazed that he was almost impeached for this, when Bush was responsible for the needless death of over 100,000 people (and that's just in Iraq), Katrina, treating the constitution like a list of suggestions, consistently lying to the public, wiretapping, torture, the list goes on and on. But he didn't cheat, so I guess he's still a moral christian. Sexual indiscretions seem to be the only thing the GOP considers immoral. Starving people, eliminating healthcare from a huge percentage of the population, and taking money from the poor to give to the rich are perfectly fine and moral activities.

[timberdoodle]

Imagine a grown man crying not because he broke his marriage vows but because he got caught. Anyone dumb enough to leave his love letters in an area where he asks his wife to get him files and paperwork obviously is in dire need of adult supervision.

[20090120]

I've noticed that all during long, long string of Sanford's confessions (?), he never says the word 'lie'....as in "I lied to my friends, family, wife, mistress, legislature, staff, etc.,etc., etc." But that's all he's been doing the entire past several weeks, months, years.

[4 Real]

This Christian value moral majority krapp is just that, krapp. Reagan found allies in the social conservatives back in the days of his we.lff.are queens driving cadillacs" speech, r.a.c.ist code speak that appealed to the southern r.a.c.is.ts who called themselves "christian".
That has morphed into this holier than thou rhetoric designed to string along those same voters while the elected republicans did the exact opposite.
What I don't understand is these so-called christians say JC is their savior yet they sure don't follow his teachings of love they neighbor and turn the other check.
Seems they hijacked christianity and turned it into a c.u.l.t.

[learneddemocrat]

Wow. You're sad. To lump an entire political party like that. Does that mean all Democrats cheat on their wives like Clinton, steal money like William Jefferson, push female party members around and verbally abuse them like Obey? No it doesn't. Each elected official should be rated on his own merit or lack thereof. Pathetically ignorant, otherwise.

[4 Real]

If the core platform of a political party is social conservatism and family values, then they need to lead by example and practice what they preach. Sure, rate them individually but stop with the biblical references and sanctimonious BS when you get caught. That's what disgusts people. The dems never staked out the high moral ground as their mantra, so whey they get caught, it's the idjit that suffers, not the whole party, as in Sanford's case.

[CanadianBeef]

Although he was cavalier with his own marriage, in office Gov. Sanford has been keenly concerned with other people's marriages. He voted no to civil unions; he voted to define marriage as one-man-one-woman; and he voted to ban gay adoptions. Apparently this believer in less government in our lives would tell everyone else how to marry and love and raise children . . .

[CanadianBeef]

Yes, this religious man, fueled by Chist's words, has voted to cut welfare benefits after two years (1994), has voted for more prisons, more executions, for making federal death penalty appeals harder, and for removing the right of habeas corpus in Death Penalty Appeals.
Sanford was a hypocrite long before this infidelity episode.

[PhillyQuaker]

He must be some kinda time traveler as no one knows for certain what Jesus really said.