Lindsey Graham admitted that he was godfather to two children disgraced Gov. Mark Sanford in South Carolina. How does NBC expect Graham to be objective in any sense of the word? He should not be on TV talking about this situation.
Graham and Romney and the rest of the Republicans are hypocritical windbags for defending Sanford now when they all tried to get Bill Clinton impeached. Sanford left his state completely without leadership for almost a full week and if an emergency had occurred in South Carolina there was nobody with the authority to help his constituents. That is the firing offense for Sanford. He was derelict in his duty. All he had to do was give the word and the Lt. Governor could have taken over, but he was in love so it's just alright if you listen to the Peggy Noonans of the conservative movement.
MTP:
MR. GREGORY: ...of South Carolina. Governor Mark Sanford disappeared for five days then announced that, in fact, he'd had a mistress, he was visiting a mistress in Argentina. He misled his staff, he misled the voters. Should he resign?
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, the first thing, I'm the godfather of Mark and Jenny's youngest child, so I'm just going to put that on the table. My main focus right now is can this marriage be saved? Can these kids have a mom and dad to guide them through life? That is my main focus. I think if Mark can reconcile with Jenny, and that's not going to be easy, that he can finish his last 18 months. He's had a good reform agenda. And I do believe that if, if he can reconcile with his family and if he's willing to try, that the people of South Carolina would be willing to give him a second chance. But he's also got to reconcile the legislature. If he can get his family back together, I think he can continue out his term and maybe do some good things next year.
Suddenly the party of moral values is the party of sinners.
SEN. GRAHAM: Yeah. I think we're a party of sinners, just like every other group in America, but we're also a party that openly talks about good things. It is good for Mark and Jenny to get back together, if that's possible, because it's good for families to have a mom and dad. And it's OK to talk about those things. And part of life is failing. So from Mark's point of view, if he can get his family back together, people are pretty fair in this country. Bill Clinton had his problems. People looked at his job performance, they looked at his personal failings and they said, "You know what, we're going to put one over here and the other over there." That's no justification for what Mark did, but I think the people of South Carolina appreciate what Mark tried to do as governor to change their state.
Sanford's presser was crazy. The people of South Carolina should be asking, "Was Sanford in his right mind dealing with the stimulus package?" He was refusing the money to a state in deep unemployment and obviously battling being in love with another woman. Well we knew that, but if you think Americans will be easily duped by the claim Sanford was acting in their best interests, think again.
And Graham's remarks underscore the fact that the witch hunt that Republicans and the media perpetrated on Bill Clinton was disgusting and should never be forgiven. The same behavior now is OK in their books, of course, if it involves a Republican.
SEN. GRAHAM: And they're very disappointed in what he did as Mark the individual and his malfeasance at, at times, but they can reconcile the two only if, if Jenny and Mark can get back together. I think the people of South Carolina will give him a second chance.
MR. GREGORY: Do you think you had that kind of compassion during the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton?
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, I can tell you this. I'm the only Republican that voted against the article that dealt with lying about Monica Lewinsky, because I think lying about a consensual affair when you're blindsided is not a high crime or misdemeanor. The reason I vote for impeachment is because it was a lawsuit about nonconsensual behavior where President Clinton was accused of doing some very crude things; he manipulated witnesses, he undermined the integrity of the legal system like Richard Nixon undermined the integrity of the political system. That's what I focused on, not the fact that he lied about a consensual event.
Riiight, and Sanford didn't fly to Argentina on the state's dime and didn't lie about it and didn't leave his state without leadership and none of the charges he raised against Clinton were proved true.
MR. GREGORY: Governor, do you think that family values, values generally is still a central pillar of what the Republican Party stands for?
GOV. ROMNEY: Absolutely. There's no question in my mind but that our...
MR. GREGORY: And do you think the public believes this after a string of personal failings that have happened to Democrats and certainly plenty of Republicans?
GOV. ROMNEY: I, I, I don't think there's any question but that we aspire to the highest standards of ethical conduct and that we aspire to values that'll make America stronger. There's no question. But the best think you can do for raising a child is to have a mom and dad love each other in a home. And, and to say that and to say we want to see marriage between men and women, that we want to see families raised with the benefit of people who are married, that's a, that's a very important part of our culture. It's part of what our, our parties believes. We believe in life. These features are important. And do we have people who don't live up to those standards? Absolutely. That's, that's going to be true. But not speaking about things that are important...
MR. GREGORY: Right.
GOV. ROMNEY: ...would be an enormous mistake.MR. GREGORY: But are you sensitive at all to critics on the left who say, you know, Republicans are hypocrites when they go out there and talk about family values?
GOV. ROMNEY: You know, I'm always going to be sensitive to people who are attacking on one side or the other. But I'll tell you, I'd rather be talking about the truth and indicating that sometimes people fall short than not saying what's true. And what is true is that America is a stronger nation if we have a culture which includes the creation of families with moms and dads and marriage and sacrifice for the next generation.
SEN. GRAHAM: You know, and I don't believe Democrats are for dysfunctional families. We don't have any ownership. I think President Obama, quite frankly, has been one of the better role models in the entire country for the idea of being a good parent, a good father. So this idea that, that, that we're for good families and Democrats are silent's not true. I think we fail on both sides. But quite frankly, President Obama has done a lot of good in his--the way he carries himself and conducts himself in the area of family.
And I think Graham was embarrassed for Romney, who tried to say that conservatives are the only people who believe in families. Idiot. This guy is the Republicans' leading candidate for 2012?
