Ensign and Sanford are the latest in the GOP (your) Family (not mine) Values crowd to be embroiled in sex scandals. (Who will be next? These things always happen in threes, you know!) These latest are particularly interesting – in Ensign’s case, because it appears he may have used his position to arrange for financial reward and punishment for his mistress, and in Sanford’s case, because he apparently spontaneously abdicated his duties in pursuit of his South American love interest.
Maybe Sanford is smarter than we think – he left the country to have his affair, so he probably can’t be charged under South Carolina’s archaic anti-adultery law. However, that alleged higher law he brought up during his speech reserves a harsher punishment for him than the fine and/or prison time prescribed by state legislation:
The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, even he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. (Leviticus 10:20)
Governor, are you sure it’s a good idea to be bringing up “God’s Law” right now, in a state that’s part of the literalist-leaning Bible Belt?