{"id":945,"date":"2009-06-25T14:16:18","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T14:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/06\/gods-laws-and-mark-sanfords-be.html"},"modified":"2009-06-25T14:16:18","modified_gmt":"2009-06-25T14:16:18","slug":"gods-laws-and-mark-sanfords-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/06\/gods-laws-and-mark-sanfords-be.html","title":{"rendered":"Mark Sanford Didn’t “Let Us Down”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politicians when caught in sex scandals seem to often apologize for “letting down” or “disappointing” various people — and Mark Sanford hit that point over and over.<\/p>\n

For his family: “Let me first of all apologize to my wife Jenny, and our four great boys Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake for letting them down<\/strong>.”
\nHis staff: “And so I let them down <\/strong>by creating a fiction with regard to where I was going, which means that I then in turn given as much as they relied on that information, let down people that I represent <\/strong>across this state….”
\n“I want to apologize to anybody who lives in South Carolina for the way that I let them down…”<\/strong>
\n“I have in a very profound way, have let down the Tom Davises of the world.<\/strong>…”
\nThe father-in-law: “I let him down…”<\/strong>
\n“I’ve let down a lot of people.<\/strong> That’s the bottom line….”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When New York’s Democratic Governor Elliot Spitzer resigned for infidelity, he said he had “disappointed” his wife. Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiania apologized <\/a>for “deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way.”
\nThis language has always bothered me. I let down my kids when I promise to see Friday the 13th with them and then don’t. I disappont my wife when I promise to get home in time and then don’t.
\nSanford didn’t let down his family, he betrayed them. He didn’t disappointed them, he harmed them.
\nI empathize with the anguish Sanford seems to feel, but if you’re going to apologize, start by not minimizing the severity of what you’ve done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Politicians when caught in sex scandals seem to often apologize for “letting down” or “disappointing” various people — and Mark Sanford hit that point over and over. For his family: “Let me first of all apologize to my wife Jenny, and our four great boys Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake for letting them down.” His…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nMark Sanford Didn't "Let Us Down" - Steven Waldman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/06\/gods-laws-and-mark-sanfords-be.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mark Sanford Didn't "Let Us Down" - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Politicians when caught in sex scandals seem to often apologize for “letting down” or “disappointing” various people — and Mark Sanford hit that point over and over. For his family: “Let me first of all apologize to my wife Jenny, and our four great boys Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake for letting them down.” His…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/06\/gods-laws-and-mark-sanfords-be.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-25T14:16:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"swaldman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mark Sanford Didn't \"Let Us Down\" - Steven Waldman","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/06\/gods-laws-and-mark-sanfords-be.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mark Sanford Didn't \"Let Us Down\" - Steven Waldman","og_description":"Politicians when caught in sex scandals seem to often apologize for “letting down” or “disappointing” various people — and Mark Sanford hit that point over and over. 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