Another Election, Another Affair

Americans are absolutely ga ga over someone else's sex life, especially if that someone is a celebrity, political incumbent or, as in today's news, a Republican candidate for South Carolina governor who also had a widely publicized tryst on the Appalacian Trail, uh, check that, with a woman in Argentina.

In the latest tell-all sexploitation, a Republican operative who has a blogsite (who doesn't?) confesses he had an affair with Rep. Nikki Haley who recently was endorsed by Sarah Palin in a push that could give her an edge in that conservative state over three other gubernatorial candidates in the June 8 primary.

The blogger and former press secretary to Gov. Mark Sanford is Will Folks who insisted he wanted to beat other folks to the punch releasing the "news" of which he admits to having an "inappropriate physical relationship" with Haley "several years ago."

Haley, of course, denies any such thing claiming "100% fidelity" to her husband of 13 years. The couple has two children.

At least Sanford's wife, who divorced  him, broke the old custom of appearing with her philandering spouse before the cameras so I suspect we will miss that extravaganza from Haley's husband and/or Folks' spouse or latest girl friend, whichever might be the case.

These sexual admissions are becoming so commonplace they have reached the theater of the absurd. Just the other day I read somewhere that still another girl friend of Tiger Woods ran with high heels over the trail of female bodies before her that she, too, went to bed with the golfer.

The frequency of these sexual dalliances are becoming so commonplace, so boorish, that America some day will reach the cultural pinnacle now held by French and Italian politicians who wear their infidelity as a badge of honor.

Folks is approaching that exalted rung on the ladder.

"It is what it is, and aside from the Haley family – Michael, Nikki, Rena and Nalin – I feel no need to apologize or explain myself to anyone. People are human. We make mistakes. And as I have learned from experience, the key to life isn’t the mistakes we make, it’s how we choose to handle them."

Don't you love people who say having an affair is a mistake only when they are caught or confess?

Haley faces state Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster, Rep. Gresham Barrett and Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer in the June 8 GOP primary.

By the way, Palin is not in the least troubled by her annointment of Haley. On her Facebook, MSNBC's First Read quotes her:

"South Carolina: don’t let some blogger make any accusation against your Nikki if the guy doesn’t even have the guts or the integrity to speak further on such a significant claim. And don’t believe anything a liberal rag claims or suggests unless the reporter involved has the integrity and the facts to report to you so you can make up your own mind."

Dad gummit Sarah, Folks is an avid Haley supporter.

As for that "liberal rag," let's see. The number of affairs I had before and after my marriage were ...

... None of your darn business.