Long after the last cow has come home

By A.J. DiCintio

For some inexplicable reason, Governor Mark Sanford feels a compulsion to keep his media confessional sessions going as hot and heavy as his illicit affairs, despite the fact that in doing so he succeeds only in compounding the injury he has done to so many, foremost, his wife, his children, the people of his state, and his office.

As a result of Sanford's mad desire to expiate his sins with a sordid flood of "too much information," there ought to be nothing left for common sense citizens to do but agree with statements the AP attributes to Harvey Peeler, South Carolina's Republican Senate Majority Leader:

"There's just no way he'll be able to continue as governor."

"I'm really concerned about his mental well being."

Yes, there ought to be nothing left to do — if it were not for the fact that every time a politician whose name is followed by an "R" is caught in an adulterous affair, the liberal propaganda machine begins churning out garbage about poor, persecuted Bill Clinton.

Right on cue that is exactly what has happened regarding the Sanford case. And that's why there is something to do for those of us who have committed ourselves to telling the truth about that vile, insulting lie no matter how many times liberals spew it.

First, some evidence — all of it, appropriately, from the nation's principal liberal mouthpiece:

"Mark was the self-righteous, Bible-thumping prig who pressed for Bill Clinton's impeachment." (Maureen Dowd)

". . . I'm thinking it's time for the Republicans to apologize for putting us through the Clinton impeachment. We seem to have pretty well established that sexual stone-throwing is a dangerous sport." (Gail Collins)

"Sanford voted to impeach Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky saga. According to The Post and Courier of Charleston, Sanford called Clinton's behavior 'reprehensible' and said, 'I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally' to resign.'" (Charles M. Blow then speaks of 'hypocrisy.')

Problem is, for the nation's self-professed moral and intellectual giants to spew such condemnations as they equate Bill Clinton's behavior with ordinary infidelity, they must ignore a number of facts, including these:

The impeachment of President Clinton arose not from legal (though immoral, crude, and cowardly) actions he took to keep his wife from learning of sexual activities between him and a youthful, female White House intern.

It arose because the affair in its totality was naturally of interest to a woman who was suing Clinton for sexual harassment that occurred while she worked for the Arkansas state government and he was governor of the state.

The fact is, then, that Clinton lied under oath, suborned perjury, obstructed justice, and abused the powers of his office (especially by ordering IRS audits) to enhance his chances of winning a lawsuit properly brought against him by a United States citizen.

But that illegal behavior by the nation's top law enforcement officer and commander-in-chief doesn't represent the whole story; for in addition to evidence that supports the charges mentioned above, the independent counsel uncovered a credible charge of rape against Clinton, a charge which he kept separate from the case at hand.

Democrats, however, deemed rape such a peccadillo (a favorite liberal word of the time) that they didn't walk across the street (literally) to read the charges for themselves.

Indeed, Vice-president Al Gore, the nation's second most important Democrat, considered the rape charge so infinitesimally small that he didn't just refuse to cross the street, he deemed it a waste of his valuable time to watch the television program on which Clinton's accuser detailed the assault.

Neither did Democrats deem it necessary to consider the kind of evidence that Christopher Hitchens uncovered for his book, "No One Left To Lie To: The Values of the Worst Family," for example, the charge that like all sex offenders, Clinton had a particular modus operandi, part of which was to initiate an encounter with a victim by biting her fiercely on the lip.

Arrogant, pretentious ideologues that they are, liberals shut their eyes to the truth about one of their political gods then just as they are doing now in the Sanford case and just as they will do in the future.

But they need not prevail in a perversity whose purpose is to subordinate everything to the dogmas of the Liberal Church; for "truth will out" as long as there are those who commit themselves to speak it, today, tomorrow, and, if necessary, long, long after the last straggler of a cow has wended its winding way home.

© A.J. DiCintio