Sanford Invokes God, and Sarah Palin

Parsing two higher powers as a governor struggles to survive

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has invoked the name of two higher powers in his struggle to keep his position: God and Sarah Palin. Sanford "vowed," according to the Washington Times, "to fight on for conservative causes and for 'what God wanted me to do with my life,'" while acknowledging the following: "I think I now know what Sarah may have been feeling."

Questions: 1) Does this make sense? 2) Why is this man still in office?

As always, bloggers are there to answer those questions. Here are their thoughts so far:

• 'Sanford: God on His Side, Palin on His Mind,' explained Glenn Thrush of Politico. Sanford wasn't comparing himself to Palin "in the quitting department," he added, helpfully.

• He's Looking for Christian Support, suggested Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo. Sanford "disappointed many Christian voters with the revelation of his philandering ways."

• He's Looking for A Comeback, National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez asserted. "With calls for his resignation getting louder, it's understandable that Sanford would reach for Palin's skirt (I already regret writing that)." This is a "post-scandal comeback" bid. But Palin never disappeared, Lopez countered. "Alaskans can argue that running for veep was abandonment, but they always knew where she was. Heck, we all knew where she was."

• He's Looking for Lincoln ... Poorly  Citing the line about fooling "some of the people, all of the time" often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, John Perr on Crooks and Liars sarcastically suggested Sanford was seeking to draw support from the famous president by turning his "my greatest concern is to be on God's side" maxim "on its head."

• And He Can't Be Outed, Because Someone Outed the Lt.  The mainstream media has picked up the online allegation that the Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer is gay. Melissa McEwan on political group blog Shakesville imagined the following scene:
  

The GOP leadership in South Carolina is sitting in a smoky room somewhere, trying to decide if they want to stick with the coop-flying adulterer with a Messiah complex and ethics violations or 'take their chances with a queer.' The fact that they even need to deliberate that question say everything you need to know about the modern GOP.

No confirmation on Mr. Bauer for now, but it's an interesting idea.