Post-Coital Admissions

Nothing is so satisfying to fundamentalist religious types as the confession of a sinner who has learned the error of his ways, even if he's a hypocrite. Heck, especially if he's a hypocrite.

The more loathsome the sins, the more thrilling the confession:

[W]atching Sanford's confession today, I kept thinking about Sen. John Ensign's (R-Nev.) identical confession just last week. The circumstances are surprisingly similar -- during the Lewinsky scandal a decade ago, Ensign voted to remove the president from office, and Sanford voted to remove Clinton from office. When other prominent politicians got caught in sex scandals, Ensign went on the attack, and Sanford went on the attack. Ensign is an evangelical Christian who's promoted the "sanctity" of marriage; Sanford is an evangelical Christian who's promoted the "sanctity" of marriage.

A politician's personal problems are a private matter, but the hypocrisy here is harder to overlook.

These days, it's almost become an early entry requirement for Republican politicians with national ambitions: confess you've been screwing somebody you shouldn't have. Admit you lied. Today, the sheets hadn't even been washed in Argentina before South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford bared his soulful sins.

What's next? Is Mitt Romney going to call a press conference before he's climbed out of his mistress' bed? Will Bobby Jindal leave his wife for a Louisiana nutria, after sending out a press release?