Lesson Learned From Sanford: He's Nuts

Mark Sanford’s appearance yesterday taught us something important: He’s “a complete loony,” writes Gail Collins in the New York Times. We should thank him, really, for providing us with a governor “weirder than Rod Blagojevich and less responsible than Eliot Spitzer.” Once, he was a possible 2012 presidential candidate; now we know he would have been a worse choice for John McCain’s running mate than Sarah Palin.

Some more lessons from the scandal:

• Sanford’s rejection of stimulus cash may not have been an attack on spending—it may just have been “an early sign of total nuttiness.”
• “Perhaps it is time to rethink the idea of constantly electing middle-aged heterosexual men to positions of high importance.”
• The GOP should apologize for the Clinton impeachment ordeal. “We seem to have pretty well established that sexual stone-throwing is a dangerous sport.”

(More Gail Collins stories.)