Thursday, June 25, 2009
Questions of Character [Andrew Stuttaford]
Kathryn, there may be good political reasons for Sanford to go (not least that press conference), but if Bill Bennett really believes what Chuck Colson is saying, he must have forgotten all the history he once read.
Many of the great leaders of the past have had chaotic marriages, and/or, for that matter, other "behavioral issues" (let's use the euphemistic jargon) that would not, doubtless, have delighted some more moralistic folk, but so what? For all we know it is the flaws that make the statesman. What voters should look for in a politician is effectiveness, an agenda, and instincts they agree with. If they are looking for saints, they should try their luck in a church, not a governor's mansion. Chuck Colson always deserves immense credit for his recognition of the terrible problems in this country's prison system (and his efforts to do something about them), but remarks such as those that Bennett quotes suggest that, so far as the future of the GOP is concerned, Colson is part of the problem, not the solution.
06/25 07:38 AM
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