Tag: Mark Sanford

What do Hillary Clinton, John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Bill Nelson, and Tom Coburn have in common?  

They are either members or friends of the Elitist Christian Right group The Family. The family holds weekly prayer meetings or “advisory” meetings where members discuss their problems, both personal and political, and give each other veto power over each others lives.

The Family has operated under various names since its formation in 1935. They have gone under the names:

National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, the National Leadership Council, Fellowship House, the Fellowship Foundation, the National Fellowship Council, the International Foundation

They hold their prayer meetings at the Defense Department, the Pentagon and have their own little cul de sac of houses called Ivanwald where they groom future leaders. They also have a house in Washington where senators and congressmen live called C street. Residents of the C street house include Brownback, Coburn and Ensgin, including both Democrats and Republicans. The Family has connections to the CIA as well as to governments around the world including the former Suharto dictatorship, the current dictator in Uganda,Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the former president of Honduras, Ricardo Marudo and The Family has been involved with coups in Fiji, of all places.

As I’ve been basking in the drama of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s epic Fail, my curiosity was peaked by some comments on the FDL post, How Stupid Does Erick Erickson Feel Today? As well as posts on TPM, DU, Kos and other sources, all of which make vague connections and toss flimsy innuendo, but none of which actually make the suggested connections overtly.

Having spent a little over 30 years in news/publishing (and having done a bit of investigative journalism in my prime), I found it all just so… fascinating! There are things here that need some firmly supported answers. Disjointed factoids garnered thus far:

Sanford, sans written statement or even notes, appears late to his own press conference, also sans wife (now said to be with kids at beach house) and personal assistant. Sanford began with a rambling extemporaneous exposition on the joys of hiking, as if he intended to defend that story, not realizing that the press corps already knew where he’d been (and who he was with). He didn’t begin apologizing and whimpering until ~4 minutes in. When he asked for that female personal assistant, realized she wasn’t there, knew he was busted.  A pitiful performance.

MSNBC reported that an SC newspaper has been sitting on “the” story (the emails of love) for months. Because The State newspaper is a right-wing rag, it’s not hard to figure why they sat on the info, though it also makes me wonder about who the anonymous person who forwarded them to the newspaper might be. Mrs. Sanford? She managed his campaigns, may have access to his emails. His personal assistant who abandoned him yesterday? These two might also have access to his personal email, at least via forwards he may have sent them and a basic knowledge of his range of rememberable passwords. Someone else in the office?  

There are times for ideological fights, this the Dog believes with his entire heart. The issue is when to pick these fights. There is an argument that it is the best time when things are in crisis. The thinking on this, such as it is, is that when things are bad you need to be most correct in your actions. Of course this is what we are seeing from the Republican Party in general right now, and from anti-stimulus Governors in particular. It is also a complete fallacy. In times of crisis you need to have already decided the plan of action and act on it. If you are wise you will have planed and thought and argued prior to the crisis, but that is a rare trait in the America of the early 21st Century.