IT’S BEEN a tough couple of weeks for the Republican Party, what with two of their possible presidential prospects going all Elmer Gantry on them. That is, revealing themselves as prurient rather than pious, unzipped rather than straight-laced.
Lust, once it obtains a toehold in a politician’s right ventricle, has proved itself a far more formidable foe than conservatives had imagined back when they were contemplating President Clinton’s transgressions.
First, Senator John Ensign of Nevada revealed that despite his Promise Keepers palaver about sexual purity, he had carried on an affair with a campaign aide, whose husband had also been in his employ. Then Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina reappeared after six days off the radar screen to disclose that he had been wandering - and not in the pure natural wilderness.
As sorrowful as Goethe’s Young Werther, though for decidedly different reasons, Sanford confessed that rather than seeking head-clearing isolation on the Appalachian Trail, he had been pursuing star-crossed amour in Argentina, where he had spent a weepy five days ending an affair.
As bare-your-soul-about-baring-your-body press conferences go, Sanford’s was one for the ages. And now, having watched it in its entirety, I have a confession of my own to make.
No, no, not that kind of confession.
Just this: I don’t care that much. Not beyond the hypocrisy, which is admittedly delicious to point out.
As a congressman, Sanford had voted to impeach Clinton after his affair with Monica Lewinsky; the president, he declared, had violated his oath to his wife. Ensign, who called for Clinton to resign, also voted to impeach; he later said that embattled Senator Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho, should quit the Senate after allegedly soliciting sex in an airport restroom.
But as someone who didn’t think Clinton’s infidelities disqualified him from running for president in 1992, or that his offputting in-office dalliance with a 22-year-old flibbertigibbet warranted resignation or impeachment, I can’t honestly say adultery should end Ensign’s and Sanford’s political careers, either. Not without being a hypocrite myself, that is.
The old rule was that to run for president you had to have been (A) faithful to your spouse or (B ) highly secretive in your indiscretions. And if not? Well, you had to have (C) put your troubles behind you some years ago and (D) obtained your wife’s testimony that your marriage was now stronger than ever.
But Clinton changed all that. He cheated and lied, then repeated the performance while president. And though the Republicans found themselves greatly and strenuously aggrieved, the American people put it all in perspective and decided, rightly, that his behavior didn’t merit removal from office. Now the evolving ethic seems to be that if you seem sufficiently sorrowful, you can often tough it out - and that’s probably a step toward political maturity for the country.
Myself, I could do without the smarmy public apologies to wife and children, the self-flagellation, the cloying contrition. Those matters should be between a politician and his wife. Sanford didn’t cheat on the good folks of South Carolina, after all. Nor did he engage in Eliot Spitzer-like behavior. Patronizing a prostitute, which is illegal, crosses a bright line.
A simple affair, though? I’m not saying it’s not newsworthy, because it does tell you something about a political figure. But I don’t think it should dominate the national news. And though every situation is different, my general view is that it shouldn’t compel a resignation or spark calls for one. Or mark the end of any political aspirations.
Why, this incident has even made me take admiring notice of a certain South Carolina Republican.
No, not that one. Rather, US Representative Bob Inglis, who found an argentine lining for his party in this latest concupiscent cloud. Said he: “If it causes us to lose the stinking rot of self-righteousness and causes us to understand we are all in need of some grace, it could be a very good thing for the Republican Party.’’
To which one can only add a thoroughly secular amen.
Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh@globe.com. 
