Another day, another episode of scandal theater. As South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford rambled on after his affair with his Argentine mistress was exposed in late June, we couldn’t help but feel that we’ve been here before: The apology to the wife, the reference to faith, the pious “taking full responsibility,’’ the plea for privacy, the jaw-dropping hypocrisy. Do politicians all resort to the same playbook when they’re nabbed in a sex scandal? It seems so.

BETH TEITELL