08-13-2009, 08:49 AM
Quote:Right, but the guillotine was not a reaction to rational thinking radicals. It was spawned by the anger of starving people against a heartless aristocracy. You can be a savior of millions, but one press story on your excessive living from taxpayers sweat disparages you for a lifetime. Ask Gov. Sanford. Ok, you can have a secret Argentine mistress and act a fool, but using the States money to fly your kid to the dentist? Crucify him!Are you saying this is rational behaviour? Or just that people overreact stupidly to what they can understand ("I'd never spend 500,000 on a trip! What a bunch of pampered jerks!") while their eyes glaze over when you talk about things that might actually matter?
Not that this is relevant to Sanford. His career was over the moment he went AWOL (Argentina Without Leave...) The reason made it even worse, and the revelations about expenditures are just the cherry on top. Do you really think people were just going to give him a pass up until they found out he'd been spending substantial, but in the big picture trivial, amounts of money on private stuff?
-Jester