Analysis: GOP Rising Stars Falling To Earth
(CBS)
If there's a concern for the Republican Party, it's not that these admissions will have an effect on the various races that will take place this year and in next year's midterm elections. It's that they're losing some of their fresh faces as potential national voices.
Both the 49-year-old Sanford and the 51-year-old Ensign's admissions come at a time when the GOP is struggling to find the next generation of voices to combat a Democratic president and Congress.
And it’s not just Ensign and Sanford but other fresh faces have been affected for less salacious reasons.
Former Gov. Jon Huntsman, R-Utah, was being talked about as a potential 2012 presidential hopeful. His recent appointment as U.S. Ambassador to China by President Obama was considered a political savvy move to pre-empt the up-and-comer possible bid.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe praised Huntsman as making him a “wee bit queasy…I think he's really out there speaking a lot of truth about the direction of the party."
Meantime, 37-year-old Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., is another that has been considered a rising star – young, smart and a minority – but has been silenced in recent months. His widely panned response to Mr. Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress has resulted in a much lower profile nationally for Jindal.
At a time when the GOP is trying to turn the page on the drubbing they experienced in 2008, losing those numerous new voices is not the direction they want to be headed.
Read More: Sanford Admits Affair
Marc Ambinder: Political Fallout From Sanford's Affair
Photo Essay: Political Sex Scandals
Steve Chaggaris is CBS News' Political Director.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- next
See all 73 CommentsSOS different day, same old BS from a skirt chaser. Throw him to the dogs.
He's "Sorry" because he got caught, and wants to save his cushy ass job and chance to run for something else.
Personally, I do not give a damn who or how many they bed. It is none of our business. I prefer competence, hard work and honesty to their pretended ?morality?.
We, the world's people, allow incompetent sociopaths and psychopaths to acquire power and keep it. Our masses are not particular whom we follow.
I cite the following recent examples:
Vladimir I. Linen
Joseph Stalin
Hitler
Joseph Savimbi
All the popes
Idi Amin Dada
George W. Bush
Dick Cheney
Idi Amin Dada
The Castros
Pat Robertson
Pol Pot
Saddam Hussein
Slobodan Milosevic
Kim Jong-Il
Ayatollah Khomeini
Ferdinand Marcos
Saddam Hussein
Francisco Franco
Etc, ad nauseum
BTW, you "born again" fiscal CONServitards really take the cake, praising the $5 Trillion bush monkey for doubling the national debt by digging a huge hole, and now it's all President Obama's fault for trying to right our economy from the bush/cheney depression!
Please get a clue and stop the endless foxnewsus propagandus!
My my, how the tables have turned.
Simply out, Sanford was quoted as saying that Clinton should resign from office because of his extramarital affair, and the need to restore "moral legitimacy" to the executive office.
Stop being a hypocrite - the more you defend this guy, the more your arguments hold no merit.
I know that you are saying he didn't lie but I say he did. I don't have to have beyound a reasonable doubt because I am using paponderance of evidence. One other thing the neocons are saying this is a private matter how is that different than Clinton's private matter.
Every turn you take is a reflection of the actions you took from the past now you have to live with it as the GOP crashes and burns itself.
Until the GOP learn humility they will be out of everyting.
By his own criteria, as chief executive of South Carolina he must leave office. By his own declared ethical standards he must resign immediately.
others,,,it wasn't a simple fall,,,
It took a week in the making with the world in a
front row seat,
Like a jet coming apart at 35,000 feet, Sanford's
tail section was the focus of attention as it
seemly departed in a life of it's own,,,
Trying to wing it fell apart in the face of
divergent headwinds errently establishing his
present position,,,
Hitting land the pieces were gathered together
and the gray matter box gave the whole story.
The dems are pathetic and Sanford is an example
of how ridiculous the repubs MUST be to
reach their goal of losing the next
presidential election to them.
Sanford has done his part in limiting the
posibility of chance fashening an 'o12
presidential victory for repubs,,,
,,,but COULD be arrested for
assisted suicide.
All right, Mitt...where is she?
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- next
See all 73 Comments