Social conservatives fall from moral high ground

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By S.A. Miller

Social conservatives, the once-powerful force that focused the Republican agenda on moral virtue and family values, have suffered a diminished brand on the national political landscape as a steady stream of their icons have fallen prey to the vices they once preached against.

Extramarital affairs, gambling, alcohol abuse, prostitution and sexual pursuit of minors have taken a toll on the GOP.

A tearful South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford became the latest social conservative to fall, confessing Wednesday to an affair with a woman that ended with a bizarre episode, in which he disappeared from his security detail and flew to Argentina for a visit, leaving his four sons and wife on Father's Day weekend.

His televised acknowledgment followed an admission last week by Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada of an affair with a former campaign staffer who was also the wife of the senator's former chief of staff.

In politics, hypocrisy has become a heavy cross to bear for those who once sought to own the moral high ground.

TWT RELATED STORY: S.C.'s Gov. Sanford admits affair, quits GOP post

"As champions of those standards, they are held to a higher standard," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which promotes marriage and family as the foundation of civilization. "If you are going to hold up these issues, you have to live by them."

He said Mr. Sanford, Mr. Ensign and before them Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, who admitted to frequenting a Washington call-girl ring, did the right thing by owning up to their failings.

Republicans' family-values platform often invites charges of hypocrisy. It happened when conservative pundit and former drug czar William Bennett was discovered in 2003 to be a gambler.