Mark Sanford’s back in the headlines, now admitting to having “crossed lines” with women in the past, though maintaining that it was only with Maria Chapur that he “crossed the ultimate line.” But perhaps even more unsavory than his latest revelation is Sanford’s reasoning for not resigning the governorship, which he’s been disseminating on his Twitter page this week:

Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign — as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword. A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise – that for God to really work in my life I shouldn’t be getting off so lightly. While it would be personally easier to exit stage left, their point has been that my larger sin was the sin of pride. They contended that in many instances I may well have held the right position on limited government, spending or taxes — but that if my spirit wasn’t right in the presentation of those ideas to people in the General Assembly, or elsewhere, I could elicit the response that I had at many times indeed gotten from other state leaders.

In other words, he’s willing to stay on, against his own impulses, because he believes it’s God’s way of punishing him for committing adultery? Either Sanford’s speechwriters are having an off-week, or this man has actually deluded himself into believing that the governorship is more about Mark Sanford’s personal life than about the interests of South Carolina voters.

The drivel actually gets worse, as Sanford goes on to appoint himself reformed poster boy for family values:

Accordingly, [these friends] suggested that there was a very different life script that would be lived and learned by our boys, and thousands like them, if this story simply ended with scandal and then the end of office — versus a fall from grace and then renewal and rebuilding and growth in its aftermath.

How lucky for the thousands of Americans who will benefit from Sanford’s brave decision to remain governor.

Needless to say, these are the sorts of factors Sanford should have considered before last week’s Appalachian vacation by way of Buenos Aires. This kind of talk surely reflects the worst kind of narcissism among politicians. It’s not hard to see how a man with this sort of ego could’ve found himself embroiled in extramarital affairs.

— Lucy Morrow Caldwell is an intern at National Review.