Remember when politicians used to resign when they got caught with their trousers down? In a post-Clinton world, resignation is no longer automatic. It doesn’t even seem to be an option with most of these guys. Even Larry Craig, whose scandal trumped all the others in sordidness, didn’t resign. If Larry Craig can try to salvage his career after soliciting a tawdry homosexual act in a filthy public restroom, I suppose Mark Sanford can try to salvage his after his “meaningful friendship” turned into hot sex and then he tearfully and repetitively spilled his guts about it at a press conference.

Okay, now let’s go see what some of my fellow bloggers are saying. The Anchoress wants Sanford to stop crying in Argentina. Michelle Malkin compares the “jerkitude” of Sanford to the dignity his wife has shown during this whole sordid mess. Smitty at The Other McCain thinks it’s just a distraction. Rod Dreher is partaking in the TMI-fest by publishing excerpts from the Governor’s lovey-dovey e-mails. Ace has a slightly different take than other reactions I’ve seen.

So, is 2012 off the table for the oh-so-sensitive Mr. Sanford? I guess in the post-Clinton world anything’s possible, but I’ll be endorsing someone who shows a bit more self control with respect to keeping things zipped — both his lips when it comes to confessional press conferences, and other things.

When I started this blog, I made a conscious decision that I would not use it to “vent” when I was frustrated and upset with my husband, as so many female bloggers – especially the ones who are mothers – do. I will, however, be writing fairly often about male-female issues on a more general societal level. These issues are central to the book I’m writing, and are frequently on my mind. But I will never, at least intentionally, write anything about my husband personally that I would be offended if he wrote about me.

Amy of Amalah.com is typical of some of the Mommy Bloggers out there, who pull no punches in cataloguing their husbands’ shortcomings for all the cyberworld to see. In just a few recent posts, she tells how her husband Jason did a lousy job installing a light fixture, screwed up her instructions about bringing home dinner, was too incompetent to install a simple childproof latch to a cabinet, and so forth. Occasionally Jason does come out looking less incompetent than Amy, but the proportions seem to follow the sitcom rule: smart wife/mother, clueless dope of a husband/father who occasionally does something right only so you don’t throw up your hands and call her an idiot for putting up with him.

I will tell you, if I wrote half – no, a tenth – no, make that any – of the things a lot of these blogging women write publicly about their husbands, I seriously doubt I’d still be married. I have an idea I’d get an “It’s me or that blog!” ultimatum, and he would mean it. My husband loves me, but public ridicule is a price I know he’d be unwilling to pay for that love.

And you know what? I wouldn’t put up with it either. I wonder how many of the Mommy Bloggers would, for that matter, if it were their husbands spewing forth all their foibles and foolishness on blogs for the whole world to read.