Partisan glee or righteous indignation?

An interesting debate has sprung up over Gov. Mark Sanford's marital indiscretion made public yesterday. A large segment of the political left is taking what can only be described as "joy" in this revelation as it has permanently damaged the national career of a potential GOP candidate. The media has, of course, gone into full frenzy, opining here, there, and everywhere, and drooling over the salacious details of e-mail messages between Sanford and his Argentinian mistress. At issue here is just how should we react to personal failings of our elected leaders? And what is the media's role in this.

From a personal standpoint, John Dickerson from Slate, puts things into perspective quite nicely:

The snap judgments failed to acknowledge a grain of the fundamental human carnage we were witnessing. You can laugh at Sanford, as you can laugh at a video of a wrecked Amy Winehouse falling all over her house. But at some point, even though they did it to themselves, you have to feel sorry for them as human beings. You can do that, I think, and not be a fan of adultery or drug use.
I'm not offering Sanford's humanity as an excuse. I'm just marveling at how few people stopped for a moment to even nod to it.

Our leaders need to be held to a standard; however often we forget how human they are. In this case, beyond the political import of Sanford's actions, is a family in ruins: a wife and four children to be exact. Long after the ashes of Sanford's political flame out have burned out, the personal scars for him and his family will endure.

On the media front, it is interesting to note the contrast in how this instance was treated compared to John Edwards' affair. Both men were presidential aspirants, albeit Edwards was actively campaigning. Edwards' wife had even been diagnosed with cancer. It's odd that the National Enquirer, of all outlets, had to break the Edwards story. In Sanford's case, the mainstream media was all over his "Appalachian Trail" disappearance and had the e-mail messages ready for print mere hours after his press conference confession. Does it seem odd to anyone else that an affair by a campaigning presidential candidate could fly under the radar of the collective investigative resources of the national media, while the governor of South Carolina is under more apparent media scrutiny than a terrorist at CTU? One subject was a Democrat, and another a Republican. I'll leave it to you to figure out which is which and whether or not it makes a difference.