As a rule, I don't believe that a politician necessarily needs to leave office because of an affair. I might choose not to vote for someone who has had an affair -- especially while in office -- but the affair in and of itself does not necessarily require resignation.

On the other hand, the situation involving Mark Sanford is such that it clearly does require resignation.

Now I had bee sketching out a schema for the sort of things that I think ought to necessitate a resignation while surfing the net, when I came across this posted at a liberal website from Delaware. It set forth some criteria that seem to fit my thinking on the matter.

Here are my guidelines for when a politician should resign:

• Abuse of public money and other crimes of public trust (bribery, for example). Some examples I would cite would be Rod Blagojevich, Jim McGreevey, Rudy Giuliani and Duke Cunningham.
• Private behavior which is illegal, while in office. Behavior before seeking office would probably depend on the type of crime. I wouldn’t care if someone had done drugs in the past, for examples. Politicians I would place in this category would be Mark Foley and Eliot Spitzer. I don’t care if Mark Foley was gay or if Spitzer cheated on his wife.
• Failure to do your job or inability to continue your job. I would place Sanford in this category.

In my opinion, Sanford falls into the third category. Running off without protecting the chain of command in your state is a much bigger offense politically than the personal failing of an affair. Sanford was derelict in his duty to the people of South Carolina, and needs to go.

Now some might look at me and ask about my opposition to Bill Clinton. Simple -- I didn't care that he was getting his knob polished by Monica, or that the was using her as a human humidor. However, he attempted to use his office to obstruct the gathering of evidence in a lawsuit and inhibit the investigation of an independent prosecutor into possible crimes that he uncovered. Indeed, those were the sorts of charges he faced during the impeachment -- not charges of having an extramarital affair.

Mark Sanford had the potential to be the next president of the United States. He threw that away. Now he simply needs to link away from public office like Eliot Spitzer -- and stay gone, unlike that shameless self-promoter.