Sometimes I wonder if South Carolina has ever received any positive media attention. It seems as though my great state is in the news constantly – for all the wrong things.

In the movie Borat, featuring Sacha Baron Cohen, the racist and misogynistic students in the RV came straight from a frat house at the University of South Carolina (the school I currently attend). And when a picture surfaced of Olympian Michael Phelps smoking marijuana, we learned the party took place on–you guessed it–that same campus. Only in South Carolina can a state legislative body unanimously pass a measure creating a state-sponsored “I Believe” license plate with a superimposed cross on it to the exclusion of other options and faiths. And when Obama’s stimulus plan passed in Congress, my governor, Mark Sanford, garnered national media attention for refusing the funds unless he could use them for what he deemed appropriate. He was later forced by the State Supreme Court to take the money. Meanwhile, in my hometown of Aiken County, over one hundred teachers were laid off and the International Baccalaureate Program in my district’s high schools was jeopardized because of state budget constraints. Need I say more?

Unfortunately, I am forced to say more today. Once again, my state is in the national spot light because of our governor’s Argentinian escapade. Sanford, in all his hypocrisy, has added yet another stain on the edifice of our already tainted reputation as a state. It makes me wonder just how much worse it could possibly get for South Carolina when a supposed family man with “good Christian values,” a powerful spot as chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association, and a shot at the 2012 Republican nomination can stoop so low.

Sanford was forced to hold a news conference and to admit his affair because of discrepancies in his story. If the media hadn’t taken an interest in his whereabouts, this whole fiasco may have continued unnoticed. However, because of pure carelessness, Sanford became the bumbling teen, caught in his own web of lies about his whereabouts when all of the facts started coming out.

We learned that his wife has known about the affair for a few months, yet, Sanford still visited Argentina last weekend (during Father’s Day, I might add). The only reasonable assumption is that Sanford planned to continue the affair. If he wanted to end it, he could have done it via email, as he has adequately demonstrated his poetic ability in this realm of communication.

I find the fact of his wife’s knowledge of the situation despicable. It’s as if Sanford was utilizing the all-too-common “sticking by my man” syndrome. Exploiting his wife’s loyalty and fear of public embarrassment, he proceeded to fly to Argentina, apparently “crying for five days,” though I think when more facts come out we will learn that the affair continued while he was over there.

The real travesty is the message this unfortunate situation sends to the women and girls across South Carolina and America. With a total of 170 state legislative seats, my state has the lowest percentage of women elected in the nation at just 10 percent (17 in the House and 0 in the Senate). This is under the already low national average of 24.3 percent. (cite http://www.ncsl.org/LegislaturesElections/WomensNetwork/WomeninStateLegislatures2009/tabid/15398/Default.aspx) Can we expect these numbers to get any better with constant episodes of male politicians exploiting their wives?

Behind every good man is often a great woman. Jenny Sanford managed her husband’s gubernatorial and congressional campaigns. She likely raised their four boys and paid a hefty price all for her husband’s political ambitions. A Georgetown graduate, obviously driven and talented, she was a successful investment banker who could just as well have been running for office. But instead she took on the traditional supporting role for her husband.

Jenny Sanford should be praised for her contributions to her family and she should also be praised for kicking Sanford out of her house. It’s about time politician’s wives started standing up for themselves. It’s also commendable that she did not attend Sanford’s news conference. Watching politicians flanked by the humiliated wives they have hurt to show solidarity to the media in hopes to save any iota of a future political career only continues to demonstrate the self-absorbed, self-interested super-egos of too many of our elected officials. With no wife present, or even a backdrop to protect the governor from giggling juvenile on-lookers behind him, the press conference was raw, uncontrolled, and unforgiving, which is how these things should be.

Hopefully this will contribute to a climate of accountability and dispel the politician’s wife syndrome, while empowering women to step up and take on leadership instead of mere supportive roles in South Carolina politics. Then, instead of being behind every good man, they can walk in parity within our legislatures, and maybe even give the media something positive to say about South Carolina in the process.