Traditionally the difference in conservatives and liberals when it comes to moral compromise is that conservatives force the errant ones to do the right thing, liberals don't know what the right thing would even look like.

In Governor Mark Sanford's case, the conservatives of South Carolina must speak more pronouncedly to the current top man in their state.

His judgment is badly impaired and as such the good people who voted for him deserve the honor of him stepping aside.

He's saying for now... he won't.

"Resigning would be the easiest thing to do," he said.

Sanford spoke outside his coastal home on Sullivans Island. Wearing frayed khaki shorts and a t-shirt, he talked about "walking into the legislative term with a humble spirit."

"I have to go through that voyage over the next 18 months," he said, alluding to the number of months he has left in his second term. He is barred by state law from seeking a third and, at one time, had been rumored as a potential presidential contender in 2012.

Now, Sanford says he wants to repair the frayed trust in him and continue to serve the people of South Carolina.

The governor admitted last week to a yearlong affair with a woman in Argentina. He and his wife say they will try to reconcile. Some lawmakers are calling for him to resign because he used public money to see the mistress during one trip, and because he was out of touch with his staff during his recent weeklong tryst.

Sanford repeatedly said he did not use public money for the trip, so it was not clear why he has agreed to reimburse the state for some of the more-than $8,000 in taxpayer money spent on the Argentina leg of an economic development trip to South America last year.

When it comes to his critics — most notably state Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia — and their calls for him to step down, Sanford said he understands where they are coming from.

"I don't begrudge the Jakie Knottses of the world," Sanford said. "He's going to do what he's going to do. I gotta do my part."

As far as his wife, Sanford said they are working on their relationship.

"If there wasn't healing going on, I wouldn't be here," he said, pointing to his beach house, where he had dinner with his family Saturday night and where he took a run at sunrise on the sand with one of his sons.

The problems in not stepping aside are multiple-fold for his party, his conscience, and his family. Sanford sounds as though he's buying into this idea that he can keep his private life separate from his public life.

No state-wide elected executive really has the ability to do that and Presidents, the office he was hoping to be elected to, can not.

The whole theory of private life/public life not being able to conflict with each other is an absolute canard to being with.

When one makes a vow before God and man to love, cherish, and remain faithful to their spouse, they have sworn that oath to the highest possible authority and allegiance possible.

Putting your hand on the Bible and swearing an oath to your country is secondary to the divine.

The point being that if a man will deceive, cheat, lie to, sneak around on, and ultimately betray the one they are committed to, what is there to make anyone believe they couldn't be compromised similarly as it regards their commitment to a lesser oath.

At the end of the day there is an element that is unique with adultery that has always signaled a red flag to the intelligence and national security forces in our nation--the possibility of blackmail.

So does this mean that man has to be perfect to be president? No.

But it does mean that for the time he seeks to hold that leadership position he needs to keep it zipped and remain focused on his word, his integrity, and ultimately the oath he has sworn.

There are many things I disagree with the current President about... most of them quite vociferously. But one thing I will give him credit for, wooing, loving, and remaining faithful to his wife Michelle is honorable, doing it for the good of the nation, as well as for the good of his daughters is an example that many men--especially in America's inner cities--need to have modeled for them much more often.

But long story short Gov. Sanford needs to drop the pretense, do the hard work, go away into private life for an extended period of time and HEAL his family. Once that has happened, if they have healed and if his wife gives her blessing--and ONLY after those things--he could then re-enter public life as a remade man.

But if he never goes away, consider me skeptical of his regeneration. And consider me highly suspicious of a pressure to leverage forgiveness from his wife, before she is ready, or has any legitimate reason, to offer it.