Jenny Sanford: Another political wife wronged, handling it her own way

Reuters via Yahoo! NewsRefreshing, wasn't it, to not see Jenny Sanford standing silently beside her fake-Appalachian-Trail-hiking, adulterous husband? And, then, to see her personally hand her statement to reporters outside her home after her husband's tearful, meandering mea culpa before the cameras. How painful it must have been to hear the South Carolina governor apologize to his mistress before his wife.

Her statement is filled with references to forgiveness and reconciliation, and how she was/is all for working through this awful betrayal by her husband, Mark Sanford. But in clear, sharp words, she also tells the world she was/is not putting up with his infidelity and has put self-respect (and her sons' respect) front and center:

"We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of right and wrong. I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago."

A sign of that self-respect is in the second paragraph of her page-long statement, when she refers to the work and career she has pursued in her own right, her management of her husband's campaigns that put him in office--and how none of that is as important as raising children with good and strong characters by having and modeling one yourself.

"I personally believe that the greatest legacy I will leave behind in this world is not the job I held on
Wall Street, or the campaigns I managed for Mark, or the work I have done as First Lady or even the
philanthropic activities in which I have been routinely engaged. Instead, the greatest legacy I will
leave in this world is the character of the children I, or we, leave behind. It is for that reason that I
deeply regret the recent actions of my husband Mark, and their potential damage to our children."

Note the "...children I, or we, leave beind." Nicely done, Jenny.

Isn't it a shame that a woman so accomplished in her own right will be most widely known for how she handled her philandering husband's publicly embarrassing actions? Read her full statement here, and let us know what you think about how she is handling this painful ordeal.