This being said, one must say too that former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is not one of this number, and that his decision to run for his old House seat, along with the insistence last year of Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., to run for Senate, an ego trip of insane dimensions that should have never been taken at all.

Hamilton graces the $10 bill despite his affair with Mrs. Maria Reynolds (and Franklin the $100 bill), and all the above are now thought of kindly because of one critical fact: For all of their flaws they were true to their vows made to their causes and countries, and stood by them all to the death.

They didn’t let private affairs leech into and complicate the business of governance. Whatever they did, they were stoical in public. They vowed to tend to the public’s affairs, and they did.