Last week, MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski downplayed Mark Sanford's Argentinean affair, saying that unlike Bill Clinton, who “risked, you know, things that were happening in the White House by his behavior,” Sanford is just a guy who “had an affair with someone it sounds like he is in love with.” You really have to watch the video to get the full effect of Brzezinski's excuse for Sanford's conduct.

Brzezinski's suggestion that, unlike Clinton, Sanford didn't “risk” anything was absurd, for reasons I explained in a column a few days ago.

But so was her sympathetic portrayal of Sanford as just someone who fell in love. Brzezinski has no idea if Sanford loved his mistress. None. (Neither do I. And I don't care one way or another.) That was clear a week ago, and it's even more clear today:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he “crossed lines” with a handful of women other than his mistress - but never had sex with them.

The governor says he “never crossed the ultimate line” with anyone but Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine at the center of a scandal that has derailed Sanford's once-promising political career.