The Flesh is Weaker than the Spirit...

[motordavid]

I was going to toss this up in the Lounge, but I suspect it is slightly more
political than general news, vis a vis the PC clime these days. But, my
interest is little about "which party" is closer to "values", etc.

Surprised it hasn't come up on the ol'JukeBox here, yet.
BR,mD

JUNE 25, 2009 Sanford Odyssey Ends in Tears

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  By VALERIE BAUERLEIN and ALEX ROTH

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- An emotional Gov. Mark Sanford reappeared in the state capitol after an unexplained, six-day absence and admitted he had been in Argentina visiting a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
Video courtesy of Fox News



Mr. Sanford's rambling statement and apology, made during a news conference in the lobby of the Civil War-era State House, capped an increasingly bizarre sequence of events that had transfixed the nation.

The governor's disappearance had stoked broad speculation and concern, with his staff and wife providing several different accounts of his whereabouts.

The revelation was the latest hit for a Republican Party struggling to find new leaders in the wake of last fall's electoral losses. Mr. Sanford attracted national attention for seeking to reject some funds from the federal stimulus package, and was touted by some as a possible contender for his party's 2012 nomination. Wednesday's denouement came just eight days after Sen. John Ensign of Nevada announced he too had had an extramarital affair.

Mr. Sanford talked of God, his faith and his family, issuing vague mea culpas before solving the mystery. "I've been unfaithful to my wife," he told the throng of reporters, adding that he had spent the past five days "crying in Argentina."
Mark Sanford

• Timeline: Where Is Gov. Sanford?
• Statement From Jenny Sanford
• Live Blog Recap: Gov. Sanford's news conference
• Transcript of press conference
• Sex Scandals Short-Circuit GOP Efforts
• Read Gov. Mark Sanford's interview with the State newspaper in South Carolina on his return from Argentina.
• Deal Journal: Mark Sanford's Once-Secret Wall Street Deal
• Law Blog: Does Sanford Face Legal Trouble?
• Speakeasy: Sanford v. Gosselin: A Breakdown of the Breakups
• Wash Wire: Revisiting Clinton, McGreevey, Craig
• Wash Wire: S.C. Rep. Inglis Warns GOP Against Self-Righteousness

Though he didn't quit the post of governor, Mr. Sanford said he was immediately stepping down as chairman of the Republican Governors Association to concentrate on repairing his relationships with his wife, four sons and constituents. Minutes later, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former party chairman, was named the new head of the organization.

Mr. Sanford, who had emerged as one of the highest profile opponents of President Barack Obama's stimulus package, said he has no plans to resign as governor. But on Wednesday, his political future -- for the remaining 18 months of his term and beyond -- was clearly in jeopardy.

State Sen. John Land, leader of the South Carolina Senate's Democrats, stopped short of calling for Mr. Sanford to resign but questioned whether the governor could be effective in office. He is prohibited by law from seeking a third term.

"The position he's taken the whole time he's been in office is, 'I'm smarter than the rest, I'm more religious than the rest, I'm more godly than the rest,'" Mr. Land said. "I just don't see how he can come back and be a sinner like the rest of us and function."

Katon Dawson, former South Carolina GOP chairman, said the governor's disappearance and accompanying explanations for it were "the damnedest thing I'd ever seen" and added to the trouble facing the Republican Party.
"Whether it was the Nevada senator or Larry Craig, we've been struggling with our elected officials," Mr. Dawson said. "We run on values and we've been struggling."
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Associated Press South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford takes the oath of office for a second term with his wife, Jenny, and four sons, standing by, on Jan. 10, 2007.






Hopes to Reconcile

In his remarks, Gov. Sanford apologized for misleading the public about his whereabouts. He said he broke off the affair, which grew out of an eight-year-long friendship with a woman in Argentina and became romantic during email communications about a year ago.

Mr. Sanford, 49 years old, said he still hopes to reconcile with his wife, Jennifer Sullivan Sanford, 46, formerly a vice president at investment bank Lazard Freres & Co., and an heiress to the family that built the Skil Power Tools brand, now a subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH.

Mr. Sanford said his wife, who didn't attend the news conference, discovered the affair five months ago and that the couple have been in "overdrive" working to put back together their marriage of two decades. Mrs. Sanford later issued a statement saying she had asked her husband to move out of the governor's mansion two weeks ago -- before his trip to Argentina -- but that she hasn't ruled out a reconciliation.

The governor's disappearance came just after the conclusion of a special state legislative session in which he was rebuffed by his own Republican Party. Mr. Sanford had taken a tough stand against the acceptance of hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funding from the federal government, but others in his party overwhelmingly rejected his position.
Earlier this month, the governor lost a key court ruling over whether he had the power to block the funds.

Prior to resurfacing Wednesday, Mr. Sanford had last been seen leaving the governor's mansion in his security guard's sport-utility vehicle last Thursday. After initially refusing to say where the governor had gone, his office issued a statement Monday saying that he was hiking an undisclosed section of the Appalachian Trail.
Getty Images
During a news conference in which he paused several times to compose himself, the governor said he'd been unfaithful to his wife.



People close to the governor said Wednesday that members of his staff only learned that he had been in Argentina a few hours before the news conference. They were told that the governor never went to the Appalachian Mountains after an unnamed friend of the governor who picked him up at the Atlanta airport called Mr. Sanford's chief of staff, Scott English, according to a person familiar with the situation.

During the news conference and in a written statement, Mr. Sanford -- who in the past has emphasized his Christian faith and absolute moral values -- reiterated that neither he nor his staff intentionally misled the public about his whereabouts. "At no time did anyone on my staff intentionally relay false information to other state officials or the public at large," he said. "What they've said over the past two days they believed to be true, and I'm sorry to them for putting them in this position."
'State of Chaos'

State Sen. Luke Rankin, a fellow Republican who has occasionally clashed with Mr. Sanford, said he appreciated the governor's "candor and forthrightness now, after this state of chaos." Mr. Rankin said he hoped the governor would emerge chastened from the episode. "Perhaps there will be some growth from this."

Later Wednesday, The State, a South Carolina newspaper, posted what it said was the text of intimate emails exchanged between the governor and the woman in Argentina. The authenticity of the emails couldn't be verified.
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Associated Press South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and his wife, Jenny, at a February dinner at the White House.






Mr. Sanford, who received an MBA from the University of Virginia, was a real-estate broker before forming his own leasing and brokerage company in flourishing coastal Charleston, S.C. Though a multimillionaire himself, Mr. Sanford forged his political identity over the past 15 years around moral virtue and frugality.
'High Standards, Period'

After winning election to Congress in 1994, Mr. Sanford voted to impeach President Bill Clinton after his deceptions regarding an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Around the same time, he said he struggled with whether to support Rep. Bob Livingston, who was in line to be House speaker when he acknowledged extramarital affairs. "We as a party want to hold ourselves to high standards, period," Mr. Sanford said during a 1998 interview with the Associated Press.

Mr. Sanford's recent disappearance wasn't a surprise to some allies and friends. A surfer and one-time nationally ranked runner, he often sought out time for himself. He would regularly sneak away from the governor's mansion in downtown Columbia. Sometimes he'd ride his bike through the old state hospital compound, a desolate property in a troubled part of town, according to people familiar with the situation.