** UPDATE ** Well, it appears that Gov. Sanford was in Argentina (for a week) to see his mistress instead of hiking the Appalachians. Another possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate implodes! The only good thing is that his wife didn't stand up there beside him and let him humiliate her in public like some political wives have done. Mrs. Sanford, get smart and divorce the jerk posthaste. As for the governor, I think he should resign, not because of the affair (after all, being a Democrat I would have to also defend those of my party who have committed similar moral crimes), but because leaving the state (and the country) without telling his family, his staff, his security detail or his lieutenant governor where he was going shows a horrible lack of judgment and created a constitutional crisis as the state was left without legal leadership in case of an emergency. The people of South Carolina deserve a governor who doesn't get so distracted by the notion of seeing his girlfriend that he forgets to hand over the keys to somebody before he scrams out of the country. Governor Sanford should resign for the good of the people of South Carolina.
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Mark Sanford, the Republican governor of South Carolina, apparently decided to take a powder and left South Carolina leaderless in the process. When his state legislature did the sane thing and overrode his asinine decision not to request $700 million in federal stimulus money the state was entitled to, Sanford apparently couldn't deal and decided to take his shalaleigh for a little stroll in the Appalachian Mountains. For six days. Without telling anybody -- not his wife, not his Lieutentant Governor, not his security detail -- no one. He was not even reachable by phone.
Now if Mr. Sanford were a plumber, this would be a little weird but not particularly dangerous. If you encountered a plumbing problem you could just call the next guy listed in the Yellow Pages. But Sanford is a governor. He has responsibilities in case of emergencies, and his deciding to pout his way through the Appalachians after his legislative defeat is indictive of somebody who apparently lacks the ability to handle the stresses of his job. In his absence his responsibilities should fall to the Lieutenant Governor, who was not told that the Governor would be gone. What if the Lieutenant Governor had decided to go walkabout at the same time?
Well, I do believe Gov. Sanford is going to have some 'splainin' to do if he wants to run for President in 2012. Such as, how you can say you have "family values" when your family doesn't know where you are for a week (and over Father's Day weekend, too)? And how you can leave your state leaderless for a week so you can "clear your head"? And this guy wants to be President? Can you imagine what would happen if Obama just disappeared for a week without the Secret Service, without telling Michelle or VP Joe, all because Congress did or didn't pass some bill or another and he was pissed off about it?
The fact that the Governor was so surprised that this was a big deal when he finally got in touch with civilization is disturbing and says a lot about the guy's sense of responsibility. Next time you folks down there in S.C. get a chance, you might want to hire somebody who's somewhat more serious about doing his job!
