South Carolina governor reappears, admits affair

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (Mary Ann Chastain/AP)

Another Republican politician with impeccable morals bites the dust.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said Wednesday he has been unfaithful to his wife with a friend from Argentina, explaining his recent sudden disappearance.

The 49-year-old Republican governor (that is, the aides that prepared his speech) said he's sorry for letting his wife and children down and apologized to his family, staff and the state for leaving without saying a word to anyone.

And they still blast liberals for their "lack of family values"...

He said he is resigning as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

UPDATE: Sanford's wife, SC First Lady Jenny Sanford, released a statement later Wednesday to explaining that the couple had separated and that's why he was gone and out of contact for a week.

"I deeply regret the recent actions of my husband Mark, and their potential damage to our children," she said.

"I believe wholeheartedly in the sanctity, dignity and importance of the institution of marriage. When I found out about my husband's infidelity I worked immediately to first seek reconciliation through forgiveness, and then to work diligently to repair our marriage. 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," she said, noting that he was not to contact the family during the "trial separation," whose goal was to strengthen their marriage.

"Because of this separation, I did not know where he was in the past week," she added.

She then went on about marriage, enduring love, commitment, honor, forgiveness, humility, repentance, healing, reconciliation, Psalm 127, the Lord, the wisdom of Solomon, the strength and patience of Job, the grace of God...

(More than a statement about her husband's affair, it looked like a sermon about marriage, if you ask me.)

Apparently, only a miracle can save their relationship:

"I believe Mark has earned a chance to resurrect our marriage," she said.

UPDATE #2: Sanford emails to mistress emerge

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford told the woman with whom he was having an affair they were "in a hopelessly impossible situation of love" last year when he was thought to be under consideration for the Republican vice presidential nomination, according to e-mails obtained by The State newspaper.

The Columbia-based newspaper, which acquired the e-mails in December, told CNN that the governor's office had confirmed their authenticity Wednesday. When contacted by CNN, a spokesman for the governor would neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the e-mails.

Right: Gov. Mark Sanford speaks during a news conference at the State Capitol in Columbia on Wednesday. (Getty Images)

The e-mails between the GOP governor and a Buenos Aires resident named Maria were exchanged in July of last year, according to the newspaper.

"You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty," Sanford wrote, according to the e-mails published on the newspaper's website.

"I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night's light--but hey, that would be going into sexual details ..."

(My eyes! My eyes!)

"How in the world this lightening strike snuck up on us I am still not quite sure. As I have said to you before I certainly had a special feeling about you from the first time we met, but these feelings were contained and I genuinely enjoyed our special friendship and the comparing of all too many personal notes ..."

Maria, whose full name has not yet been released, also proclaimed her devotion in a July 9 e-mail.

"You are my love...something hard to believe even for myself as it's also a kind of impossible love, not only because of distance but situation," she wrote. "Sometimes you don't choose things, they just happen...I can't redirect my feelings and I am very happy with mine towards you."

The affair began in the last year and was discovered five months ago, Sanford told reporters without elaborating. He added he and his wife were trying to work through it.

The Case of the Missing Governor

Sanford returned from an undeclared absence spent in Argentina meant to relieve the pressures of office. His staff had insisted at one point that he was off hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

"I wanted to do something exotic," Sanford said. "It's a great city."

Well... he was doing something exotic--with someone--in a great city.

He arrived at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport this morning after cutting his trip short because of the media attention regarding his disappearance.

Sanford, one of a cast of possible--now IMpossible--GOP presidential aspirants, was scheduled to hold a news conference today to explain the sudden departure that left political allies and his family making excuses that turned out to be less than accurate.

"All we've had is lies, lies, lies," South Carolina state Sen. John Knotts said in a televised news conference today. There have been "cover-ups where the governor is and where the governor is not," the Republican senator said.

"I don't have a problem with the governor taking some time off," Knotts added. "But the people in South Carolina need to know that somebody is at the helm, not just a staffer."

Perhaps "the staffer" or staffers have been running the state all along. There might be hope in new blood for the Republican Party after all!

Because of his presidential aspirations, Sanford has been one of the frequent targets of the national Democrat Party, which has trumpeted his disappearance since June 18 as an example of erratic behavior.

Did he think no one would notice he was gone? Does that mean that he was never there to begin with? This is a disaster, if you ask me.

Sanford was a visible opponent of President's Obama's economic stimulus package, at one point insisting he wouldn't accept the $700 million set aside for his state. Sanford was forced to relent after opponents won in court, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Sources: BNO, CNN, USA Today, Chicago Tribune
Copyright © 2009

Republican Senator admits to extramarital affair

I love it when a Republican falls from grace, not because I wish suffering on anybody but because right wingers tend to be on a bit (a bit?) on the self-righteous side, so I find it entertainingly ironic when their sins are exposed, especially if they think themselves to be "good" enough and "right" enough--vs. bad and wrong, like everyone else--to be presidential hopefuls.

Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, a leading Republican mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, admitted Tuesday he had an extramarital affair with a woman who was a member of his campaign staff, AP reported.

Uh, oh...

"Last year I had an affair. I violated the vows of my marriage," Ensign said at a brief news conference in his home state. "It is the worst thing I have ever done in my life. If there was ever anything in my life that I could take back, this would be it."

What he's likely really sorry about is getting caught, if you ask me.

The affair reportedly took place between December 2007 and August 2008 with a campaign staffer who was married to an employee in Ensign's Senate office. Neither has worked for the senator since May 2008, AP reported.

Ensign said he would not mention the name of the female campaign aide involved in the affair, describing her and her husband as good friends.

"Our families were close," he said. "That closeness put me into situations which led to my inappropriate behavior. We caused deep pain to both families and for that I am sorry."

You all know he didn't write a word of this, right? That's what staffers are for, among other duties...

Ensign made it clear he does not plan to resign.

Ensign's wife, Darlene, also released a statement about the affair.

"Since we found out last year we have worked through the situation and we have come to a reconciliation. This has been difficult on both families. With the help of our family and close friends our marriage has become stronger," Mrs. Ensign (staffers) said.

The Ensigns have three children.

Ensign was first elected to the Senate in 2000 and has been a rising star among conservatives. He's also a member of the men-only Christian ministry Promise Keepers.

This hypocrite blasted former Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who served in Congress for 25 years, when he was arrested in an airport bathroom for *ahem* seeking some company there. Ensign stopped short of urging Craig to resign.

"I wouldn't put myself hopefully in that kind of position, but if I was in a position like that, that's what I would do," Ensign said at the time. "He's going to have to answer that for himself." In the end, Craig served out his term.

Self-righteous BS.

Ensign is the latest member of Congress who has acknowledged infidelity. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., is rebounding from being linked with a prostitute by appealing to the populism in his state.

How does the saying go? Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones?

Source: The Associated Press, My Twisted Mind
Copyright © 2009

Agency probes Jon & Kate kids for exploitation

Kate with some of her eight children (Photo courtesy of TLC)

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor is looking into whether the hit reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8 is complying with child labor laws, AP reported Friday.

Uh, oh...

Labor Department spokesman Justin Fleming told AP that the department is looking into "a complaint" against the show. Based on media reports, that complaint probably was filed by Kate's brother and sister-in-law. Nice.

The TLC series follows Jon and Kate Gosselin as they raise their eight young children, including 8-year-old twins and sextuplets who just turned 5. The show drew nearly 10 million viewers for its fifth-season premiere Monday following reports of trouble in the Gosselins' marriage, AP reported.

Not surprisingly, TLC says it "fully complies" with state laws and regulations.

Word is Jon has been cheating with some teacher while Kate is out on a book tour and bonding with her body guard.

What else is new? It's the same old story: the rags-to-riches syndrome. It's all fun and games until they get the new mansion, the book deal, the killer haircut and highlights.

Here's what irks me the most about all this: it's yet another example of the cultural hypocrisy prevalent in this country. For five years the same people now complaining milked as much entertainment and mindless TV therapy from the show. But now, now that someone might be having an affair (*gasps* OMG!), now that the marriage is not a fairytale, the couple is scum and "we" must stop the "child exploitation" or "child abuse" that is shamelessly being perpetrated on the poor children.

Before the marriage went south, the show was not child exploitation and now it is. Why do you think that is? I'll tell you why: because of the self-righteousness that infects this society. Whenever cheating or affairs come into play, the self-righteous rise like zombies from their graves to point fingers. Meanwhile, these self-righteous vigilantes here to protect us from ourselves (thank you so very much) are having their own affairs, coveting and lusting after fortune and fame, committing their own sins.

They tune in while cursing the show.

Me? I can't keep my eyes off her hair.

Sources: The Associated Press
Copyright © 2009