June 25, 2009 12:03 AM UTC

At Least He's Not Your Missing (Adulterous Hypocrite) Governor

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• by: Colorado Pols

The latest on a story we hope to stop talking about soon, that is the bizarre disappearance, reappearance, and apparently deliberate misinformation surrouding the whereabouts of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

As it turns out, it’s not nearly as interesting a story as it first appeared. Unless catching “family values” Republicans with their pants down is your particular thing. Just a week after the John Ensign affair/payroll scandal broke, The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza reports:

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) admitted that he had conducted an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina who he had gone to visit over the last five days — during which time a massive media story developed over where he was and why.

“I have been unfaithful to my wife . . . I developed a relationship with what started as a dear dear friend,” said Sanford.

He said that he had met the woman, who he did not name, roughly eight years ago and that it had become romantic within the last year. He visited her three times during the past year, Sanford said, and noted that his wife, Jenny, had been aware of the affair for the past five months.

“First and foremost, I apologize to my wife and my four boys. I have made decisions that have hurt and will continue to hurt them, and for that I’m sincerely sorry,” Sanford said in a statement released after his at-times rambling announcement in the South Carolina statehouse. “Jenny has stood by me through campaign after campaign, through hard time after hard time, and neither she nor the boys deserve this. Please offer them your prayers.”

Sanford announced his resignation as chairman of the Republican Governors Association but did not offer any hint of whether he was considering resigning as governor of the Palmetto State…

Sanford’s public announcement punctuates a strange and winding series events that caused confusion within the state government and considerable chagrin among the Republican Party, which saw its second potential 2012 candidate in as many weeks brought low by infidelity.

As we try to make clear in all such situations, this problem really is the hypocrisy–maybe a little worse after the abandoning your office and lying to the press and legislature part, but first and foremost it’s the hypocrisy. From the Huffington Post:

…The standard Sanford has set for other politicians over the years has been fairly high. A member of the House of Representatives during the heyday of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, he was often a harsh critic of the president for his marital misconduct.

This is “very damaging stuff,” Sanford declared at one point, when details of Clinton’s conduct became known. “I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally (to resign)… I come from the business side,” he said. “If you had a chairman or president in the business world facing these allegations, he’d be gone.”

We have a prediction on what’s going to leave the bigger mark, and it’s what should.

UDPATE: Mea culpa video here. Why do they always ramble so?