Staying True by Jenny Sanford

South Carolina's First Lady's book is out today! If the weather was better, we'd probably have LINES snaking around the bookstores.

Everyone agrees that it promises to be loads of fun!

Excerpt from one early review from the Los Angeles Times:

"Staying True," [is] Jenny Sanford's memoir of a marriage that only can be described as the Contract With America meets Southern gothic.

Sanford's husband, Mark -- the governor of South Carolina -- was once a rising star in the national Republican firmament. Then, last June, he disappeared from office for nearly a week, ostensibly to go "hiking on the Appalachian Trail." As it turned out, he was in South America for a tryst with his Argentine mistress.

After that, things went from bad to worse, personally and politically. Gov. Sanford's long, incoherently confessional television interviews didn't do much to help matters, and this book, for all its more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger tone, clearly seems intended as the last nail in the coffin.

The former first lady, a one-time investment banker with Lazard Frères, is smart, focused and very angry. For all the pious references to forgiveness stitched throughout the narrative, revenge is a barely concealed subtext.

And revenge she gets, but there's a good bit of collateral damage in what's just as obviously unintended self-revelation. In fact, by the time we get to the affair late in the book, it's a bit of a relief, since this is about the first normative impulse either of the Sanfords seems to have had during their marriage.

Take, for example, the future governor's haggling over their wedding vows, because he was reluctant to promise to be faithful. Now, why do we think somebody might have that sort of reservation?

Sanford spends a great deal of time describing her heroic efforts to accommodate what she repeatedly calls her husband's "frugality." Frugality! If this guy is frugal, the unreformed Ebenezer Scrooge was thrifty.

Consider this anecdote: Never good about presents -- early in their marriage he gave her "half" a used bicycle -- and momentarily remorseful for all the time he was spending away from his family while serving in Washington as a congressman, he had an aide buy a diamond necklace and hide it in the family home.

On the morning of his wife's birthday, he faxed clues so she could have "a treasure hunt." She was overjoyed when she found the necklace and wore it to dinner when he returned home. "That is what I spent all that money on?" he said. "I hope you kept the box."

According to Sanford's account, "He returned the necklace the next day, thinking it was not worth the money he had spent. He could see I was disappointed. . . . In truth, once I knew he thought he had overspent, I also knew it would pain him to see me wear the necklace had I insisted on keeping it. I wouldn't have felt comfortable wearing it in his presence, so what was the point?"

The unintentional point, of course, has to do with the power of martyrdom. As Sanford informs us elsewhere in the book, "Women were made for sacrifice."

And boy does she sacrifice . . . over and over and over. What's never clear from her extended exercise in score-settling is why? The man she describes is driven, self-absorbed, pathologically cheap and 360-degrees weird. She runs his political campaigns, puts up with his habitual absences and bears him four sons.

She even believes him, she tells us here, when late in their marriage he explains an unexpected trip alone to New York by saying he needs respite from the extra stress he is feeling because the hair on the top of his head is thinning.

Gimme a break.

If you believe that, you'll also believe Sanford really was looking for family property records when she ransacked her husband's desk while he was away on one of many hunting trips and found the file with his love letters.

On the other hand, this guy's self-absorption appears so complete that he demanded his wife's permission to continue seeing his mistress because it was the first thing he'd ever done for himself. (This is the same man who voted for Bill Clinton's impeachment and called the former president "reprehensible.") It was then that Sanford realized "reconciliation" was impossible.

This is the Southern Lady personified; continuously behaving herself, greeting guests and praying to Jesus, all while the husband is carousing. And yeah, the acute martyrdom brought on by Advanced Southern Lady syndrome can be stultifyingly horrible... and smothering. For a man like Sanford, there is no escape, except to really escape, like to Argentina.

But this is the logical end-result of the Republican-approved family, in which the wife dutifully takes the husband's lead and obeys his orders. What other power does she have, except simpering and martyrdom and inducing the hubby's guilt to get what she wants? Us loud gals here in the south who dare to ask men questions, are the "bad" girls, against which women like Sanford are judged. WE demand answers of men, so in contrast, they do not. See? They are the nice girls.

And we see what being nice gets you, hm?

Speaking of which, I finally finished the utterly-fascinating book GAME CHANGE and was pretty shocked at the behavior of Senator (and former VP-candidate) John Edwards, whom I had once admired. And now, his campaign aide, Andrew Young, has written HIS tell-all memoir, titled The Politician.

For those unaware, Edwards impregnated world-class flake Rielle Hunter, a maker of mediocre videos who momentarily convinced Edwards he was the Second Coming, while Edwards' wife Elizabeth struggled with incurable cancer. After Hunter's pregnancy was confirmed, Edwards ordered Young to claim HE had fathered the baby. Do you believe?!?

From the LA Times review:

Got a chief aide? Don't abandon him for your mistress. That's the lesson of "The Politician" by Andrew Young. For all its salacious finger-pointing, Young's tell-all is really about a bromance gone bad.

"Where he once called several times a day, he now never dialed my number," he writes. "When I got through to him, he kept the calls brief and guarded what he said."

"He," of course, is John Edwards; when his affair with Rielle Hunter -- and Hunter's pregnancy -- hit the press, he persuaded Young to say the child was his. Then Young, his family and Hunter trundled off to a series of houses until the baby was born.

Young was an important player in Edwards' 2004 race for the Democratic presidential nomination, and he was a close friend. The Edwards and Young families were on vacation together at Disney World when Edwards learned that Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry had picked him as his vice presidential running mate.

According to Young, Edwards and Hunter -- who produced webisodes for the campaign -- carried on their affair for months before a story appeared in the National Enquirer.

Young details the affair from behind the scenes: He carried a special phone for Edwards to use when talking to Hunter; he was there during a visit she made to North Carolina when Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, was away on a book tour; and he caroused with Edwards, Hunter and others on the road during a night of rowdy drinking.

In 2008, Edwards had given up his second attempt at the Democratic nomination but was angling again to be the running mate. Elizabeth Edwards' cancer had gotten worse and Hunter had a baby daughter. In one of the more incredible details here, Young claims Edwards asked him to steal a diaper so he could do a DNA test; Young never did.

But as he was packing up a house that Hunter had briefly shared with his family, he found a box of her things, among them "a number of videotapes, including one marked 'special,' which had the tape pulled out and seemed intentionally broken. . . . I couldn't resist. With scissors, a pen, and some scotch tape, I fixed the cassette. . . . As I pressed play, we saw an image of a man -- John Edwards -- and a naked pregnant woman, photographed from the navel down, engaged in a sexual encounter."

Young is critical of everyone around him but never takes responsibility for his decisions. Edwards' women get particularly harsh treatment. Hunter is portrayed as a sex-crazed loose cannon. Elizabeth Edwards fares no better; in Young's telling, she's a controlling, vindictive harpy who leaves cruel phone messages for those who incur her wrath.

Indeed, one unexpected result of GAME CHANGE is how both Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Edwards come out looking as ruthless as any male politicians. Most disturbing finding: Clinton was extremely eager to find the legendary videotape of Michelle Obama saying "whitey"--and exhorted her aides to find it so that she could use it against Barack Obama. (If it exists, no one successfully located it.) Like Elizabeth, Hillary also specializes in dumping all over her underlings. Sarah Palin actually comes off as more likable by contrast, if amazingly stupid and clueless, requiring several crash courses in world history.

~*~

One thing I like about the speed of our modern era: we used to have to wait YEARS to get these fabulous scandal-mongering books about presidential campaigns. Now, the campaign workers are racing to their laptops to type them out before the concession speeches have even been given...

Mark Sanford to mention affair in state-of-state speech

At left: Mark Sanford in Greer, South Carolina back in July, 2009. (Photo by Owen Riley Jr of the Greenville News.)



I have no time to address this right now, but simply couldn't let it pass without comment. And besides, what can you say? I think I've said most of it by now!

Do you believe?!?

Mark Sanford to mention affair in state-of-state speech
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 20, 2010
Greenville News

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford will address his affair with an Argentine woman and offer a slimmed-down policy agenda for the Legislature in his final state-of-the-state address.

“What we are asking for is I think a streamlined, specific, limited and achievable list of legislative priorities for the year,” Sanford said in a briefing for reporters ahead of the speech.

The affair launched ethics investigations and a failed impeachment effort. Last week Sanford was formally rebuked by legislators.

“I'll certainly at some point address it — not at length,” Sanford said of the affair. Some have told him to move on, but “I don't know that I'm capable of that” particularly since its his first address since news of the affair broke.

The policy agenda boils down to three themes Sanford has pushed in the past: a state Employment Security Commission overhaul; bureaucratic function reorganization and constitutional changes to reduce the number of statewide elected offices; and new limits on state spending growth.

The items are closer to reality than ever before and working their way through the Legislature.

Sanford told civic groups around the state as he pleaded to stay in office to support his policy agenda. He said it had been held back by people who didn't want to hand him political victories, but that's not a factor now because he's done with politics after he leaves office following his second, term-limited stint in 51 weeks.

Sanford will mention other accomplishments since he took office in January 2003, because “they are real and they are meaningful.” Still, “I would not describe it as a victory lap by any stretch of the imagination,” Sanford said.

Sanford's agenda rises or falls with a Legislature he's sparred with regularly since he took office. He famously carried pooping piglets to the House's doors to protest budget veto overrides and repeatedly challenged legislators in state and federal court, including last year's effort to bar use of federal stimulus cash.

While he has 357 days left in office, he has only until June's session end to mend rifts and get work done. And that time is colored by the affair and subsequent investigations. Just last week, the House voted 102-11 to formally rebuke him for abuse of his office and called into question his leadership. It rejected an impeachment resolution.

The resolution said “Sanford's conduct in its totality has breached the public trust of South Carolinians and has lowered their confidence in his ability to be their chief executive” and “has also brought ridicule, dishonor, disgrace, and shame not only upon Governor Sanford but upon this State and its citizens which rises to a level which requires a formal admonishment and censure.”

While it's nonbinding and has no practical affect on Sanford, he'll leave office as the only governor on record with a formal censure from the House. The Senate has referred the resolution to committee and it is unclear if it will act on the measure.

Meanwhile, the State Ethics Commission will schedule a hearing for Sanford on 37 charges involving violations of state ethics laws tied to his use of state planes, pricey commercial flights and use of campaign funds that could bring $74,000 in fines. And the attorney general is reviewing those to see if they merit criminal prosecution.

First lady Jenny Sanford has filed for divorce and the governor is not contesting it.

He calls it all “the storm” and knows people are interested. “Some would venture this will be my most widely watched state-of-the-state,” Sanford said.

Certainly, I'll be following it, probably on the local PBS affiliate.

Jenny Sanford files for divorce

Photo of Jenny Sanford by Heidi Heilbrunn of the Greenville News.




I had other obligations on Wednesday night and missed Jenny Sanford's TV-interview with Barbara Walters. But several of the local news outlets covered it, as well as national blogs like The Huffington Post:

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Even if her straying husband had asked her to, South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford says she wouldn't have stood with Gov. Mark Sanford when he faced cameras to tell the world about his affair with an Argentine woman.

Jenny Sanford told ABC's Barbara Walters for a special airing Wednesday her husband's actions have caused consequences but not robbed her of her self esteem. Excerpts of the interview were released Tuesday.

As she has said in earlier interviews, Sanford told Walters she found out about her husband's affair last January and forbid him to see the other woman. She said she told him not to see his four boys or her for a month last summer as well.

"My hope was that he would wake up from whatever he was in the throes of and maybe see what he might lose," she said.

"Certainly his actions hurt me, and they caused consequences for me, but they don't in any way take away my own self-esteem," she said. "They reflect poorly on him."

But the best part? She said she wouldn't stand there like a prop.

This quiet dignity is why Jenny is loved by the women of South Carolina and the USA:

But Jenny Sanford was not beside him and she told Walters that the governor never asked her to appear.

"I wouldn't have. If he had asked me, I would have said no," she said.

YES!

It is my fervent hope that Jenny's patent refusal to physically stand beside her husband like an obedient little Stepford Wife, will catch on. NO MORE USING POLITICIAN'S WIVES AS PROPS!

I am more than a little thrilled that it is a southern woman who has finally put the kibosh on this terrible tradition. I have always thought it was an added, horrific humiliation to make wives stand there mutely while sleazemeisters like James McGreevey, Larry Craig, Elliot Spitzer, et. al. make their various confessions. Their wives were used as moral set-decoration: Looky here, I have a WIFE, I am not a sex pervert!*

This is an ethical variation of woman-as-ornament, woman-as-arm-candy: Woman as TAMER of men's collectively untamed, wild, crazy libidos. It is offensive as hell and always has been. Bravo to Jenny for NOT PLAYING ALONG!!!!

~*~

And today, we get the news that she has filed for divorce. If she has a publicist, I say, give that girl a raise! Great timing, right after a well-received national interview.

The Greenville News reports:

COLUMBIA – Gov. Mark Sanford said this morning that he takes “full responsibility for the moral failure” that led his wife, Jenny, today to file for divorce.

“While it is not the course I would have hoped for, or would choose, I want to take full responsibility for the moral failure that led us to this tragic point,” Sanford said in a brief statement. “While our family structure may change, I know that we will both work earnestly to be the best mom and dad we can be to four of the finest boys on earth.”

The complaint filed this morning by First Lady Jenny Sanford in Charleston County Family Court is brief and accuses the governor of having sex with another woman but provides no other details or discusses divorce issues other than to note agreements are expected to be filed in the matter sometime in the future.

Jenny Sanford announced this morning she was filing for divorce “after many unsuccessful efforts at reconciliation.”

And meanwhile, although the SC House censured Sanford, and the impeachment resolution may go to the full house floor--it appears totally stalled for now, and Mark Sanford has no intention of leaving office any earlier than required.

Stay tuned, sports fans!



*Technically, I think the first person to successfully employ this strategy was Richard Nixon during the Checkers speech. Pat Nixon sat there like a mannequin (barely breathing or blinking, it seemed) as Nixon told the country she didn't own a mink, but instead, "a respectable Republican cloth coat" ... using his wife's humble nature as somehow proof of HIS humble nature, which as we all know, was nonexistent.

Thus, the first modern example of wife-as-moral-prop was not a sexual scandal, but it was a scandal. Richard Nixon never referred to "Pat" publicly (in contrast to other presidents who called their wives by their first names in speeches), but always publicly referred to her as "Mrs Nixon"... which I found strange even as a kid. "Mrs Nixon likes... Mrs Nixon says..." as if she really had no other identity besides his misses.

Boeing in South Carolina

Left: Boeing illustration of the 787 Dreamliner.




As you have undoubtedly heard by now, South Carolina got Boeing and the conservatives are crowing (yes, I'm a poet)... it's fairly nauseating.

Should Mark Sanford (our wayward, romantically-preoccupied governor) get credit for this economic coup? -- is the political question of the hour.

In any event, he is wasting no time in grabbing the credit:

SC Gov: Boeing 787 Plant Should Spur Growth Across State
By Ann Keeton
Wall Street Journal

CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Boeing Co.'s (BA) new 787 Dreamliner plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, should have "a ripple effect that will play out over time," generating economic activity across the state, Mark Sanford, South Carolina's governor, said in an interview Thursday with Dow Jones Newswires.

Sanford spoke by telephone en route to Charleston from the state capitol.

Late Wednesday, Boeing said it had chosen South Carolina over Washington state for added 787 production. The new facility, to supplement final assembly in Washington state, is expected to be up and running by July of 2011.

To woo Boeing, South Carolina legislators offered substantial financial incentives. Boeing gets those benefits if it brings in at least 3,800 new jobs and invests $750 million in the next few years.

"This is the largest single job creation in South Carolina history," Sanford said. "It will give us an immediate shot in the arm at a time when it's needed."

As with other states, South Carolina is battling unemployment, now at about 10%. But, Sanford said, that comes on top of strong job growth in the past few years, as 85,000 new workers have come into the state. He hopes that Boeing will hire as many local workers as possible, although the number of local hires hasn't been discussed.

Over the long term, Sanford expects Boeing suppliers and other businesses to come to South Carolina, "repeating what we saw with BMW." The German auto maker has had a U.S. production plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, for 15 years, and currently is expanding that facility.

Boeing recently bought out a supplier's factory in North Charleston, and plans to expand there to add production capacity for the 787. But Sanford said he and South Carolina officials have been talking to Boeing since 2003, when the aircraft maker turned down his state's offer to start initial 787 assembly work in Everett, Washington.

In its home state of Washington, Boeing's Commercial Airplanes unit employs about 73,000 workers, and accounts for many more jobs there.

In the Seattle area, where most workers are located, business costs are relatively high, partly due to the presence of unions. Sanford said the recent decision by Boeing's North Charleston workers to reject union representation made a difference to Boeing, which has suffered a series of employee strikes in recent years. "They proved to Boeing that this is a right-to-work state," Sanford said.

(((sigh))) Yes, let's trash the unions some more, while we're at it.

Meanwhile, WIS in Columbia reports that this will make things easier on Sanford, so his happiness is unmistakably for himself and his own fate:

Boeing announcement may mean less heat on Sanford
Posted: Oct 29, 2009
By Jackie Faye

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - No one was happier to hear that Boeing was moving a major operation to South Carolina than Governor Mark Sanford.

With calls for his resignation and talk of impeachment, the deal and the economic growth it promises has taken the heat off the governor, for now.

Sanford says the cooperation that allowed South Carolina to seal the Boeing deal is a good sign for state government.

"To get something done means working in bipartisan fashion wherever you can, and where you respectfully disagree, you respectfully disagree," said Sanford.

One senator calls the Boeing decision a "quantum leap" for a state that's seen more than its share of negative news. One question remains: will Boeing also be a boost for the beleaguered governor?

Sanford, targeted first for his admitted affair and later following questions about his air travel, was still under fire this week by a handful of lawmakers who want him impeached.

"Leaving his state for five days without anybody knowing where he was, there was no chain of command or protocol established to exercise executive authority," said Rep. Greg Delleney. "If anybody else had done that, they would have lost their job. And he ought to lose his."

But some say the Boeing announcement has energized efforts to attack the state's unemployment problem, and impeachment could be too much of a distraction.

"What I've tried to do is take my cue from my constituents," said Gilda Cobb-Hunter. "What my constituents have said to me very clearly is, 'look Gilda, y'all have beat that horse to death. What I want to hear from you is what are you all going to do about bringing jobs to this state?' After all, the responsibility for job creation doesn't just rest with the executive branch. It also rests with the legislative branch."

"We understand what the important issues facing the state are," said Rep. Kenny Bingham. "We're doing everything we can to move in that direction. There are certain other issues obviously that come up that are beyond our control that we do have to deal with to some degree. But I think our focus is going to be moving South Carolina forward. I think that was pretty obvious yesterday in the last two days this week as we've been in session, dealing with the employment security commission. Dealing with the Boeing deal and the incentives package that we put together."

A lot is riding on the results of the state ethics commission investigation. Lawmakers say if that report fails to turn up solid evidence of serious misconduct the impeachment effort might begin, but it will ultimately go nowhere.

Translation: We lost our window of opportunity to get rid of Sanford and weaken and divide the South Carolina GOP. They are now united once again, however tattered and torn from within... as the Christian conservatives who were ready to roast Sanford on a spit (particularly women who identified with Jenny Sanford and admired her decorum in the face of this horrible disaster for her family), quickly back off and regroup.

If we'd had a strong, well-connected and well-financed dissident faction to go after Sanford immediately, we could have gotten rid of him in the first two weeks after the scandal. I knew when we didn't, that he had won the necessary reprieve. A master politician, he turned the confused attrition of his opponents into the appearance of a lack of political will, rather than basic disagreement about how to proceed.

Point, Sanford.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, waiting in the wings, thanks you.

Restating the negativeness of the universe

I hereby apologize to all of my very patient email correspondents. If you are wondering about my rudeness, I have not checked email in days; ON STRIKE against the email, which is threatening to colonize my soul. It's currently taking more of my time than mere blogging or Twitter, God help me. Trying to sort it out and make lists of priorities, blah blah blah. In the meantime, bear with me, yall!

How does the internet do this to us? Does everyone else feel the constant encroachment of ONLINE into "real life"--maybe the problem is that we divide our consciousness into these categories...do the kids manage their time better than we do? I think if you grow up communicating online, you learn to make time for it in a more natural way and can do it anywhere. The rest of us have to figure out how to integrate it fully.

Then again, maybe not. Maybe the kids are as frazzled as we are?

~*~

Photo of Jessica Lange at this year's Emmy awards by Dan Steinberg, Associated Press.



Reprinting my indignant comment over at Feministe (cross-posted to Echidne of the Snakes) ...which was brought about by THIS New York Times column by Maureen Dowd, and THIS endless thread at Huffington Post. (click on the latter at your own risk!)

Suddenly inflamed by cable-TV busybodies, I wrote:

The thing people are missing is the age component. The “research” (using word advisedly) at HuffPo suggests women are unhappier AS WE AGE. Probably because they will not stop fussing at us to look young, and have upped the ante. Now we are expected to diet, use botox and collagen and look good forever. This is impossible to achieve after a certain age without considerable anxiety and anguish. Women in past generations were never expected to be “matrons” and look hot.

Still shocked that one of those nasty “fashion” TV-round-ups criticized Jessica Lange for showing her old-lady arms at the Emmys. Never mind that she won! (They didn’t even fucking MENTION that!) But they did mention her (likely) plastic surgery, while sneering that her arms still look bad. Jesus Christ, she’s 64, has two Oscars… is there NO ESCAPE for ANYONE?

No matter how well-achieved a woman is, no matter that she has had her face stretched to the limit already, dammit, just look at those ARMS!

Infuriating.

Reprinting the comment here for EMPHASIS.

Infuriating!!

~*~

Speaking of infuriating, the much-beleaguered First Lady of South Carolina, Jenny Sanford, is writing a memoir:

Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House Inc., said Tuesday it will publish Jenny Sanford's “inspirational memoir” in May 2010.

The publisher says Sanford “will grapple with the universal issue of maintaining integrity and a sense of self during life's difficult times.”

The book is currently untitled, and financial terms were not disclosed.

Mark Sanford was once a rising star in the Republican Party. He acknowledged in June that he had a yearlong affair with an Argentine woman he called his soul mate.

Jenny Sanford moved out of the governor's mansion in August, but she and her husband have said they're trying to repair their marriage.

Inspirational?

Oh, hell no.

Let's hope it isn't one of those unreadable, born-again "women's memoirs"--incessantly dotted with Bible verses. Or, worse, every emotion described is carefully catalogued with accompanying chapter and verse, so you know that even her most wayward thoughts are okay with Jesus.

Yes, I have been plied with a few of these in my time. They should NOT be confused with real memoirs.

Let's hope Jenny's account is a little better than the majority of these.

~*~

More in South Carolina fun-house news: My senator, Lindsey Graham, trashed Obama on the Sunday-morning talk shows as "being everywhere but the food channel"... which was admittedly funny. (Well, I toldya he was damned charming.) Meanwhile, he says he is ready to "compromise"--which could mean anything, coming from him.

On Saturday, downtown, I saw several Joe Wilson T-shirts and bumper stickers. Yeah, they LOOOOOVE him! CNN's Political Ticker reports that he has raised over $2 million on the strength of his ill-mannered temper tantrum.

Once more, I put out the SOS. Just in case you missed it the first time!

~*~

The title of today's post comes from the following clip... the reference to Play it Again Sam in yesterday's post, reminded me of this:



:D

Jenny's finally had enough

...and as the Associated Press photo at left shows us, she is hauling ass out of the Governor's Mansion and decamping to Sullivan's Island. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)


Our hapless romantic Governor Mark Sanford and his family had just returned from the much-ballyhooed European vacation, (where things would get all ironed out, one assumes)... only to see the wife pack up her shit and get out. GOOD FOR YOU, JENNY!

Huffington Post comments:

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The wife of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford moved out of the official governor's residence with their four sons Friday, a little more than a month after he admitted to a yearlong affair with an Argentine woman he called his "soul mate."

First lady Jenny Sanford and several other women moved bags of clothes, a suitcase and armloads of suits and dresses on hangers from the governor's mansion in Columbia before departing in a caravan of sport utility vehicles. Three of the four boys were present, carrying tote and duffel bags.

Before departing, she hugged several of the women who helped her carry belongings out. In a statement, Jenny Sanford said she was heading to the family residence on Sullivans Island, some 120 miles southeast, for the upcoming school year.

"From there, we will work to continue the process of healing our family," she said. "While we will be leaving Columbia, we will return often, and I will remain engaged in activities in my role as First Lady, acknowledging that my responsibilities to my family come first."

The governor, who spoke to reporters elsewhere in the state later Friday, termed the reconciliation "a day at a time process" and said the move was a mutual decision.

"It's been brewing for a while and something we've been back and forth on and kicked around at length. It was not entered into lightly but with a whole lot of thought and prayer," he said.

Jenny Sanford is a former Wall Street vice president who helped launch her husband's political career only to endure his tearful public confession in June. She had separated from her husband and sought refuge with her sons at the couple's coastal home two weeks before news of the affair broke.

The coastal home is a low, two-story house set back 50 yards from the beach, featuring a large great room with windows overlooking the water. It was briefly on the market earlier this year with an asking price of $3.5 million.

So, Jenny can obviously take care of herself. Don't cry for her, Argentina!

Now, we have some more goods on Mark Sanford:

COLUMBIA — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford used state aircraft for personal and political trips, often bringing along his wife and children — contrary to state law regarding official use, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Records reviewed by the AP show that since he took office in 2003, the two-term Republican has taken trips on state aircraft to locations of his children's sporting events, hair and dentist appointments, political party gatherings and a birthday party for a campaign donor.

According to state budget law, “Any and all aircraft owned or operated by agencies of the State Government shall be used only for official business.”

On March 10, 2006, a state plane was sent to pick up Sanford in Myrtle Beach and return him to Columbia, the state capital, at a cost of $1,265 — when his calendar showed his only appointment in Columbia was “personal time” at his favorite discount hair salon. He had flown to Myrtle Beach on a private plane and attended a county GOP event.

The trip home on the state aircraft took off at 1:50 p.m. and arrived in Columbia at 2:35 p.m., enabling the governor to keep his plans for a 3 p.m. haircut across town. There were no other appointments on his official schedule that afternoon; the trip back to Columbia would have taken about three hours by car.

Also, on five of the last six Thanksgiving weekends, Sanford used a state plane to fly himself, his wife and their four sons from the family's plantation in Beaufort County to Columbia for the state Christmas tree lighting. The cost for those flights alone: $5,536, including $2,869 for flying the plane empty to pick them up.

Sanford, 49, has been under increased scrutiny since he admitted in June to having a mistress in Argentina. He's vowed to stay in office and says he is trying to reconcile with his wife, though she moved out of the governor's official residence on Friday with their sons and plans to spend the school year at the family's beach house.

The governor has made a political career out of being outwardly thrifty — known to demand that state employees use both sides of Post-It notes. He has frequently railed against government spending, and attempted for months to block federal stimulus money for South Carolina schools.

Last month, the AP revealed how Sanford had flown first class and business class on commercial airlines at taxpayer expense, despite a law requiring lowest-cost travel.

On many occasions, records show, the governor mingled his non-official travels with official business.

For example, on March 23, 2005, Sanford flew on a state plane from Columbia to Mount Pleasant, near the beach house, where the governor was scheduled for a 5 p.m. appointment with a dentist. Later that day, he had a TV interview before speaking at a Republican Party event for Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties along with U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint.

Such mingling also is problematic under South Carolina regulations.

Aeronautics Division rules say that “under no circumstances shall aircraft owned and operated by” the division “be used for personal or politically partisan purposes.” But there's no clear enforcement mechanism for such violations; the division says it simply lets citizens know that statements attesting to official use of the planes are open to public inspection.

Still, misuse of state resources arguably could subject Sanford to civil or criminal penalties under the state's ethics laws, which are enforced by the South Carolina Ethics Commission. Any public official found to have used state property for personal financial gain is subject to as much as a $5,000 fine and five years in prison. Only incidental use that does not result in additional public expense is exempt.

On April 29, 2006, a state plane flew Sanford from Greenville, not far from where one of his sons was in a soccer tournament, to Charleston, so the governor could attend a National Republican Senatorial Committee meeting on Kiawah Island.

“That's personal use and political use. That's not what the state plane is for,” said former Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat who said he occasionally mingled official state business with political and public events while using state aircraft, but only if the main purpose of the trip was official business.

Peggy Kerns, ethics director for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said she knows of no state that allows its property to be used for personal or campaign purposes. “It's like a no-brainer,” she said.

Government watchdogs said federal officials have to repay the cost of flying government planes for personal or campaign events and said they didn't know of a state that permitted planes to be used for such trips.

The AP review also raises questions about how South Carolina polices the use of its aircraft and reveals a system rife with shoddy record keeping and violations of laws that require the public be able to see documents.

In South Carolina, governors are able to use aircraft run by different agencies: a King Air twin turboprop run by the Aeronautics Division that can seat nine passengers, and smaller, slower propeller-driven planes managed by the Department of Natural Resources.

As governor, Sanford has flown 353 hours aboard the larger plane and an additional 73 hours on the smaller, propeller planes — a total cost of nearly $373,000, according to Sanford's office and other state records.

Sanford's children spent more time on the bigger state plane than the children of the past two governors, records show. At least one of Sanford's sons was aboard 43 flights during his first term alone. That compared with 11 during Hodges' single term and 12 during David Beasley's one term.

Overall, flights that included his children cost taxpayers more than $50,000, or about 14 percent of his total travel on state planes.

“If it was somewhere the governor was going, sometimes the kids tagged along. There is no additional cost to the taxpayers for the kids to be on the plane if it's somewhere the governor is headed anyway,” said Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer, who stepped down Aug. 5.

Additional matches of flight documents and Sanford's schedule show:

— An Oct. 14, 2004 pickup in Bishopville, where his schedule shows his son Marshall's private school football team was playing. Afterward, the plane took him to Charlotte, N.C., for a commercial flight to Dallas, where his schedule placed the governor at a lake house in Texas for a gathering of Republican donors.

— A Nov. 14, 2006 flight to Mount Pleasant, where he attended a book signing. He then flew to Aiken for the 65th birthday party for a business owner who had donated more than $12,000 to his campaign.

— A July 8, 2005 use of the state's turboprop to fly from Charleston to Greenville, where Sanford lists the official use of the King Air for a round-table discussion with business leaders, interviews and “Greenville County Bronze Elephant Dinner,” a county GOP event.

Sawyer said the governor had fewer hours on Aeronautics Division planes in his first term than his two predecessors: 229 hours, compared with Beasley's 303 hours and Hodges' 310 hours. Sawyer characterized the review of Sanford's flight schedule as “continued cherry picking,” a term he used when the AP examined the commercial flights.

“Every time the governor used the plane it was for an official state purpose and that state purpose was documented,” Sawyer said.

He also said Sanford's schedule doesn't chronicle all his official activities. “The governor's schedule is not reflective of everything he's doing that day,” he said.

Former state Rep. Margaret Gamble, a watchdog on political travel issues, said Sanford should get the benefit of the doubt on a case-by-case basis. For instance, one of Sanford's flights took him from Anderson to Marion County for a soldier's funeral and then to Greenwood so he could get to a McCormick County GOP fundraiser. “Maybe he had a prior commitment,” she said, but needed to go to the funeral, too, and the plane was the only way to keep his promise.

Other governors have faced questions about aircraft use, including Beasley for using a state helicopter to get to a speech and then back for a golf game. John Crangle, state director for government watchdog group Common Cause, said governors “have been given almost unlimited latitude to do as they please, to come and go as they please or when they want to and to use the state's resources for travel when they want.”

He said the AP research indicates Sanford repeatedly made mistakes.

“This was the Wild West for the governor's travel when basically anything was permitted or done and accepted as normal,” Crangle said.

In fact, state law requires the Aeronautics Division to collect and keep sworn statements from aircraft users certifying flights were for official business within 48 hours of flights. Sanford's office routinely filed that paperwork days or weeks late and the division destroys documents more than three years old.

“They're actually destroying data that the Legislature gave them no permission to destroy. That's like destroying evidence,” said state Sen. David Thomas, a Republican congressional candidate who has begun holding legislative hearings into Sanford's use of state funds.

The same law requires the agency to post those records on its Web site. That was done briefly earlier this month, but the Aeronautics Division pulled the link to the records as the commission that oversees its operation reviews the law. Until July 1, the agency reported to Sanford's cabinet.

And the law required the natural resources agency to keep official statements on flights, which it never has. Governors appoint the entire board overseeing the agency.

“The situation is one that's dramatically out of control and needs to be completely overhauled,” Crangle said.

Added Thomas: “It's an overwhelming ethical issue here. To me, this is clear misuse of state property.”

Can we please, please, please get rid of this embarrassing asshole? Pretty please.

(((Daisy fumes on her way to work)))

Governor Sanford's lovesick correspondence

At left: Governor Mark Sanford and the family he has betrayed. (Photo from Chapin, South Carolina's official website.)




I have retail inventory in a few days, and company coming next week... and what am I doing? What every self-respecting resident of South Carolina is doing, of course. Reading the steamy emails between Governor Mark Sanford and his paramour, Maria.

Interestingly, before the Governor's fun-filled press conference on Wednesday in which he admitted his affair, I joked on Aunt B's blog about the legendary Wilbur Mills and Fanne Foxe, known as the Argentine Firecracker. I wondered if the Governor was playing with similar fireworks, and damned if I wasn't right.

But what really surprises me about the emails between the Governor and Maria, is that he turns out to be a better writer than I expected:

Got back an hour ago to civilization and am now in Columbia after what was for me a glorious break from reality down at the farm. No phones ringing and tangible evidence of a day’s labors. Though I have started every day by 6 this morning woke at 4:30, I guess since my body knew it was the last day, and I went out and ran the excavator with lights until the sun came up. To me, and I suspect no one else on earth, there is something wonderful about listening to country music playing in the cab, air conditioner running, the hum of a huge diesel engine in the background, the tranquility that comes with being in a virtual wilderness of trees and marsh, the day breaking and vibrant pink coming alive in the morning clouds — and getting to build something with each scoop of dirt. It is admittedly weird but one of my more favorite ways of escaping the norms, constant phone calls and formalities that go with the office — and it probably fits with my weakness in doing rather than being — though you opened up a new chapter last week wherein I was happy and content just being. Last point worth further discussion. Afternoon projects had me outside and by days (sic) end I pretty much looked like a homeless person ... but in this case a very content one. Enough about my love of heavy equipment and woods at sunrise ...

While I was getting exhausted with one project after another at Coosaw work week, you were basking (I’m certain gloriously) on the beach..

Sounds great, hope to hear more about what sounds a great spot.

Will now finally get some sleep and write you a longer note with a few more profound thoughts tomorrow or Wednesday. In the meantime I send my love and hope you know I am thinking of you.. M

Hey, not bad. He should take up blogging, his GOP-fans (assuming he has any left) would eat it up. That "vibrant pink coming alive in the morning clouds" was pretty good. Do you think he plagiarized? (And what makes me think he would be the type of person to do that?)

And then it gets pretty hot:

Above all else I love that inner beauty about you. That gift of yours is going to make a tremendous difference in [The State deleted sons’ names] life — and in anyone’s life who is blest to be touched by yours — you need to rest very comfortably in that fact. As I mentioned in our last visit, while I did not need love fifteen years ago — as the battle scars of life and aging and politics have worn on this has become a real need of mine. You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that is so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificently gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curves of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of night’s light — but hey, that would be going into the sexual details we spoke of at the steakhouse at dinner — and unlike you I would never do that!

Three and finally, while all the things above are all too true — at the same time we are in a hopelessly — or as you put it impossible — or how about combine and simply say hopelessly impossible situation of love. 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 (and yes this is true even if you did occasionally tantalize me with sexual details over the years!) — but it was all safe. Where we are is not. I have thought about it and in some ways feel I let you down in letting these complications come into a friendship that I hope will last till death. In all my life I have lived by a code of honor and at a variety of levels know I have crossed lines I would have never imagined. I wish I could wish it away, but this soul-mate feel I alluded too is real and in that regard I sure don’t want to be the person complicating your life. I looked to where I often look for advice and counsel, and in I Corinthians 13 it simply says that, “ Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous or boastful, it is not arrogant or rude, Love does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in the wrong, but rejoices in the right, Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things”. In this regard it is action that goes well beyond the emotion of today or tomorrow and in this light I want to look for ways to show love in helping you to live a better — not more complicated life. I want to help [one of Maria’s sons] with film guys that might help his career, etc. I also don’t want you walking20away (sic) from some guy (I take it the younger guy you mentioned a t dinner) because of me — and what we both have to see as an impossible situation. I better stop now least this really sound like the Thornbirds — wherein I was always upset with Richard Chamberlain for not dropping his ambitions and running into Maggie’s arms. The bottom line is two fold, my heart wants me to get on a plane tonight and to be in your loving arms — my head is saying how do we put the Genie back in the bottle because I sure don’t want to be encumbering you, or your options or your life. Put differently, given I love you, I don’t want to be part of the reason you are having less than an ideal week in what sounds like a cool spot.

Lastly I also suspect I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never certainly never covered before — so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know ... In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul. I love you ... sleep tight. M

I love how right-wing Christians quote the Bible when they are aroused. They do, you know, as if to give it the A-OK: I'm quoting the Bible, so it's CLEAN desire!

And who knew he liked THE THORNBIRDS? Damn, our Governor is a closet romantic and there was never the first clue.

The political questions everyone has now: who paid for the cars, gas, and plane fare for his many trysts? Apparently, it was a state car he drove to the Atlanta airport. (Surely a 'fiscally responsible' conservative like Mark Sanford would not charge the costs of flying to his private love-nest to the good people of South Carolina?) Is abandoning the state an impeachable offense? People are bloody livid, including (especially?) at least two Republicans I know.

If he resigns, we get Andre Bauer. Holy God, are we ready for that?

But it's been fun, yall. As I said on Aunt B's, an Obama campaign worker I hadn't seen in months came into the store Tuesday night while I was working...and we just grinned and cackled at each other. And that was before Wednesday's bombshell.

It's been a long time coming. Justice is sweet. Although when I look at Jenny Sanford's face in the photo above, and I see that tight smile I always thought was just plain snootiness, I now see forced politeness and possible disgust.

Jenny, I'm sorry that our schadenfreude is at the expense of your pain.

Mark Sanford in hiding?

I've been getting hits for a couple of days now, with search terms like:

Mark Sanford Suicide?

Mark Sanford sick

Mark Sanford gone

Mark Sanford in hiding

Where is Mark Sanford?

And so on.

Of course, this excited lots of us, for obviously unsavory reasons, but I won't get into that.

The Greenville News, another Republican...oops I mean, GANNETT newspaper, has not covered the Governor's disappearance. I finally saw it on POLITICO, and now that the story has been picked up by the Associated Press, the Greenville News is forced to take note of the fact that Sanford has been incommunicado for several days:

Unclear if S.C. governor has talked to staff in days
By Jim Davenport • The Associated Press • June 22, 2009

COLUMBIA -- A spokesman for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says the chief executive may not have checked in with anyone on his staff in four days.

Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said Monday he last spoke with the governor Thursday and was not aware of any other staff member speaking with him since. He says nobody in the office spoke with Sanford on Monday.

Sawyer said the the two-term Republican was expected to return later this week.

The spokesman emphasized that Sanford routinely takes time to unwind after a legislative session ends. But this time even Sanford's wife says she doesn't know where he went.

First lady Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press said she had not spoken with him for several days. That includes Father's Day. The Sanfords have four sons.

Translation: Even his kids don't like him.

Politico reports:

Staff says Gov. Mark Sanford is safe
By JONATHAN MARTIN & ANDY BARR | 6/22/09 6:25 PM EDT

South Carolina GOP Gov. Mark Sanford is safe and secure, his office said Monday afternoon, moving to tamp down speculation that he had gone missing.

Sanford has not been in touch with his office since Thursday and left Columbia without his state police detail.

His communications director, Joel Sawyer, wouldn’t disclose Sanford’s location but said that before the governor left town last week “he let staff know his whereabouts and that he'd be difficult to reach.”

“Should any emergencies arise between the times in which he checks in, our staff would obviously be in contact with other state officials as the situation warrants before making any decisions,” said Sawyer.

Sanford’s wife, Jenny, told The Associated Press Monday that she was unconcerned and that the second-term governor is “writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids.”

Sawyer added: “The governor put in a lot of time during this last legislative session, and after the session winds down it's not uncommon for him to go out of pocket for a few days at a time to clear his head. Obviously, that's going to be somewhat out of the question this time given the attention this particular absence has gotten.”

Sanford allies blame that attention on some of the governor’s adversaries, especially state Sen. Jake Knotts, a veteran Republican who has clashed repeatedly with Sanford.

It was Knotts who provided the only on-record confirmation of Sanford’s absence to The State newspaper, prompting nationwide buzz about the unlikely story of the disappearing governor.

Knotts demanded in an interview Monday with The State to “know immediately who is running the executive branch in the governor’s absence.”

“As the head of our state, in the unfortunate event of a state of emergency or homeland security situation, Governor Sanford should be available at all times to the chief of [the state police force],” Knotts said.

State authorities told the paper that Sanford’s last known location was somewhere near Atlanta where the governor’s phone signal was picked up by a local cell phone tower.

Sanford’s solo summer sabbatical is only the latest reminder of his eccentricity.

“He marches to his own crazy beat,” said one veteran Palmetto State GOP strategist when asked about this Salinger-like episode.

Sanford, a potential 2012 presidential aspirant, has previously raised eyebrows in South Carolina for bringing squealing and defecating pigs into the statehouse to make his case against pork-barrel spending and for sporting a ratty blazer to his own Inauguration.

A former House member, he easily won his gubernatorial races and has been more popular with the electorate than the state’s political class.

But with unemployment climbing in South Carolina, Sanford has come under fire for initially refusing to take some federal stimulus funds.

Now he’s sure to become the butt of late-night television jokes for a time, not exactly the preferred launching pad for White House hopefuls.

Considering some of his sleazoid friends, maybe he decided to go on a coke binge.

Drugs? Booze? Women? Men? Solitude? Satan? You decide.