Location: South Carolina The "Offender": GOP Governor: Mr. Sanford The Location of Said Affair: Argentina, because the Good Governor wanted a more exotic location for his little "tryst".
The Governor of South Carolina decided to take some time off. The bad thing is that he didn't tell anyone where he was. His wife couldn't find him. His aides had no idea where he was either. Then the word came out: Governor Sanford was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Not a problem they thought, except that Governor Sanford was not hiking the Appalachian Trail- he was in Argentina having an affair with an Argentinian "friend" that he had known for 8 years.
When the word came out, the proverbial shi-ite hit the proverbial fan. The Dems took offense, saying he had left South Carolina to the wolves basically. Senator Knotts said, "There was nobody in a position to make a decision on homeland security or if there were a prison riot or something of that nature." Not a word as of yet whether his wife is standing by him. (She was apparently not concerned at all that she could not get ahold of him on Father's Day, but I am thinking that perhaps her children were.)
For a relatively small state, Governor Sanford has been in a pretty high-profile position since Obama took office. He wanted, for example, to refuse the stimulus spending for his state, and wrote an opinion essay for the Wall Street Journal entitled "Don't Bail Out My State". He later took the money (when forced to do so) on behalf of the state. Personally, I think the title of his essay is perhaps a little ironic because he seems to be in need of literal "bailing out" now as it appears that his time as Governor is fast becoming a "sinking ship".
I love a good scandal. Especially when it involves foreign travel, deception, and lies. Even better is when it involves a conservative Republican because the "perpetrator" (and yes I know that having an affair is not a crime) is more than likely a hypocrite as well. That said, I wish that Governor Sanford would have been in the same amount of trouble for making a mockery of the people of his state by trying to refuse money to help them during the financial crisis. We have got to get our priorities in order. We have to weed out not only the politicians who are cheating on their wives, but politicians who are not truly taking care of their constituents.