Mark Sanford, the Republican govenor or South Carolina, finally ended the mystery over a bizarre week-long disappearance by confessing on live television yesterday that he had been having an affair with a woman in Argentina.
At an emotional press conference in which he spent several minutes reminiscing about childhood holidays and rambled about “God’s laws”, he eventually said: “I’m a bottom line kind of guy I’m just gonna lay it out. It’s gonna hurt and I’m going to let the chips fall where they may.”
“It began very innocently, as I suspect these things do, in just a casual e-mail back and forth. But here, recently, over this last year, developed into something much more than that. And as a consequence, I hurt her. I hurt you all, I hurt my wife. I hurt my boys. I hurt friends like Tom Davis. I hurt a lot of different folks.”
“I’ve been unfaithful to my wife,” he said in a bombshell news conference in which the 49-year-old governor ruminated aloud with remarkable frankness on God’s law, moral absolutes and following one’s heart. He said he spent the last five days “crying in Argentina.”
Later Wednesday, The State newspaper in South Carolina released e-mail exchanges between the governor and the woman, identified only as Maria. Sanford's office Wednesday did not dispute the authenticity of the emails, The State reported. One exchange was dated July 10, 2008 when the governor is reported to have written to her:
"Two, mutual feelings .... You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. 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 ..."
Sanford admitted that what had started as an "innocent" e-mail exchange with a "dear, dear friend in Argentina" had developed over the past year into "something much more than that." He said he’s seen her three times since the affair began, and wife found out about it five months ago.
“He shouldn’t have lied to us. He should have been up straight,” said college student Gerald Walker, 19, in downtown Columbia. “It’s very embarrassing for someone in a leadership role that we are supposed to respect, especially me being a young guy.”
Wiping away tears, he apologized to his wife and four sons and said he will resign as head of the Republican Governors Association.
Glenn Mitchell, of Columbia, said he felt Sanford’s absence showed a lack of concern for the state.
“He left the state unattended,” said Mitchell, 54, out of work recuperating from surgery. “He just hasn’t been there for us.”
“There is nothing left to save,” Rutherford said. “There is no reason for him to remain as governor.”
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