I’m kind of enjoying this whole Mark Sanford AWOL thing; it’s a refreshing throwback to the days when a governor could do something completely nuts and not have threats of prosecution for prostitution across state lines. I have no idea what the guy has been doing, but my guess is that it has very little to do with hiking and quite a bit more to do with the sort of thing that had Pat Geary in tears in Godfather II.
The truly crazy thing would be if the cover story were true: Mark Sanford really did wake up one morning, not tell his wife or any government officials, ditched his security detail, and went and spent four days on the Appalachian Trail with no advance preparation or provisioning.
Of course, no matter what becomes of the good Governor, it will probably be only the second weirdest political disappearance of recent years, behind the serving Prime Minister of Australia, Howard Holt, going out for a swim and never being seen again. I remember thinking about that when Dubya nearly choked on a pretzel; we can spend billions on defense, but stupidity is a heartbeat away.
UPDATE
After all that, the guy went to Argentina for some southern hemisphere winter? And didn’t tell his wife or kids? Thought about going to the AT, but decided to drive to the airport, buy a ticket to “somewhere exotic” that did not require a visa, and just like that he’s having a steak at Cabana Las Lilas? By himself? Isn’t he a rotten liar (skip ahead to 9:56)
UPDATE OF UPDATE
Sanford has resurfaced to say that he was in Argentina having an affair:
The sex-related bit makes some sense, but that leaves out the common sense. Suppose you were a governor and you were having an affair with a woman in Argentina. You decide to visit her. Do you (a) go completely AWOL; (b) tell your chief of staff and lieutenant governor you are going fly-fishing in the Andes, ask for a sat phone, tell any and all reporters it was a bruising legislative session and, if they wouldn’t mind, you’ll be alone for a little while. If the departure had been in any way planned, wouldn’t he have time to come up with a remotely decent cover story? At least the Spitz had business in DC when he wanted to get his freak on.
What sort of blackmail/extortion was the woman in Argentina threatening that warranted spinning the wheel on a promising political career? Or is Sanford really so nuts that he thought this was perfectly OK?
