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Report: Sanford Booked 10-Day Argentina Trip
Things just keeps getting worse for Mark Sanford. Now Politico's Ben Smith reports that he had originally booked a ten-day trip to Argentina -- right around the time his wife kicked him out -- before apparently cutting it short four days early.
On or around the day his wife asked him to move out, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford booked a ten-day trip to Buenos Aires, a person familiar with the governor's travel plans told POLITICO.Sanford booked the trip on Delta Air Lines on June 10, using the company's SkyMiles program, the source said. He bought a ticket for June 18, returning June 28.
Jenny Sanford said yesterday, June 24, that she'd "asked my husband to leave two weeks ago."
Smith adds:
[Sanford] spent his time in Buenos Aires in Palermo, a fashionable residential neighborhood, and was not, reportedly, a recluse: He was seen in the local bar, Guido's, with Maria Belen Chapur last week.
(It might be unclear what that "reportedly" refers to, since there's no link. It's this story from TMZ.)
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Josh
Zachary
I imagine that this story isn't going to die down any time soon. I'm fed up with conservatives telling me and the rest of the country how to live and pray, and the hypocrisy in this episode is monumental. Nonetheless, I feel for the family and to a lesser extent, the governor. This has to be agonizing.
June 25, 2009 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can things get any worse for conservatives (Republicans)? Newsy looks at the trouble in the Republican party in this report.
http://www.newsy.com/videos/gop_looking_for_leadership
Although infidelity knows no labels or political parties--it seems to be an especially troubling time for Republicans.
July 1, 2009 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I feel for the kids, and that's it.
I imagine his wife is loving every minute of his humiliation, which is the tiniest fraction of the pain he deserves.
Schadenfreude does not even begin to describe.
June 25, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I feel less for the governor now than I did yesterday--I found his behavior at the press conference to be kind of touching--because he didn't blame his Argentinian for his own behavior.
Now? If the relationship was truly over, why was he initially planning a 10 day trip? 10 days? It doesn't take 10 days, or even 5, to end a relationship. It just does not. Something continues to be off about this.
June 25, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your comments about his wife are disgusting. You don't know what she is thinking and you shouldn't pretend to. How dare you say she is enjoying this, based on nothing but possibly your own personal experiences. Can you imagine her humiliation after those emails were published? No. It's pretty obvious that you cannot.
June 25, 2009 7:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Mrs. is my favorite candidate for the one who originally released those emails to the local paper.
With TMZ digging up tidbits like "cuerpazo" (banging body) and ten day travel plans to end the affair, this story has all the potential to become a tabloid soap-opera lasting well into 2012 considering that newspapers have no other visible life support.
June 25, 2009 9:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The Mrs. is my favorite candidate for the one who originally released those emails to the local paper."
Oh, well, if he is YOUR favorite candidate, then I guess that gives you permission to slime her. Sheeesh!
June 26, 2009 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
I meant, of course, "If SHE is YOUR favorite candidate..."
June 26, 2009 9:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
So the plan was to be on the lam and off the grid for 10 days?
That hardly sounds like responsible stewardship for the state.
Does he think so little of his position that being available to govern is that unimportant?
June 25, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, thanks for keeping your eye on the real issue here - blatant malfeasance.
June 25, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
His early return from the 10 day trip also suggests an accomplice may have somehow been involved in his disappearance.
Surely the Artentinian press wasn't giving wall-to-wall coverage of a US governor disappearing. And I doubt CNN International was, either. How did a guy with the wherewithall to plan a 10 day trip on the lam in the first place know enough to come back early?
Was the Gov spending some time in an internet cafe reading his personal e-mail or surfing the web.....? Or did someone, stateside, know how to contact him and tell him to come back?
June 25, 2009 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Simple. His staff knew exactly where he was all along, and they alerted him to the shitstorm that was starting up back home on Monday. They lied from the start, because they never expected to have to have to answer any questions.
That SC politician had it right: nothing but lies, lies, lies. And they're still lying.
June 25, 2009 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
"His staff knew exactly where he was all along."
I disagree. They were caught flat footed and started making up lies on the fly. If your theory is true, the initial cover story would have been, "We haven't been in touch with him but we know he's out hiking." But at some point, they did presumably get in touch with him and told him to get back home asap.
In terms of keeping it secret, strange that he planned to be gone for 10 days!
June 25, 2009 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep - which is why I think his staff had to know. A governor can't just leave the state - much less the country - for 10 days without letting the people who work for you know where you're going. If he did that, then he's even more derelict than I thought he was. I think the scrambling around for a cover story resulted from them being blindsided - they really didn't think anyone would notice he was gone(!) and they didn't have a good back story worked up.
June 25, 2009 8:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
My question is - who outed him? Someone knew he was there, and someone fed the newspaper the emails he'd sent.
I've got three possibilities, two boring, one tin-hat:
1) The jealous wife. She's #1 on the list. The papers got the emails about the time she found out about the affair. But would she get access to the emails?
2) The jilted lover. Except that it doesn't sound like she was jilted...
or (drum roll)
3) A political rival, maybe connected with another pubbie 2012 wanna-be? Maybe someone who found out about this during Sanford's vetting for VP, and has been waiting for the right moment to administer the killing blow?
#1 & #2 are boring but probably most likely. I think #3 is fascinating. Remember, the one who kills the king cannot be king - if it's someone in SC politics who leaked this stuff, who's associated with another candidate, that could damage more Republicans.
Inquiring minds want to know.
June 25, 2009 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
A staffer with self righteous indignation?
June 25, 2009 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Further corroboration that he had no intention of breaking up with this woman...at least not without without one more big fling. And 9 days of breakup sex would be way too hard with the emotional connection they clearly had.
June 25, 2009 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
The TPM reel on "invasion of our privacy"---what a hoot! To hear Republicans like Newt Gingrich commiserate with his suddenly compassionate party and media partners, and encouraging us to give the randy South Carolina governor a break because he was suffering a personal tragedy, a fall from grace and God.
Bill Clinton must be laughing his ass off.
June 25, 2009 6:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
i can't help but smirk at my conservative friends who are diving for cover in so many ways..their main tactic is to holler ,whine and cry about how unfair it is to go after a man who has asked forgiveness..if you bring up comparison to conservative response to B. Clinton,( and why they dragged on an expensive , lengthy impeachment process for less), they holler even louder about "why don't we liberals just move on."..
This is just one example of why we need separation of church and state, and separation of bedroom and state.
no one is perfect," mr. promise keeper", "mrs. abstinence only birth control", " mr. sanctity of marriage", who continue to hold public office while trying to legislate a particular brand of smug religious self righteousness and hypocrisy:
what I call the
FUNdamental CONservative phallusy.
June 25, 2009 9:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course that said, even if we do ignore private matters, one does not get to spend tax payers money on those private matters, and you cant go awol for 10 days when your a governor.
June 26, 2009 1:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Who outed him? I vote for that woman who's standing behind him on the video of the press conference and SMILING.
June 26, 2009 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink