He boarded a plane in Atlanta ? South Carolina airports aren't good enough?

There's actually a small part of my brain that wonders if he was sneaking off to D.C. to talk about some presidential appointment, which would explain the complete secrecy, even to his own staff. Because other than that, I don't have a clue. This is way too shady to be your run-of-the-mill affair kind of thing. Not rehab--you need more like a month. I'm honestly baffled.

This is getting juicier and juicier. Tomorrow's news conference will be must-see TV. How does our hero get out of THIS jam???

THIS

IS

Would not a 5 day "hike" require a good amount of planning, equipment, and provisions?

Weird. Sanford's people aren't denying the ATL airport story -- only saying that they stand by their Appalachian Trail story.

I think there's more here... If a story is wrong, you shoot it down, right? I know Sanford's spokespeople have been criticized for not being the sharpest, but knocking down false info is "Spox 101"... Unless it's politically useful to keep a story alive. I seriously doubt that they would want to keep a "Gov. of S.C. 'found' at ATL international airport" story alive. It would be even worse for them if he left the country.

So, this has been mentioned tangentially, but what about the fact that his cell phone was being tracked? Combine this with the feds spotting him boarding the plane, and that his wife is not expressing that much concern about his being gone, and this is really getting interesting...

hewhohasnoname,

His staff is on Expedia plotting their own escapes as we speak...

Someone needs to ask if he had ALL of his Medications when he left. Had they been filled recently and was he taking them, because this all sounds like a guy off his meds.

The reason the Gov didn't tell the Lt.Gov where, what or ahem, who, he was doing was because they are dating. Jez, if his WIFE can give him some space on Father's Day, it's soo sad his lover couldn't and that necessitated all this A T nonsense. Of course I'm joking. And, I'm queer myself, so the gay angle is actually something I hope is not part of all this. That said, he's not a bad looking older guy. Hey Mark, can I have yur number? I'll play dress up & be a Republican for you . . .

You know what? This is not really important. I'm reading about the Public Option that will not be an option even if it exists. I'm reading about 50 Pakistanis getting killed by a US air drone while attending a funeral for other Pakistanis killed by a drone. Why is a story that is almost surely going to wind up being another Republican family values guy getting more or less kinky sex on the side doing as the BIG HEADLINE story on TPM? Somewhere on the side, for a little progressive smirking, OK. But it's not the most serious issue out there on this particular June 23.

He's gone Galt.

Pretty soon there will be a nation-wide radio message (or at least a call-in to Rush's show) "This is Mark Sanford speaking..."

George at Urban Survival has an interesting take on this story.

Sanford just left for a 3-hour tour, a 3-hour tour. The weather started getting rough .... Uh oh, I don't like where this is going. We may not hear from him for years.

This is like a GOP blog.TPM has more smiling Republican faces than Dems as its top stories. And the advertisers here take not so subtle swipes at the administration. UPS with their "it's not about sacfrices" ad and Dominos Pizza CEO coming on TV and telling everyone that "he's not there to get bailout but he's there to give you one. Medco was taking swipes about spending. BTW My UPS driver said she doesn't get air conditioning in the summer for that big brown box she drives in. I guess that's not a scarifice since it doesn't affect wealthy shareholders adversely.

Wait a minute...!

That's not Sanford at all! It's... A MASK!

I've hiked the entire 80 miles of the Appalachian Trail section in Georgia, from the southern terminus at Mt. Springer, Ga., well north into North Carolina. All of the trail, including the Georgia section, is located considerably north of South Carolina's governor's mansion. There is no frigging way anyone would drive south from S.C. to the Trail via Atlanta and its notorious traffic, and there is no place on the trail that you can fly to from Atlanta, really, since the trail follows remote mountain crests that could not have a landing strip.

Sunday was Naked Hiking Day...

All airport security are now, "federal agents," so what this means is that he was clocked by one of the people going through the security line, prior to the gate. That's probably why the story from the Atlanta TV station doesn't include the destination of the plane he was boarding. You have to show ID to the guard at the security check and Sanford may have also thrown some pompous (or, "erratic,") behavior into the mix, thus making him more memorable to the security agent...

I just hope that someone, preferably a TV station, has reporters staking out the terminal, as well as the Suburban in the parking lot. The only way to determine where he really was (or at least narrow it down) will be to literally see him getting off the plane. If he's smart he'll at least ditch the suit and overnight garment bag and show up wearing boots, a lumberjack shirt, and a backpack. Somehow, I don't think he's that together.

Why is this important in light of the misery going down elsewhere in the world and why does this guy not deserve some private space, or whatever? Because he's a, "family-values," spouting hypocritical Republican, "fiscal conservative," who would abandon his familial and professional obligations, misappropriate state equipment and funds for his own personal moonage daydream, try to sneak around all incognito, and yet still DARE to tell me how to live my life. It's not really why is everybody getting all obsessed about this guy going on an innocent and private little bender or whatever, but why isn't the first question out of reporter's mouths whenever addressing Vitter, Ensign, et al, "How can you not be too embarrassed to still be here?" followed by raucous laughter.

He and gay (or straight) buddy(or buddies) head secretly to Carribean, as they have done in the past. He leaves from Atlanta because this way less likely to be discovered. It is also a central flight hub. His wife isn't concerned because he has done this before. It's part of their marriage deal.

The whole thing is just too strange. Is Sanford up for re-election anytime soon? I would have to think that this would not go over well with many voters, especially the idea of him leaving his kids & wife behind like that. I'm also not buying that his staff doesn't know

Does S.C. have any type of recall law? Could the state legislature remove him for improper behavior? I can't imagine that he is going to just show up in a few days and nothing will be done.

The WYFF4 report says "a federal agent spotted Sanford in the airport boarding a plane". If so, then the agent must have known the destination of the plane. Why doesn't the report mention it?

My hunch is he's in Iran, trying to raise his bonafides for 2012. That's is, if he were a smarty pants. Otherwise, he's paying for the silence of his mistress.

The thing is, if Sanford hasn't come forward by now, he's either on the run, or out of his gord. If this was a weekend with a hooker, he would have turned up as soon as he heard he made the news. The way his office is acting suggests they don't know where he is, and know why.

That means he's either gone on some drug binge, he's mentally unstable, or fleeing. I'd say he's got some form of mental illness, unless he shows up tomorrow, in which case I'd say it's taking a day to sober him up.

The only other thing I can think of is he went off to do some illicit deal, but it still doesn't explain why he hasn't turned up.