Mark Sanford: July 2009

TPMMuckraker
Mark Sanford: July 2009

Zachary Roth | July 23, 2009, 11:33AM

These are tough times for C St.

The usually low-profile Capitol Hill-based Christian dorm and bible study group has been at the center of a media frenzy after three separate Republicans with ties to C St admitted to extra-marital affairs in recent weeks. And now, things have gotten so bad that one Christian lawmaker is treating the issue like a state secret, refusing even to say whether he lives there.

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Topics: C Street, Chip Pickering, John Edwards, Mark Sanford, Sex

Mark Sanford

NBC's Gregory: "I Wasn't Promising A Friendly Forum" For Sanford

Zachary Roth | July 21, 2009, 12:16PM

Over the weekend, NBC's David Gregory responded to charges raised by TPMmuckraker and others that he was overly solicitous in trying to woo Mark Sanford to come on Meet The Press during the imbroglio over the South Carolina governor's disappearance.

In an email to a blogger at Daily Kos, Gregory wrote:

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Topics: Mark Sanford, Media, Sex

Sex

C Street Rebranding: GOP Cheaters Need Our Discreet Counseling!

Zachary Roth | July 20, 2009, 1:09PM

A little creative re-branding has worked wonders for the likes of Diddy (now back to Puff Daddy), Joe Lieberman, and the Volkswagen Beetle. So why not for C Street?

In recent weeks, the secretive Christian fellowship group, whose red-brick townhouse on Capitol Hill has for years served as an in-session dorm for religious lawmakers, has been getting some unwanted publicity. Thanks to its ties to three recent Republican sex scandals -- those of Nevada senator John Ensign, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, and former congressman Chip Pickering -- C Street has started to get a reputation as somewhere between a halfway house and frat house for conservative politicians looking to cheat on their wives while convincing themselves they're still upstanding guys.

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Topics: John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Sex, Tom Coburn

Mark Sanford

Morning Joe Producer Offered "Friendly Place" For Sanford To Tell Story

Zachary Roth | July 17, 2009, 5:23PM

We've made it through all 570 pages of those emails sent from and to Mark Sanford's office in the period just before, during, and after his disappearance.

Earlier we highlighted how big name TV journalists like David Gregory, George Stephanopoulos, and John King aggressively wooed the South Carolina governor's press secretary in an effort to get the governor to come on their shows. But here are a few of the other interesting finds -- mostly press related -- from our search:

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Topics: Mark Sanford, Media, Sex

Mark Sanford

NBC's Gregory to Sanford's Office: "Meet The Press Allows You To Frame The Conversation As You Really Want"

Zachary Roth | July 17, 2009, 2:29PM

The Charleston Post and Courier has posted online (pdf) all 570 pages of emails obtained from the office of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

There's a bevy of information in there, but one exchange that jumped out at us was the one between Sanford's press secretary, Joel Sawyer (who just today announced he's quitting -- good for him!) and David Gregory, the host of NBC's Meet the Press. In courting Sanford's office, Gregory wrote that "coming on Meet The Press allows you to frame the conversation as you really want to."

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Topics: Mark Sanford, Media, Sex

Mark Sanford

Tapper Responds: We Didn't Know About Sanford Affair When I Sent That Email*

Zachary Roth | July 15, 2009, 11:52AM

It looks like Jake Tapper doesn't feel like his network's response to the news that he sucked up to Mark Sanford's office by denigrating NBC's coverage of the missing gov story -- that Tapper was just "carrying some water" for a producer -- is quite sufficient.

This morning, Tapper has been tweeting further defenses of his catty email to a Sanford aide -- in which he called NBC's coverage "slimy" and "insulting."

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Topics: Mark Sanford, Media, Sex

Media

Tapper To Sanford Aide: NBC Spot On Missing Guv Was "Slimy" And "Insulting"

Zachary Roth | July 15, 2009, 9:10AM

Yesterday we told you about how the conservative media sucked up to Mark Sanford's office by calling stories about the governor's disappearance overblown -- even while the gov was still AWOL.

But it looks like it wasn't just the acknowledged right-wingers who were denigrating the story to Sanford's aides. The State has written up a few more of the emails, and look what they found:

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Topics: Mark Sanford, Media, Sex

Mark Sanford

Great Call: In Emails To Sanford's Office, Right-Wing Media Dismissed Missing Gov Story

Zachary Roth | July 14, 2009, 12:24PM

The State newspaper of South Carolina has used a public records request to obtain emails sent to and from Governor Mark Sanford's office during the hectic few days last month when he had gone missing. It's not surprising that the emails underline the utter confusion that beset the governor's hapless aides as they tried to ward off inquiries about their boss's whereabouts, without themselves having any idea where he was.

But they also show something even funnier: an effort by the right-wing media to curry favor with Sanford's office by dismissing the story as a storm in a teacup created by the liberal media. It's fair to say that, as news judgments go, it would be hard to find one that turned out worse than this -- given the subsequent revelations about Sanford's Argentinian liaison and his abandonment of his post.