C Street

Sign Of The Times: Lawmaker Won't Say Whether He Lives At C Street

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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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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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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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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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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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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Media

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

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

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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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.

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Mark Sanford

Sanford Admits More Trysts With Lover

Rachel Slajda | June 30, 2009, 12:14PM

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who originally admitted to meeting his Argentine mistress four times in the past year, told the AP that the number is more like seven.

Apparently there were five meetings in the last year, including "two multi-night stays" in New York. That's the first time he's admitted to trysts on U.S. soil.

There were also two more meetings before the. The two first met in 2001.

The AP interview was, unsurprisingly, "lengthy" and "emotional."

Late update: The AP has released more of the interview. Looks like Sanford attempted to end the relationship earlier this year (or at least, that's what he told his wife). After asking her several times, Sanford got permission from his wife to go to New York, meet his lover and end the affair in person. He took along a "trusted spiritual adviser" as a chaperone for an evening of church, dinner and no overnight stay.

Then, of course, he ended up in Argentina.

Also of note: One of those pre-2008 meetings was over coffee during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York.

Mark Sanford

#EmailFail: Lt. Gov. Hires Swift Boat Operative to Nudge Sanford From Office

Rachel Slajda | June 29, 2009, 4:09PM

All sex aside, the Sanford scandal offers plenty of political intrigue.

If Gov. Mark Sanford resigns, Lt. Gov. André Bauer would get to run as an incumbent in 2010 -- a definite leg up -- and his supporters have been pushing hard for Sanford's resignation. But some of them have been pushing the wrong people.

The NYT obtained an email from one of Bauer's political consultants, Chris LaCivita, a former media consultant for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. He sent the email, which mentioned his efforts to oust Sanford, to fellow GOP operative Curt Anderson.

"André Bauer is my client; I've been working this since Monday," the email read. "I need to get this guy (Sanford) out."

Unfortunately, Anderson isn't exactly sympathetic to Bauer's ambitions, as he's a close friend of one of his likely opponents, Attorney General Henry McMaster.

"On this, I can't help you," Anderson replied. "Henry McMaster has been a friend of mine for almost 20 years." Anderson, by the way, is also one of Michael Steele's political consultants.

Note to LaCivita: Better check those email lists.

Mark Sanford

Sanford: King David Didn't Resign, So Why Should I?

Zachary Roth | June 26, 2009, 1:22PM

And the South Carolina governor started out by using an interesting comparison to respond to calls for his resignation. King David didn't back down after his own sex scandal, he told his colleagues, and neither will I.

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Mark Sanford

Sanford To Reimburse SC For '08 Argentina Trip

Zachary Roth | June 25, 2009, 4:38PM

Remember that trip Sanford took to several Latin American countries, including Argentina, last summer, as part of a trade mission?

It turns out that, as suspected, he did see Maria while there. And he's paying the state back for the cost of the Argentina leg.

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Mark Sanford

Report: Sanford Booked 10-Day Argentina Trip

Zachary Roth | June 25, 2009, 4:24PM

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.

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Mark Sanford

Sanford Learned Of Emails Hours Before Confession

Zachary Roth | June 25, 2009, 3:41PM

We hate to kick a guy when he's down. But as we get a clearer picture of exactly how the events surrounding Mark Sanford's admission of an extra-marital affair went down, it's seeming more and more likely that the randy right-winger was still hoping to keep things under wraps -- even just hours before his dramatic announcement.

The State has put together a pretty thorough account of the back-story that led to two-timing two-termer's teary confession. The key items are these:

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Mark Sanford

Media Recap: Credulous Press Ate Up Spin From Sanford's Office

Zachary Roth | June 25, 2009, 11:20AM

Now that the dust has settled -- at least for a few hours -- on the tale of the love-struck guv, it's worth focusing on another angle: the shockingly credulous news coverage of the story.

Throughout Monday and Tuesday, there were pretty good reasons to be skeptical of the ever-changing official line that Sanford's office was putting out.

After all, here's how things went down, in a nutshell:

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Mark Sanford

Sanford To Lover: "I Love The Erotic Beauty Of You Holding Yourself"

Zachary Roth | June 24, 2009, 6:01PM

We got the feeling from his press conference that things weren't quite resolved between Mark Sanford and his Argentina-based lover. Now The State has published emails the pair sent each other last year -- and they definitely reinforce that impression.

The conservative Republican waxes eloquent, telling his lover Maria, among other things:

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...

Reading these intensely personal communications, it's hard not to feel some sympathy for the human beings involved. But that doesn't mean they don't make good reading.

Reports that the paper had been working on this story for a while were on the mark. The paper says it got the emails in December.

Full email text after the jump:

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Mark Sanford

Guv's Wife: I Asked Him To Leave Two Weeks Ago

Zachary Roth | June 24, 2009, 5:08PM

Jenny Sanford, the First Lady of South Carolina, has released a statement in which she reveals that two weeks ago she asked her husband to leave, beginning a trial separation. It was agreed that the two would not be in touch during that period.

As a result, says Jenny Sanford, she did not know where he was over the last six days.

She adds: "I believe Mark has earned a chance to resurrect our marriage."

The full statement follows after the jump...

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Mark Sanford

Sanford Press Conference Leaves Unanswered Questions

Zachary Roth | June 24, 2009, 4:28PM

Red-faced luv guv Mark Sanford has followed up on his amazing press conference by issuing a formal statement asking for forgiveness.

It's true that the philandering chief exec deserves some credit for "standing up and being a man," as Sen. Jake Knotts -- heretofore his loudest critic on the issue -- put it just now on CNN. But the forgiveness Sanford is looking for might come more quickly if there weren't still so many unanswered questions about what really happened.

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John Ensign

Revealed: The Sanford/Ensign Connection

Zachary Roth | June 24, 2009, 3:28PM

We couldn't help noticing during Mark Sanford's reality-show-style press conference that there's a tie-in between this week's GOP 2012 presidential contender sex scandal and last week's involving Sen. John Ensign.

Sanford said that in dealing with his affair, he'd been working with a group called "C Street," which he described as a "Christian bible study." He said he'd been part of the group when he lived in Washington as a congressman earlier this decade.

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Mark Sanford

Does S.C. Paper Have The Goods On Sanford?

Zachary Roth | June 24, 2009, 1:43PM

There's a huge number of rumors floating around, so it's worth being cautious. But a South Carolina political blogger who used to work for Governor Sanford is now reporting:

S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford is allegedly having an extramarital-affair, evidence of which may have been obtained prior to his mysterious trip to Argentina by at least one South Carolina news outlet, sources tell FITS.

The woman with whom Sanford is allegedly involved was reportedly with the governor on his recent trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina - a trip the governor appears to have lied about to his wife, his staff and his security detail.

Sources tell FITS that The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper is in possession of materials which may confirm the governor's affair, although a source at the paper declined to comment on that report.

The blogger, Will Folks, had previously reported that the Sanfords had been having marital problems.

And we had reported other possible evidence that Sanford was not alone on his trip.

More in about twenty minutes when Sanford goes before the cameras.

Mark Sanford

Source: "There Is Some Evidence [Sanford] Was Not Alone"

Zachary Roth | June 24, 2009, 12:31PM

Things are still murky on the Mark Sanford story. But it's looking increasingly likely that Sanford's trip to Argentina was about more than a scenic drive down the coast.

"There is some evidence he was not alone," a source in South Carolina politics told TPMmuckraker. "The other shoe's gonna drop. I believe there's a reason he wanted to drop his SLED detail."

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Mark Sanford

The Missing Governor: A Timeline

Versha Sharma | June 24, 2009, 11:21AM

We thought it might be useful to put together a timeline of events in the Missing Governor story:

Thursday, June 18
• Governor Sanford takes a State Law Enforcement Division Suburban and leaves the governor's mansion in Columbia.

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Mark Sanford

Sanford Changed Flight To Elude Reporters Upon Return

Zachary Roth | June 24, 2009, 9:30AM

It's worth noting that Globetrotting guv Mark Sanford seems to have gone to some lengths to avoid reporters upon his return.

Sanford left for this trip from the Columbia, South Carolina, airport, it turns out. But he came back by flying into Atlanta. Why?

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Mark Sanford

SC Lawmaker On Sanford: "Lies Lies Lies"

Zachary Roth | June 24, 2009, 9:10AM

MSNBC just had the reaction from State Sen. Jake Knotts, who has been raising the alarm about Sanford's disappearance for days now.

Said Knotts:

Cover-up, cover-up. Lies, lies, lies. His staff lied -- they didn't know where he was. I don't believe a word that comes out of that office.

Sounds about right.

Mark Sanford

Sanford: Appalachians, Argentina, What's The Difference?

Zachary Roth | June 24, 2009, 8:50AM

We didn't know the Appalachian Trail went all the way down to Buenos Aires!

AWOL South Carolina guv Mark Sanford resurfaced at the Atlanta airport this morning, and told The State newspaper he hadn't been hiking the trail, as his staff said. Instead, he'd taken a jaunt down to Argentina...

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