Sanford and Fun: Newspaper Exposes E-mails

By: E&P Staff and The Associated Press Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina and rumored 2012 presidential contender tearfully confessed Wednesday to having an affair with a woman in Argentina, dealing the latest blow to a struggling Republican Party.

A few hours later, The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C. published on its Web site emails between the governor and his lover that it said it had obtained last December.

It did not say how it had obtained the emails, which included references to kissing and sexual enticement. Another angle: Did he write them on state time using a state computer?

A reporter for the paper, Gina Smith, had broken the story open earlier today when she interviewed the governor on his return from Argentina at the the airport in Atlanta. This likely forced him to admit to the affair and drop his claim that he had simply been hiking on the Appalachian Trial for several days.

The New York Times now reports: "About six months ago, an anonymous tipster sent The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., copies of e-mail messages supposedly exchanged between Gov. Mark Sanford and a woman named Maria in Argentina.

"Reporters sent e-mail back to the originating e-mail address and to the woman, whose e-mail address was included, in an effort to verify that the messages were genuine. They never heard back, and so the paper did not publish them until Wednesday, after Mr. Sanford admitted having an affair. 'We had not determined they were authentic,' Leroy Chapman, the political editor at The State, said of the e-mail. 'What it was, was a puzzle piece that was hardly discernible.'?

Chapman said he still did not know who tipped the paper to the emails.

In the Thursday paper, and online, The State published additional emails between Sanford and the woman.

[Tell E&P what you think of the decision to withhold and then publish the emails: Go now to the Pub via this link.]

Sanford, who caused a ruckus after he could not be located by staff, family and friends for several days, apologized to his wife and four sons and said he will resign as head of the Republican Governors Association.

?I?ve been unfaithful to my wife,? he said in a bombshell news conference in which the 49-year-old governor ruminated aloud with remarkable frankness on God?s law, moral absolutes and following one?s heart. He said he spent the last five days ?crying in Argentina.? His family did not attend.

At least one state lawmaker called for his resignation. As a congressman, Sanford voted in favor of three of four articles of impeachment against Democratic President Bill Clinton citing the need for ?moral legitimacy.?

Sanford?s infidelity admission adds to an ever-growing list of woes for the out-of-power Republican Party as it looks to rebound against the popular President Barack Obama and his emboldened Democrats. The episode is another distraction for a party seeking a turnaround after disastrous losses in consecutive national elections as it confronts a stark reality: its less than diverse ranks are steadily shrinking, its regional heft is limited to the South and it lacks a leader of stature to guide the party back to power.

As for the emails: The governor?s office wouldn?t discuss the emails with The Associated Press, but told The State it wouldn?t dispute the authenticity of the messages.

One from the governor read: ?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 ? but hey, that would be going into sexual details.?

The woman in question, who lives in Argentina, has been a ?dear, dear friend? for about eight years but, Sanford told reporters, the relationship didn?t become romantic until a little over a year ago. He?s seen her three times since then, and his wife found out about it five months ago. He did not identify the woman.

?What I did was wrong. Period,? he said. He refused to say whether he will leave office.

Critics said he neglected his gubernatorial authority and put the state at risk by leaving the country without formally transferring power. It wasn?t clear how his staff could reach him in an emergency.

Sanford revealed Wednesday morning that he had gone to Argentina for a seven-day trip. For two days after reporters starting asking questions, his office had said he had gone hiking on the Appalachian Trial, a well-known hiking route along 2,178 miles (3,505 kilometres) of the eastern U.S.

Sanford denied instructing his staff to cover up his affair, but acknowledged that he told them he thought he would be hiking on the Appalachian Trail and never corrected that impression after leaving for South America.

?I let them down by creating a fiction with regard to where I was going,? Sanford said. ?I said that was the original possibility. Again, this is my fault in ... shrouding this larger trip.?

Meanwhile, first lady Jenny Sanford at first told The Associated Press she did not know where her husband went for the Father?s Day weekend. She said in a statement Wednesday that she asked the governor to leave and stop speaking to her two weeks ago. The governor says he wants to reconcile, and his wife said he has earned a chance to resurrect their marriage.

?This trial separation was agreed to with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage,? she said.

Jenny Sanford, a millionaire whose family fortune comes from the Skil Corp. power tool company, has been central to her husband?s political career. She ran his congressional campaigns and his first race for governor. She was an almost daily fixture at senior staff meetings, and often could be seen driving a minivan away from the Statehouse in the mornings.

The two met when Sanford, who has an MBA, was trying his hand on Wall Street. She was working at a brokerage house when he entered a training program.

First elected governor in 2002, the former real estate developer has more than year remaining in his second term and is barred by state law from running again.
A former three-term congressman, Sanford most recently snared headlines for his unsuccessful fight to turn aside federal stimulus cash for his state?s schools. His vocal battle against the Obama administration ? and libertarian, small-government leanings ? won praise from conservative pundits. Ultimately, a state court order required him to take the money.