The governor of South Carolina, a rumored 2012 presidential contender, tearfully confessed to having an affair with a woman from Argentina, dealing the latest blow to a struggling Republican Party.
Governor Mark 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.
PHOTO: AP
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 former 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 US 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.
Excerpts of e-mail exchanges between the governor and his mistress were published online on Wednesday by the State newspaper. The governor's office wouldn't discuss the e-mails, 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.
Sanford did not answer directly whether the relationship with the woman was over.
“I had, to the people of South Carolina, based on my boys, based on my wife, based on where I was in life, based on where she was in life, a place I couldn't go and she couldn't go,” Sanford said.
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 on 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 Trail, a well-known hiking route.
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.”
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