Mark Sanford was just another hardline, low-tax, God-fearing Republican presidential possibility and governor of South Carolina until the fateful moment last year when he disappeared to go "hiking the Appalachian trail" – a phrase in America now synonymous with secretly flying to Buenos Aires for a sexy tryst, in his case with a lady named Maria Belen Chapur.
That and Sanford's extraordinary press conference made him a national figure of fun. Well, Sanford is seeing out the remaining months in his term as governor of the Palmetto state. Now divorced from his wife Jenny, who has not only published a tell-all book about their marriage but now has a new boyfriend, Sanford last weekend got together with Belen Chapur in the ritzy Florida Keys – an event that was promptly uncovered by Gawker.
As we know from Sanford's previous press conference, he's one for letting it all hang out, and so yesterday when the hapless Sanford held a press conference to talk about the state's budget he again detoured down the Appalachian trial, as AP reports:
As a matter of record, everybody in this room knows exactly who I was with over the weekend," Sanford said. "That is no mystery to anybody given what I said last summer. And, you know, the purpose was obviously to see if something could be restarted on that front given the rather enormous geographic gulf between us. And time will tell. I don't know if it will or won't.
Well good luck with that. Ms Belem Chapur might want to read Jenny Sanford's book to see what she's getting herself into. In one instance, Mark got an aide to buy a diamond necklace as a gift for Jenny – but when he saw it he complained that it wasn't worth it. Jenny was so uncomfortable that she eventually returned the necklace. Oh, and he refused to attend pre-natal maternity classes with his wife before the birth of their first child, because he'd seen enough cows give birth. Classy.
The State newspaper in South Carolina commented tellingly on Sanford's latest press conference:
The news conference was a microcosm of Sanford's two terms as governor. The focus on his affair overshadowed his reason for calling the news conference - to discuss efforts to rein in spending.
Sanford addressed the media to discuss his opposition to $45m in fee increases that legislators have passed to help balance the state's $5bn budget. But that issue was quickly lost - to the dissatisfaction of some of the lawmakers who had joined Sanford - after the governor challenged the media for delving into his private life. Some of the facts, such as where he stayed, were incorrect, Sanford said.
Meanwhile, Sanford keeps trying to veto bills and the Republican-dominated legislature keeps over-riding his veto, while several people are gunning for his job. Jenny Sanford is roving around the state – when she's not going on talkshows to diss him – campaigning for Republican candidate Nikki Haley. Maybe Mark Sanford should just go hiking and save everyone the bother.
