


After seven days of dalliance in far away Argentina, he magically reappeared at Atlanta international airport, a passenger returning from Buenos Aires. But surprise, surprise; laying in wait at the airport for him was a journalist from the state's 'State Newspaper' who had driven three hours to the airport following a tip-off. She prodded the governor for explanation on his where-about following his disappearance from South Carolina over the father's day weekend. He rambled through a somewhat explanation at the airport; and subsequently followed it up with a press-conference; wherein he addressed his infidelity! Icheoku says, no matter what happens, lying to his staffers about hiking in the Appalachian mountain trails while in Argentina is unbecoming of a chief executive of a state! Also leaving his four boys and his wife longing for their family head on a father's day is equally unthoughtful and selfish!
That governor Sanford was indifferent to his wife's feeling is a fact. That governor Sanford took some risk, travelling overseas without security clearance is a fact. That the governor was reckless in not handing over to the next in line is a fact. That the governor was irrational in not thinking that he will be caught is a fact. That the governor disappointed his family by cheating on his wife and not being there for his four boys on father's day is also a fact. The four young boys possibly questioned their mommy if they really have a daddy? Otherwise, Icheoku says, what the governor did is no other person's business but that of his wife's primarily, and his four boys; if she and the boys chose to forgive him, so be it, case closed! Also the people of South Carolina who were deprived of their chief executive and left with no shoulder to cry on in case of an emergency have a stake in the matter. Every other person should butt out and let these parties sort out their internal affair privately, with the philandering governor/father. Should he resign his office? May be, if precedents of New Jersey is called into play; but the call is for the people of South Carolina, but none other, to make. This is because his leaving the country without formally transferring his executive power, exposed the state to an unreasonable degree of risk, were there to be an emergency?




In emotional interviews with the AP over two days, he said he would die "knowing that I had met my soul mate."
ReplyDeleteSanford also said that he "crossed the lines" with a handful of other women during 20 years of marriage, but not as far as he did with his mistress.
"There were a handful of instances wherein I crossed the lines I shouldn't have crossed as a married man, but never crossed the ultimate line," he said.
Sanford insisted his relationship with Maria Belen Chapur, whom he met at an open air dance spot in Uruguay eight years ago, was more than just sex.
"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story," Sanford said. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."
"I've been able to do my job and in fact excel at it," Sanford said, while acknowledging he is a spectator at his "own political funeral."
During more than three hours of interviews over two days at his Statehouse office, Sanford said he is trying to fall back in love with his wife, Jenny, even as he grapples with his deep feelings for Chapur.
"I owe it too much to my boys and to the last 20 years with Jenny to not try this larger walk of faith," he said.
However, at least 10 of 27 Republican South Carolina senators have called for Sanford to resign.
Sanford, at times crying and unabashedly emotional, acknowledged in the AP interview that he had casual encounters with other women while he was married but before he met Chapur. They took place during trips outside the country to "blow off steam" with male friends.
"What I would say is that I've never had sex with another woman. Have I done stupid? I have. You know you meet someone. You dance with them. You go to a place where you probably shouldn't have gone," Sanford said, declining to discuss details. But he said those encounters were nothing like his relationship with Chapur.
"If you're a married guy at the end of the day you shouldn't be dancing with somebody else. So anyway, without wandering into that field we'll just say that I let my guard down in all senses of the word without ever crossing the line that I crossed with this situation."
But he saw Chapur again, this time over Father's Day weekend and after his wife expressly told him not to, leaving the country without telling his staff and instead leading them to believe he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Sanford told the AP he saw Chapur five times over the past year, including two romantic, multi-night stays with her in New York — one in Manhattan, one in the Hamptons, both paid for in cash so no one would know — before they met in the city again with the intention of breaking up.
He said he saw her two other times before that, including their first meeting.
"There was some kind of connection from the very beginning," he said, though neither that first encounter nor a 2004 coffee date in New York during the Republican National Convention were romantic.
"Now I am frightened," he told the AP, describing his state of mind at the time. "It was before safe. But now it's not safe. We gotta put the genie back in the bottle."
"I was reached ultimately on Monday evening," he said. "I was contacted and called (chief of staff) Scott (English) back that Tuesday morning." Sanford said he then changed his flight to return to South Carolina that evening.
He and Jenny, parents of four sons, say they are trying to reconcile their marriage but have not been sharing the same house for several weeks. Jenny Sanford found out about the relationship in January when she discovered a letter the governor had written to his mistress. She did not immediately return messages seeking comment Tuesday and was not at their coastal home on Sullivans Island.