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Holly Bailey

Katie Connolly





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Posted Wednesday, July 01, 2009 1:32 PM

What is Mark Sanford Thinking?

Holly Bailey
Who is advising Mark Sanford these days? That’s what your Gaggler is wondering, considering the embattled South Carolina governor will not stop treating the media as a confessional. In two days of interviews with the Associated Press, Sanford not only owned up to still being in love with the Argentine woman he cheated on his wife with, but he confessed to having “crossed the lines” with other women in the past—though he insists he didn’t have sex with them. Sanford admitted that he’d seen his mistress, now identified as Maria Belen Chapur, more often than he’d initially admitted and described her as his “soul mate.” “This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story,” the governor told the AP. “A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.” And Sanford is coming clean with all this, even as he says he wants to reconcile with his wife, Jenny, whom he is "trying to fall back in love with." Yikes. We can only guess at the advice most political consultants would be giving Sanford right now: Shut up. But maybe we got a clue as to what was to come when we saw Sanford’s aides essentially drag him away from the press conference he held a week ago to confess his affair. Sanford doesn’t want to go away. He wants to explain, even as he admits he's participating in his own "political funeral," as he put it. It’s unclear who is giving Sanford advice day to day. Perhaps no one. The State newspaper over the weekend described his wife, Jenny, as his most valuable political adviser, and she's clearly not around. Another confidant, former chief of staff Tom Davis, looks to be on the outs with the governor as well. Meanwhile, Sanford’s troubles just seem to get worse and worse. Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s GOP attorney general, has announced an investigation into whether Sanford abused his office or used state funds to conceal his affair (or affairs?). A growing number of Republicans in the State are calling on Sanford to resign—something he, so far, refuses to do. "I've been able to do my job and in fact excel at it," Sanford told AP. Can he survive?
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Posted By: Reggie Greene / The Logistician (July 9, 2009 at 1:08 PM)

From my perspective, the issue is quite simple.  Rightly or wrongly, he has lost a substantial number of people who are willing to support him, place confidence in him, and trust him.  A leader needs as many people believing in him or her as possible.

As for resignation, http://www.tinyurl.com/n3vlg3

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Posted By: whoruanyway (July 5, 2009 at 7:01 PM)

Funny when someone misses the person they are involved in an affair with they are said to be experiencing "withdraw" but not feelings of real "love".  What does it say about their feelings for their spouse when they experience "nothing" when faced with losing them? Open your eyes. People CAN and DO fall in LOVE with others while married and it CAN be real whether you want to acknowledge it or not..

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Posted By: RuthHouston (July 3, 2009 at 2:07 AM)

There’s a reason Sanford keeps babbling about his mistress being his soul mate, and trying to fall in love with his wife again.  http://bit.ly/HgSbU   His advisors were remiss in not telling this poor besotted man about the withdrawal symptoms and strong emotions he would experience after ending his affair.  Sanford thinks the feelings he has for his mistress right now are unique, because no one told him what to expect.  These emotions are a normal part of the grieving process when a person ends an extramarital affair which involved strong emotional bonds in addition to sex.  Had he been briefed beforehand about what to expect, he probably would have behaved quite differently.  More observations on the Sanford affair from an infidelity expert’s point of view at http://infidelitynewsandviews.blogspot.com/

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