falling like tenpins

congratulations, mark ... you've just handed your party another much-needed crisis in leadership. after all, it's only been a week since the last one. john ensign thanks you for the respite ...

anybody else worried that every candidate who shows up on the radar screen is put under a microscope (O’s watching!). sarah palin john ensign mark sanford republicans need to unite against “the one” just look how he wiped out hillary when he wasn’t even on the map 2 years before 2008... no, we do not need to "unite against 'the one'". we need to unite FOR a qualified, responsible, and electable candidate. that rules out palin, ensign, and sanford. democrats united FOR "the one", and that's how he got elected. "the one" did his part too, in that he didn't have his immediate family behaving like trailer trash, didn't get caught having an affair with blackmail and job favors involved, and didn't disappear without explanation while serving in the us senate.

like mark davis said yesterday on rush, if sanford doesn’t have a logical, reasonable explanation for his disappearance, he’s toast as far as a run for the presidency goes. now, if he were a democrat, the media would be celebrating his sense of independence and adventure and how he’s going to bring new ideas and energy to his role as governor of the great state of SC. he’s toast already. disappearing for a few days without letting your staff or wife know where you are or how to reach you or at least what they’re *supposed* to say about your absence, and then resurfacing several days lateer saying “what’s the big deal?” is not career-ending behavior for a pop singer or sociology professor, but it most certainly IS career-ending behavior for a state governor and would-be republican POTUS nominee. we republicans are into the personal responsibility thing.

... especially when you've made it your platform by castigating everybody else for lacking it.

republicans should not have affairs with married staff members or take mystery trips to argentina without informing wife or staff. and, they need to do a better job of pointing hypocrisy of the rich wall-street dems from goldman sachs and citigroup who are destroying this country!

republicans have to be squeaky clean because they are expected to be. they must be articulate because so many of our candidates in the past have not been, and well, we all know how GWB was about less govt. i haven’t seen the GOP candidate that can do all that yet. it’s not sanford (not a lot of charisma and this disappearing act isn’t good) palin (more of a joke now on the national stage) or jindal (again with the speaking on a national level ) and no one in congress seems to want less govt. isn’t there someone else out there who can go toe to toe with obama?

the whole problem is the dems send in thier best teams of smarmy hacks, and the pubbies can’t do that because the best are usally running a buisness or 2 or 3.

... because republicans are just too damn clean and hardworking for their own good.

time to throw my support to haley barbour, i guess.

now there's a ringing endorsement.

frankly, i am so sick and tired of the ridiculous standards that somehow must apply to our candidates/leaders, when nowhere near the scrutiny comes to those on the other side. we have too many on OUR side who have bought into this bs. i would just as soon have the truck driver at the local bar become president or senator, because we would likely get better leadership from someone like that. and to all romney supporters, go stick it.

here's an novel idea: next time try nominating somebody you'd rather have a beer with ...

this is way beyond something where the media latches on to a misstep or a family member or a misspeaking of a word. this is about strange internal demons and being out of touch with reality. i think this was his way of telling us that he didn't want to go any further in leadership.

admittedly, he could have finessed the rollout a little better.

doesn’t rule out palin at all! sarah 2012!!!

i seriously am feeling sick. i am very depressed. fieldmarshaldj had me look at sanford and i actually did and really like him. this is so disappointing. i sincerely am sorry fieldmarshaldj for this...seriously!!!

well good old fieldmarshal spent the morning villainizing those of us with the temerity to question sanford when there was a distinct whiff of adultery in the air. ready to apology fieldmarshal?

"fieldmarshalj" responds:

he let a lot of us down, and seeing the spectacle on tv... just very sad. i spent this entire morning defending the man to the hilt and hearing what is pouring out of his mouth... no words.

so is jindal the one i have to default to for ‘12 now? at this rate we're gonna be defaulting to some unknown state senator.

and the guy didn’t even buy american. sorry, but this guy is half a bubble off. getting on the plane for nooky? make me sick.

well, another one of sarah’s oppnents goes down the tubers. next, we find out that mitt’s hairpiece is phony. jesus, they’re falling like tenpins. no. this is really pathetic. especially watching him hide behind the bible. you don’t go into republican politics if you can’t hide john thomas in your pants. you don’t cheat on the mrs. you just don’t. if you do, the D’s will find out about it and kill you. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. so, i wonder how much rahm paid the girl to flip on him?

this should end all the speculation

formerly awol south carolina governor mark sanford:

sanford, in an exclusive interview with the state media company, said he decided at the last minute to go to the south american country to recharge after a difficult legislative session in which he battled with lawmakers over how to spend federal stimulus money. ... sanford said he was alone on the trip. he declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he drove along the coastline. ... when asked why his staff said he was on the appalachian trail, sanford replied, "i don't know." sanford later said "in fairness to his staff," he had told them he might go hiking on the appalachian trial. ... "i don't know how this thing got blown out of proportion," sanford said. sanford said he has taken adventure trips for years to unwind.

and from abc news:

abc’s joe goldman reports that a us embassy official in buenos aires tells him that the embassy had "absolutely no idea" that sanford was in argentina. the embassy official added that this comes "from out of left field -- it would be extremely odd that a us governor would not check in with the embassy."

us governor missing for a week. no wife, no kids, no security, no staff — who say he's hiking appalachia. he returns on a jet from argentina. no harm, no foul.

is it irresponsible to speculate? it would be irresponsible not to.

take it away, folks ...

@ john cole's balloon juice:

this is 798 different kinds of awesome. the spin that comes out of this should be framed and put into the smithsonian. this is going to be so damned funny.

i'm beginning to think now that he did have a blowup with his wife, she told him to GTFO, father's day or no father's day, and he did. staffer a: "she told him to take a fucking hike. what the hell do we say to the press?" staffer b: "charlie, you're a genius! that's exactly what we'll say!"

packing for hiking the appalachian trail in summer and visiting argentina in winter are not exactly similar.

who's paying for this trip? didn't he refuse to accept stimulus money on the basis that it would hurt sc's fiscal situation?

eliot spitzer (under pressure from many, including democrats) resigned for less.

i'd like to post something witty and insightful on this topic, but my brain is hung up on "wait, what?"

@ josh marshall's tpmmuckraker:

mistress had an abortion ... know [sic] doubt.

google 'sex tourism "buenos aires" ' and you will learn such fun facts as, "in fact, buenos aires is gradually becoming one of the most notoriously popular destinations for sex tourism."

so this is how the governor is burnishing his foreign policy bonafides for when he runs for president...

things that will now be funny to hear sanford talk about: importance of traditional family values. honesty fiscal responsibility accountability importance of sealing the southern borders.

i hear that the buenos aires airport bathrooms have nice stalls.

he told his staff he was "spiking some argentina tail," and they HEARD "hiking the appalachian trail". easy mistake to make.

@govsanford: went down to south america had a hard time sneaking back into the states. now i know how all those illegals from mexico feel.

i think he fathered a lovechild on one of his previous visits and the woman demanded that he spend father's day with little marco or else she would spill the beans.

those 'mystery solved' headlines from monday evening are looking pretty prescient, right?

scratch that 3 am test

remember the "3 a.m. test?"

it’s 3 am and your children are safe and asleep but there’s a phone in the white house and it’s ringing something’s happening in the world your vote will decide who answers that call ...

well, the phone in the south carolina governor's mansion has been ringing for four-going-on-five straight days now, including father's day weekend.

if the 3 a.m. test wasn't just campaign rhetoric — and it looks like still-awol mark sanford's proving it wasn't — i guess it's safe to add him to the weekly growing list of aborted republican 2012 presidential hopefuls:

the office of the lieutenant governor, andre bauer, is now telling reporters that the governor's office says it's reached sanford and that he's fine. (bauer would take over the governor's duties in an emergency.) but here's the thing: the governor's staff himself doesn't seem willing to confirm that directly to the press. ... in neither of these statements is sanford's office saying that they've been in touch with him. indeed, the clear implication is that they haven't been, or presumably they'd say they have. in fact, it's unclear how closely the office even knows the guv's whereabouts. if it did, why the need to track his cellphone location? and if he told his office, why didn't he tell his wife?