Related Content

• The Washington Post | The Fix | First thoughts
• The New York Times | Gov. Sanford admits affair, explains disappearance
• Associated Press | S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford says he's had affair
• The (Columbia, S.C.) State | Sanford apologizes to family
• RGA announces Gov. Haley Barbour as new chairman
• Where was GOP's Sanford? Argentina, not Appalachia
• South Carolina's Gov. Sanford won't appeal stimulus ruling
• More coverage from The State in Columbia, S.C.

Where was GOP's Sanford? Argentina, not Appalachia

ATLANTA — Gov. Mark Sanford arrived in the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport this morning, having wrapped up a seven-day visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina, he said. Sanford said he had not been hiking along the Appalachian Trail, as his staff said in a Tuesday statement to the media.

Sanford's whereabouts had been unknown since Thursday, and the mystery surrounding his absence fueled speculation about where he had been and who's in charge in his absence. His emergence Wednesday ended the mystery.

Sanford, in an exclusive interview with McClatchy's The State newspaper, 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. picture

Sanford lover breaks her silence, acknowledging affair

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The Argentine mystery woman who stole the heart of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford went public Sunday night for the first time since the news of the affair broke Wednesday, but was still able to keep up the air of mystery.

In an e-mail sent to a reporter for a Buenos Aires television station and read on the air Sunday night, Maria Belen Chapur tacitly acknowledged the affair that has torpedoed Sanford's political career and kept Argentina enthralled for the past several days. But she provided no details and said she wouldn't.

"Of my private life I won't speak, not now or in the future," she wrote, according to a version posted on the station's Web site. "It's been made public enough already, a fact that causes me terrible discomfort."

Wife: SC gov didn't want fidelity in marriage vows

South Carolina's first lady says her wedding was a "leap of faith" because Gov. Mark Sanford, who famously cheated on her with a woman he described as his soul mate, did not want to include a vow of fidelity in their marriage ceremony.

Jenny Sanford also tells ABC's Barbara Walters in an interview airing Friday on "20/20" that the final blow to the marriage was the publication of racy e-mails between Sanford and his Argentine mistress.

The show released excerpts of Sanford's interview with Walters, which coincides with publication Friday of her memoir, "Staying True."

S. Carolina GOP still split on whether Sanford should resign

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Some Republican state lawmakers are privately saying they want Republican Gov. Mark Sanford to step down — of his own volition — this week.

Meanwhile, Sanford has spent portions of the last few days phoning key lawmakers and Republican Party activists, apologizing for his affair with an Argentinian woman that left him out of touch with his staff and other state leaders for the better part of a week.

On another note, a source close to Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said Sunday that Bauer has approached members of the Senate to discuss the possibility that, if Sanford resigns, Bauer would only serve the remainder of the governor’s term, focusing on job creation, and would not run for governor in 2010 as Bauer had originally intended.

Sanford having 'mid-life crisis,' says wife in Vogue interview

South Carolina's first lady Jenny Sanford says her husband, Gov. Mark Sanford, is in the midst of a midlife crisis and it is up to him to save their marriage.

While Jenny Sanford has asked the media for privacy and retreated to the family's beach house on Sullivan's Island with the couple's four sons, the first lady appears in this month's Vogue magazine, on newsstands this week.

An accompanying photo shows Jenny Sanford in a short beach coverup, a straw hat in hand, as she leans in the beach house's doorway.