I just finished up publishing Chaotic Fringe and man did I get a fun smack in the face. I was watching just some TV shows but hadn’t paid much attention to the Gov. Sanford disappearance. Understand this is unfolding in real time, but it is such an intriguing issue I have to comment on it as I see it.

As usual FoxNews is protecting its Republican base. It’s now 12:17 pm and I guess the exciting information broke a few minutes ago but FoxNews has nothing on the new development, which I will get to in a moment. CNN and MSNBC are reporting the news since there was a press conference on it while FoxNews is showing information on Iran. In most cases I would probably say Iran is the bigger story, just off the top of my head but the Gov. Sanford story has been a mystery just waiting to happen and the revelation is crazy.

OK, so the quick backstory was the Governor of South Carolina went missing on Friday. It was kind of a nothing story that grew because on Monday he still hadn’t been heard from and his wife gave, in hindsight, the most telling answer. She was asked about where he was and she said she didn’t know, he did this a lot, but the odd thing was he was away from his four kids during Father’s Day.

His staff on Tuesday said he was hiking in Appalachia and would be back on Wednesday. With that story there were some odd things, such as Appalachia not having cell service, as far as I know, and somehow the staff that didn’t know where he was Friday through Sunday somehow got hold of him while hiking on Tuesday. He also allows them to make a statement that he didn’t realize this would cause so much trouble.

On the Keith Olbermann show on MSNBC, he had Richard Black on yesterday and both men commented how odd the story was panning out. There were things that didn’t make sense and both said it read like a cover story. They said if this was the best excuse they could come up with the real story had to be BIG. Little did they know what would transpire less than 24 hours later.

This morning it was revealed the Governor was coming back but he wasn’t hiking but was in Argentina. He said he would have a news conference later in the day but more odd information came out. A state newspaper had been on the story and they found his car at the airport with camping equipment in it. The spin from his office was he changed his mind, but the question was why didn’t anyone know where he went, especially his wife?

Now we are all caught up to the unfolding news at the moment. It turns out the governor went to Argentina to meet his mistress. He has had an extramarital affair for some years, but did say his family, which translates to wife, just learned of the affair five months ago. All the pieces now fall into place. The cold response his wife made on his disappearance was because she knew he was seeing the mistress. Thankfully at the press conference where he admitted all this his wife was nowhere to be found, however like the hypocrites they seem to be, the Republican Party, for the moment, are standing by their man.

This is the party of family values? OK. Forget the party and understand this man has been an advocate of family values and he is having an affair. Until today, the big issue with the disappearance was about being out of communication with his staff and the state. Since he was a possible Presidential candidate, there was talk about this being odd behavior. This morning I did see on TV where people who knew the Governor said he was someone who marched to his own drummer.

Time and time again, politicians (both Dems and Repubs) think they can get away with having affairs. Mayor Villarigosa of Los Angeles thought he could have an affair. He couldn’t and just a few days ago he announced he wouldn’t be running for governor of California. Before the affair he was a top contender for being the next governor. Sanford was on the fast track of being a strong Presidential candidate for 2012. He was Chairman of the GOP Governors Association, but he resigned from that during the press conference. He had been the poster child for defying the President’s stimulus package because he fought to refuse the funds before the state and the courts reversed him. It was the loss of this battle which caused the governor to leave the state for the welcoming arms of his mistress, not to the arms of his wife and kids.

Great, Brad Blakeman, a GOP strategist, just said the party has had some hard knocks. Actually they’ve had some self inflicted gunshot wounds. The man is trying, I’ll give him that, but he needs to listen to what he just said. He said his party needs to cut bait and frankly that’s what they need to do now. Yes, the Democrats, as pointed out, have their own affair problems but they don’t come off as the family values party. The Republicans do that and every time they get some better than thou politician coming up to the podium, you know there’s going to be mud on them somewhere.

I know in a perfect world a person personal life shouldn’t be an issue, but what the Republicans have used as an example is the exact reason why they should shun people that do this. The Governor was missing for days and he was off in another country to see his mistress. The urge was so strong to see her he left his four kids on Father’s Day to see her. Even before we knew the full story, his political opponents were using this as a wedge with the public, which had this been just some wacky escapade, as we were led to believe at first, the behavior would have hurt him. I was thinking to myself how odd it was he could just up and leave the state to hike, without anyone knowing. Now we know it’s was for a mistress. To go through that much trouble, the blackmail options are astounding.