The unfolding drama surrounding Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s disappearance (explained by his staff as a trek in the Appalachians, then re-explained as a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, finally fully explained by Gov. Sanford himself in Wednesday morning’s press conference, as live-blogged in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal) has reached its… climactic moment.

“I have been unfaithful to my wife, I have developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina… it began very innocently as I suspect these things do… just a casual email back and forth…” the governor says. He says this year it developed “into something more.”

…

Asked if [Sanford] is separated from his wife, he gets confused, and says it depends on how that’s defined. He says “yes” in answer to a second question about whether Jenny Sanford knew about the affair before the trip to Argentina – and adds that she’s known for about five months. Then he pivots back to discussing his faith and his efforts to work through this, and starts to lose his composure.

…

He says he spent the last five days of his life crying in Argentina, so he can repeat it back in the United States.

The crying likely won’t stop any time soon, as soon as the residents of the Palmetto state get their hands on him.  But Gov. Sanford’s inevitable political demise is not the gravest concern for Republicans; it is the manner in which the party chooses to handle a governor who has breached the trust of his constituents. 

When a man is controlled by flights of impulse to cast aside his commitments to those closest to him, his wife and children (and, yes folks, those marriage vows are promises you make to the children you will have when bound by marriage), and uses the resources of his office to lay down a embarrassing canvas of lies to cover his tracks, he is no longer worthy of the public’s trust.

The Democrats kicked the ball around for weeks over how to deal with former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.  Perhaps GOP Chairman Michael Steele can show us how this should be done.

Michelle Malkin boils it down into one word that invokes the loathsome and lecherous character residing in Gov. Sanford’s physical vessel: Bastard.

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