Pressure Grows for Sanford to Resign

He is falling off the edge.

Calls are growing among Republicans for love-struck South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford to resign. As of Tueday night, 10 conservative Republican state senators had called for Sanford, who admitted an extramarital affair last week and added more details. Tuesday, to step aside. Until Sanford’s trip last month to Argentina to visit his girlfriend, the governor had been considered a rising GOP star.

He has fallen hard, far and fast.

In a letter late Tuesday, six lawmakers wrote: “The bottom line is that the Governor’s private matters should remain private, but his deception and negligence make it impossible for us to trust him, and for him to govern in the future.” Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, who initiated the letter, raised questions about his mental state. “There’s just no way he’ll be able to continue as governor,” he said, expressing concerns about Sanford’s accounts of his extramarital activities. “I’m really concerned about his mental well being.”

Maybe his private matters should remain private, but he keeps confessing to a longer list of sins. And he seems to be unhinged.

Peeler told CNN that the governor “has lost his ability to lead, and I’m afraid he has lost his ability to function as a man. He is sitting all alone in that big governor’s mansion, totally alone,” Peeler continued. “It’s about leadership and moving forward and it’s time for him to resign.”

He really seems lost.

Hugh Leatherman, Thomas Alexander, Paul Campbell, Jake Knotts, Larry Martin and William O’Dell also signed the letter. Earlier, GOP state Sen. Larry Grooms said the governor has “lost the moral authority to lead our state, so he needs to step down for the good of our state.”

This morning, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, didn’t call for Sanford’s resignation, but suggested we stay tuned. “Mark and I are good friends and good friends with Jenny. It’s tragic for their family. It’s very bad for our state,” he said in an interview with Fox News. “We have high unemployment — a lot of challenges, right now, and we need strong leadership. So this comes at a very bad time.”

Well, what would have been a good time for the Governor to 'fess up to cheatin' on his wife and family repeatedly?

DeMint said Sanford had “dropped the flag” for the conservative movement, adding: “The rest of us have to get up and go on. A lot of us are talking to him behind the scenes in hopes that he’ll make the right decision about what needs to be done.”

Dropped the conservative flag? How about the religious, moral and marital?

Another story details the Guv's dalliances, and his gamble.

After days of assuring the public he was firmly in control after admitting a scandalous affair, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford detailed other encounters with his Argentine "soul mate," dalliances with women before her, and his struggle to salvage his 20-year marriage.

"I don't want to blow up my time in politics," he told the AP. "I don't want to blow up future earning power, I don't want to blow up the kids' lives. I don't want to blow up 20 years that we've invested. But if I'm completely honest, there are still feelings in the way. If we keep pushing it this way, we get those to die off, but they're still there and they're still real."

His logic is twisted, reflecting his mental state.

He insists he can fall back in love with his wife, Jenny, even as he witnesses his "own political funeral." Sanford detailed more encounters with his mistress than he had disclosed during a rambling, emotional news conference last week. The new revelations Tuesday led the state attorney general to launch an investigation of Sanford's travels to check on taxpayer money.

He's out of control. Poor kids.