As the first commenter on Wonkette pointed out: Yeah, the one weekend you want to get away from your kids and not tell your spouse where you're going is Father's Day.
This is very weird. It could, I recognize, end very ugly, but I can't help leaping to "yet another sex scandal about to break."
Yeah there are a couple really weird comments over there, like it is a routine thing for a governor to disappear for 4 days and no one in the government knows how to get in contact with him.
In that case I'm going to follow Monstertron into unsupported speculation. I think he has been sneaking off to don tights and fight crime as Die Fledermaus.
And I join many commenters at Balloon Juice in noting that if he wants to go galt, he should put the LG in charge first.
Though it must be noted, not found as in "...and able to talk coherently to anyone in the press at this time."
His wife's disinclination to cover for him does hint at the sex scandal option, which is less interesting than turtles or a secret life as an international spy.
Alas, this disappoints me to no end. I was especially fond of the idea that he was attacked by man-eating turtles while battling crime alongside his sidekick and old chum "Pedro." Perhaps if I concentrate, I can pretend facts to the contrary don't matter. It'd be like I was a birther, only in the service of a much more thrilling fantasy.
May we all mourn Die Fledermaus and Pedro, lost in the opening days of the Great Turtle War.
No, he has not been found. Read that story carefully. What has happened is that his office has announced he is on the Appalachian Trail. But he has still not been in touch with them for over 4 days. No one is saying they've been in touch with him. It is merely an announcement that means nothing until contact has been established.
I hope he's found with an underaged illegal named Pedro.
Somebody needs to spice up the sex scandals, as the one in Nevada was just plain boring. Consensual sex with an adult of the opposite sex means you just aren't trying hard enough.
I've worked for a US Senator, a Congressman, two POTUS's and several CEO's. This isn't just weird, its Twilight Zone. If Sanford ever entertained thoughts of being on a national GOP ticket, unless he walks out of those woods with Big Foot on a rack, he can forget it. First, every reporter in the state is hunting the who, what, why on this story, along with a bunch of nationals. And unless the explanation is at least slightly heroic, folks (including big donors) are going to wonder if Sanford's mental elevator doesn't always reach the top floor.
A guy who wants to run for President is known for not liking to have a security detail? A guy who wants to run for President walks out for a hike and doesn't bother to sign over control to the LG, but leaves it in the hands of unelected staffers?
I also really like the question about weapons in his vehicle.
There's a lot that's still to come out in the open on this one, it's clear!
yeah.... weird. (sullivan linked) Weird and a bit irresponsible if true, but I do hope that's all he was doing, and it IS kind of cool if he simply needed to clear his head and managed to get away....
very weird and irresponsible actually, since he's THE GOV.. I'd be pissed if i was a S. Carolinian. but i am also glad he's okay.
If the most generous possible interpretation is true (by which I mean "really hiking the Appalachian Trail with no phone and whoever he told forgot to tell anyone else" not "on an undercover drop into Iran for the CIA") then that's seriously screwed up in terms of not handing power to the LG. If something involving calling out the National Guard were to happen the AT is one place you'd never hear about it. Wildly irresponsible. I hope the LG is preparing to toss him under a bus.
But given that he's apparently been making a habit of vanishing and being unreachable for hours or a day at a time over the past couple of months, and it takes a long time to get to the AT from the state capitol, I'm going with the following conversation between aides:
"What can we say to suggest that we found him, and he's just fine, but he absolutely can't talk to reporters?"
"Ummm.....the Appalachian Trail!"
One last thing. Sanford's apparently tender sensibilities required his dropping off the grid for almost a week to get it together after a "tough" fight on the stimulus. Good thing he didn't have to deal with a tanking national economy, Iran, Iraq, No. Korea, Afganistan, health care reform, energy policy, middle east peace process, financial sector oversight reform and whatever else may land on Obama's desk on a daily basis. This man may want to be president, but after this little performance, who would trust him not to turn tale and run away after only one "tough" fight?
Totally OT, but News From The Twitter Front reports that author William Gibson just said (about 45 minutes ago) that you were one of his favorite bloggers, AND gave a shout-out to the commenters. So 1000 cocktails to all of you from the Neuromancer/Difference Engine fanclub.
Okay, enough techno-nerding from me. Back to politics...
Drink! Okay, I'm going to make myself another tea, which is doubtless less exciting than whatever Mr. Sanford is doing. But it's 9 a.m. and that's what I've got.
I loved the Difference Engine. ::waves next to Persia::
Wait, wait, wait. He went hiking. On the Appalachian Trail. Over Father's Day weekend. While the rest of his family was on vacation in Sullivan's Island (which is a lovely little beach resort town, for those of you not from the state). And while he was hiking the Trail all day, he was supposed to be writing?
I'm sorry, for most people to write, we require electricity. A computer, a laptop, something. I rather doubt the governor is the type to lug a typewriter up the Trail, and one generally leaves the kids behind when you want to get serious wordcount covered, not merely for handwritten-draft type stuff. And for a 'family-values' governor not to take the photo-op of him and the kids hanging out on the beach?
Something doesn't smell right. And it's not Sanford's hiking boots.
It makes me sad that this sort of thing is why my state makes the news.
Doug at TPM had that thought, at least that he's gone missing and something is wrong. But the wife and staff's "he's vanished but we're TOTALLY not worried" is the most hamfisted cover-up--shouldn't they be declaring that they're worried and calling in searchers?
Piecing together people's theories upthread with the official press releases, I'm prepared to support the following speculations...
1) The Governor's Mansion had run out of moonshine, and Gov. Sanford decided to go 'round to his stills to stock up. He always checks his product before lugging it home, and fell victim to a particularly powerful batch. Once he wakes up, he'll be back on the job.
2) The Governor was hiking the Appalachian Trail in pursuit of his new hobby, turtle pr0n. It's a personal matter for the Governor, and the public should respect his privacy.
Stuff White People Like: Hiking. Maybe it's just that simple. It's also outside the scope of Eastern urban elites in the media to grasp that some people like to spend time in the wilderness outside of the reach of cell phones. Chill.
Er, no. It's outside of many people's grasp that a married executive--let's not even have governor, just someone who has a spouse, kids under the age of 18, a M-F+ job with a lot of responsibility, and a staff--who wants to get away would not tell his family, or his staff, or his second in command that he's going, where he's going, or when to expect to see him again.
And it's outside of most hikers' grasp that he would not leave an "I'll get on the trail here, get off here, check in at this date by phone" plan with someone, his wife and staff being the obvious starting points. Add in his security--they might like to know "when do we start worrying?" I doubt the reports that they'd pinged his cell to a tower near Atlanta were occasioned by his security not starting to hunt for him.
If the answer to the Republican State Senator's "Where the hell is the governor?" had been "He's gone hiking for the weekend and will be back Wednesday; the LG is handling things" this would be a nonstory. (Well, except for wanting to avoid his kids on Father's Day, but that's well short of a sex scandal.)
This is reminding me of a hilarious story Richard Harris told on Letterman once, given that Harris was telling the story I imagine it was a fair amount of embellishment and little fact but still:
One Saturday he goes out to buy milk or something and stops at a pub for a beer on the way, he gets to talking to some buddies and they decide to go up to Scotland to watch a soccer match. They go have a great time, party all night and late Sunday as he's heading home he realizes, Doh forgot to call the wife, gets to the house and realizes he doesn't have a key so can't sneak in, when his wife answers the door with a nasty look on her face he looks at her and says "Why the fuck didn't you pay the ransom?"
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
As the first commenter on Wonkette pointed out: Yeah, the one weekend you want to get away from your kids and not tell your spouse where you're going is Father's Day.
This is very weird. It could, I recognize, end very ugly, but I can't help leaping to "yet another sex scandal about to break."
My first thought was rehab.
Phish is on tour. Gaian Mind was last week. When is Burning Man this year?
This is fucking surreal. How does anyone lose track of a governor, let alone the Governor of South Carolina? Seems kind of important.
Sure gets the mind off of Tehran for a little while though, all due respect to those heroes.
It blows me away that people in Ambinder's post are like, 'why is this news?' Maybe because he's the Governor?
Yeah there are a couple really weird comments over there, like it is a routine thing for a governor to disappear for 4 days and no one in the government knows how to get in contact with him.
I hope his wife threw him out for some sort of sex scandal and he has to resign.
one of the links Ambinder posts has been updated to say that his office says they know where he is now.
In that case I'm going to follow Monstertron into unsupported speculation. I think he has been sneaking off to don tights and fight crime as Die Fledermaus.
And I join many commenters at Balloon Juice in noting that if he wants to go galt, he should put the LG in charge first.
LOL!!! I think he's gone Hollywood, I hear they've already started filming "Transformers III: Revenge of the Roombas" and he's got a role as a Cylon.
My operating hypothesis: Eaten by turtles.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I'm sorry, Monstertron, but he has been found. Alive. I was already running with your hypotheses as well...
http://www.thestate.com/local/v-print/story/836552.html
Though it must be noted, not found as in "...and able to talk coherently to anyone in the press at this time."
His wife's disinclination to cover for him does hint at the sex scandal option, which is less interesting than turtles or a secret life as an international spy.
Alas, this disappoints me to no end. I was especially fond of the idea that he was attacked by man-eating turtles while battling crime alongside his sidekick and old chum "Pedro." Perhaps if I concentrate, I can pretend facts to the contrary don't matter. It'd be like I was a birther, only in the service of a much more thrilling fantasy.
May we all mourn Die Fledermaus and Pedro, lost in the opening days of the Great Turtle War.
No, he has not been found. Read that story carefully. What has happened is that his office has announced he is on the Appalachian Trail. But he has still not been in touch with them for over 4 days. No one is saying they've been in touch with him. It is merely an announcement that means nothing until contact has been established.
I hope he's found with an underaged illegal named Pedro.
I hope he's found with an underaged illegal named Pedro.
Somebody needs to spice up the sex scandals, as the one in Nevada was just plain boring. Consensual sex with an adult of the opposite sex means you just aren't trying hard enough.
Ted Haggard set the bar pretty high.
The sex part is pretty boring, but the follow the money part with Ensign has been interesting.
Well having sex with an employee who is also the wife of another of your employees is just cold.
Consensual sex with an adult of the opposite sex means you just aren't trying hard enough.
Exactly. At least throw in some diaper-wearing or something to make it mildly interesting.
Perhaps he was with a "nappy headed ho"?
(room groans)
Sorry I couldn't resist.
I thought he was honoring that long tradition of many Southern White gentlemen and spending Father's Day with his "other" family.
When I first heard he had been missing four days the first person to come to my mind was the late Mr Carradine. That would have been something.
Twenty bucks says he's picked up glassy-eyed with a trunk full of blow, a hooker in the passenger seat and a pocket full of dreams.
I'd expect nothing less from a family values man.
I`m going to say he was in a fugue state.
I've worked for a US Senator, a Congressman, two POTUS's and several CEO's. This isn't just weird, its Twilight Zone. If Sanford ever entertained thoughts of being on a national GOP ticket, unless he walks out of those woods with Big Foot on a rack, he can forget it. First, every reporter in the state is hunting the who, what, why on this story, along with a bunch of nationals. And unless the explanation is at least slightly heroic, folks (including big donors) are going to wonder if Sanford's mental elevator doesn't always reach the top floor.
Anna's right; this is seriously off for someone in his position:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/sc_lawmaker_sanford_not_a_person_that_would_be_hap.php?ref=fpblg
A guy who wants to run for President is known for not liking to have a security detail? A guy who wants to run for President walks out for a hike and doesn't bother to sign over control to the LG, but leaves it in the hands of unelected staffers?
I also really like the question about weapons in his vehicle.
There's a lot that's still to come out in the open on this one, it's clear!
Appalachian Trail hike without telling your wife? Is Sanford effing the Appalachian Trail?
yeah.... weird. (sullivan linked) Weird and a bit irresponsible if true, but I do hope that's all he was doing, and it IS kind of cool if he simply needed to clear his head and managed to get away....
very weird and irresponsible actually, since he's THE GOV.. I'd be pissed if i was a S. Carolinian. but i am also glad he's okay.
If the most generous possible interpretation is true (by which I mean "really hiking the Appalachian Trail with no phone and whoever he told forgot to tell anyone else" not "on an undercover drop into Iran for the CIA") then that's seriously screwed up in terms of not handing power to the LG. If something involving calling out the National Guard were to happen the AT is one place you'd never hear about it. Wildly irresponsible. I hope the LG is preparing to toss him under a bus.
But given that he's apparently been making a habit of vanishing and being unreachable for hours or a day at a time over the past couple of months, and it takes a long time to get to the AT from the state capitol, I'm going with the following conversation between aides:
"What can we say to suggest that we found him, and he's just fine, but he absolutely can't talk to reporters?"
"Ummm.....the Appalachian Trail!"
"But given that he's apparently been making a habit of vanishing and being unreachable for hours or a day at a time over the past couple of months,"
I tell you, sounds like a drug/booze problem.
One last thing. Sanford's apparently tender sensibilities required his dropping off the grid for almost a week to get it together after a "tough" fight on the stimulus. Good thing he didn't have to deal with a tanking national economy, Iran, Iraq, No. Korea, Afganistan, health care reform, energy policy, middle east peace process, financial sector oversight reform and whatever else may land on Obama's desk on a daily basis. This man may want to be president, but after this little performance, who would trust him not to turn tale and run away after only one "tough" fight?
Totally OT, but News From The Twitter Front reports that author William Gibson just said (about 45 minutes ago) that you were one of his favorite bloggers, AND gave a shout-out to the commenters. So 1000 cocktails to all of you from the Neuromancer/Difference Engine fanclub.
Okay, enough techno-nerding from me. Back to politics...
Perfect timing, I'm halfway through Mona Lisa Overdrive.
::waves to Mr. Gibson::
Drink! Okay, I'm going to make myself another tea, which is doubtless less exciting than whatever Mr. Sanford is doing. But it's 9 a.m. and that's what I've got.
I loved the Difference Engine. ::waves next to Persia::
Hiking the Appalachian Trail? Really?? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
Wait, wait, wait. He went hiking. On the Appalachian Trail. Over Father's Day weekend. While the rest of his family was on vacation in Sullivan's Island (which is a lovely little beach resort town, for those of you not from the state). And while he was hiking the Trail all day, he was supposed to be writing?
I'm sorry, for most people to write, we require electricity. A computer, a laptop, something. I rather doubt the governor is the type to lug a typewriter up the Trail, and one generally leaves the kids behind when you want to get serious wordcount covered, not merely for handwritten-draft type stuff. And for a 'family-values' governor not to take the photo-op of him and the kids hanging out on the beach?
Something doesn't smell right. And it's not Sanford's hiking boots.
It makes me sad that this sort of thing is why my state makes the news.
Could be murder. There have been a few along the Appalachian Trail and this is his wife's way of covering her tracks.
Doug at TPM had that thought, at least that he's gone missing and something is wrong. But the wife and staff's "he's vanished but we're TOTALLY not worried" is the most hamfisted cover-up--shouldn't they be declaring that they're worried and calling in searchers?
Piecing together people's theories upthread with the official press releases, I'm prepared to support the following speculations...
1) The Governor's Mansion had run out of moonshine, and Gov. Sanford decided to go 'round to his stills to stock up. He always checks his product before lugging it home, and fell victim to a particularly powerful batch. Once he wakes up, he'll be back on the job.
2) The Governor was hiking the Appalachian Trail in pursuit of his new hobby, turtle pr0n. It's a personal matter for the Governor, and the public should respect his privacy.
Stuff White People Like: Hiking. Maybe it's just that simple. It's also outside the scope of Eastern urban elites in the media to grasp that some people like to spend time in the wilderness outside of the reach of cell phones. Chill.
Er, no. It's outside of many people's grasp that a married executive--let's not even have governor, just someone who has a spouse, kids under the age of 18, a M-F+ job with a lot of responsibility, and a staff--who wants to get away would not tell his family, or his staff, or his second in command that he's going, where he's going, or when to expect to see him again.
And it's outside of most hikers' grasp that he would not leave an "I'll get on the trail here, get off here, check in at this date by phone" plan with someone, his wife and staff being the obvious starting points. Add in his security--they might like to know "when do we start worrying?" I doubt the reports that they'd pinged his cell to a tower near Atlanta were occasioned by his security not starting to hunt for him.
If the answer to the Republican State Senator's "Where the hell is the governor?" had been "He's gone hiking for the weekend and will be back Wednesday; the LG is handling things" this would be a nonstory. (Well, except for wanting to avoid his kids on Father's Day, but that's well short of a sex scandal.)
Maybe he was participating in Naked Hiking Day:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31447805/ns/us_news-weird_news/
This is reminding me of a hilarious story Richard Harris told on Letterman once, given that Harris was telling the story I imagine it was a fair amount of embellishment and little fact but still:
One Saturday he goes out to buy milk or something and stops at a pub for a beer on the way, he gets to talking to some buddies and they decide to go up to Scotland to watch a soccer match. They go have a great time, party all night and late Sunday as he's heading home he realizes, Doh forgot to call the wife, gets to the house and realizes he doesn't have a key so can't sneak in, when his wife answers the door with a nasty look on her face he looks at her and says "Why the fuck didn't you pay the ransom?"
Priceless!
Curiouser and curiouser:
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/838823.html
Unless the Appalachian Trail runs all the way down to Buenos Aires, we got the stench of scandal all over this baby.