One of our governors (was) missing kissing

If I were a politician, I'd feel like cutting out some of the time too, so I'm sympathetic in principle to Mark Sanford and his little Argentine jaunt.

Yglesias's post I just linked speculates whether Sanford was conducting an affair, which seems silly to me -- there must be a lot better ways to have sex in secret than flying off to Buenos Aires without telling anyone.

Josh Marshall's blog passes along some like speculation, which is all too thinly sourced to mean much.

If there *is* something fishy, I suspect it's along the lines suggested by Matt's first commenter, who says that Buenos Aires is "the gay Mecca of South America." But that's just wishful thinking on my part, I'm sure.

... Well, so much for my superficial sense of the plausible:

POLITICO Breaking News:
-----------------------------------------------------

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, apologizing to his wife, children, staff, “and anybody who lives in South Carolina,” says he’s been unfaithful to his wife and has been in a relationship with another woman in Argentina.

A *woman* in Argentina. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm now curious about Gov. Sanford's position on immigration reform.

... My friend has a better line: "No wonder he wouldn't take stimulus money -- he was already stimulated!"

... It's always a comfort to know that, however wrong one is, RedState is more wrong:

First, we need to be clear on the facts — not the media speculation:

-Sanford did tell his staff and family where he was going.
-Because he was traveling without a security detail, it was in his best interests that no one knew he was gone.
-His political enemies — Republicans at that — ginned up the media story.
-When confronted by a pestering media, things went downhill.
-Again though, at all times there was no doubt that Sanford’s staff and family knew where he was.

"Honey, I'm going to Buenos Aires to sleep with my mistress -- tell the staff where I am, but don't let the media know!" "Okay, honey, have a nice time!"

... Hm. The media's known about the mistress since December 2008 & kept quiet, despite having e-mails between Sanford and "Maria":

You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light - but hey, that would be going into sexual details ...

Yes. Yes, it would.