South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's Bogus Journey

Where is Mark Sanford?  The governor of South Carolina disappeared last Thursday in an S.C. law enforcement vehicle after a losing legislative battle with state congress.  On Monday, callers to the governor’s residence were told that his whereabouts were unknown.  Says Andre Bauer, the lieutenant governor and an opponent of Sanford’s:

The governor’s chief of staff does not know where the governor is, and has not communicated with the governor since he left South Carolina last Thursday,’ Bauer said. ‘I cannot take lightly that his staff has not had communication with him for more than four days, and that no one, including his own family, knows his whereabouts.’”

ROAD TRIPPPP!!!!  But today, they found him…  

Said his wife Jenny Sanford,

“He was writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids [as some have noted, it was Father's Day weekend],” Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press while vacationing at the family’s Sullivans Island beach house. She said she didn’t know where he was, but wasn’t concerned.

And said State Sen. John Knotts:

“I found out that he was taking frequent trips at odd times of the night in a SLED car with no security,” Knotts said. “He would be driving. I got wind that he had taken another one of these types of capers last Thursday, and that nobody knew who he was with.”

So they put out a Sanford Alert, printed his face on some milk cartons, and posted “Have you seen this governor?” flyers in major supermarkets.  It worked – the AWOL governor, it turns out, has been hiking the Appalachian Trail.  His spokesman weighed in last night:

“I want to emphasize that this isn’t something that either staff or Mrs. Sanford is concerned about,” Sawyer wrote Monday night. “As we said earlier today, it isn’t unusual for the governor to be out of pocket for several days after the legislative session. We knew that he would be difficult to reach, and that he would be checking in infrequently. Given the media attention this has generated, we’ll obviously update you once we have some more specifics to pass along.”

However, he assured reporters that should a state emergency arise, the governor would be all over it.  This is a little suspect, since even his spokesman clearly does not know exactly where the governor is.  The lieutenant governor, by the way, was not specifically given charge of running, uh, South Carolina while Sanford went on his excellent adventure.

But when Sanford shows up at his office wearing a bandana, camouflage face paint, days-old bloodstains, and knife between his teeth, no one will ask any questions.

Source: CNN, HuffPo.