In Defense Of Mark Sanford (On One Aspect Of This)
The Mark Sanford plot appeared to thicken in a big way today, after ABC News reported that Sanford hadn’t notified the U.S. embassy in Argentina that he’d arrived in the country, suggesting he may have been trying to hide his visit for nefarious reasons.
An embassy official told ABC News that it would be “extremely odd” for a United States governor not to “check in with the embassy.”
Turns out that isn’t the case, according to the U.S. state department.
Noel Clay, a state spokesman, tells our reporter Amanda Erickson that a governor would not notify state department or embassies if he were going abroad. So he’s off the hook on at least this piece of it.
Meanwhile, TPM has compiled a very useful timeline on the Tale of the Missing Governor.
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Maybe he celebrates every fathers day alone.
Keep in mind, we still don’t have any actual confirmation that he was in BA for the week. He flew into ATL from a BA airport, and he said he was in BA driving along the coastline (which creates it’s own skeptism).
And it’s not like we haven’t heard a likely story so far from this story.
If he was in BA driving around the coast…wouldn’t there be a record? Did he rent a car? Where was he staying? Plane ticket records?
And that’s all logistic stuff. That doesn’t even dive into the thicky whicket of no one in his state knowing he was OUT OF THE COUNTRY for a week. Is there any sort of investigation the State could intiate to get to the bottom of this?
I saw on another site that he might just be a drug runner. Yeah it’s a far fetched story but who would have believed me if I had told them a couple years back I bet Larry Craig propositions complete strangers in filthy train station mens bathrooms. See what happens when you don’t get out in front of a story. Idiots like me let their imaginations run wild!
Greg. I can’t be sure, but I think the State spokesman is talking about something else. There is a difference between notifying the State Dept or an embassy BEFORE you leave the country and not notifying the embassy in Argentina AFTER you arrived in country. Hell what if you get arrested or something?! This isn’t just some citizen, this is a governor and I don’t think Noel Clay was actually refuting what the Argentinian embassy official said.
By the way Greg, I knew your post on the White House supposedly being willing to jetison the public option was going to be irresistable Jane Hamsher bait since Rahm was featured so prominently. http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/06/24/rahm-white-house-open-to-dropping-public-option/ Seriously she has an obsession with the guy.
yeah, saw that sg. stay tuned. more coming on Rahm. btw, what’s experience of comments now? we have someone working on it as we speak.
I dunno let me try both ways.
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still no line breaks either by html or periods.
Waiting for live feed on cnn.com of Sanford and watching lady unknowingly being filmed in cnn engineering room picking her nose, I want her # now.
Sanford should be up any second. This is as exciting as the anticipation of Obama’s acceptance at the Democratic National Convention…not rly but u know what I mean.
http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream2
Hmmm. Lemme try an empty <blockquote> tag…
Maybe this is a poor man’s sub for paragraph breaks?
OK! It seems to work!
well
whether
Ok… I’m bored already…
You might want to update or retract your defense as he finally disclosed the affair that is no doubt the reason behind his secrecy and unannounced hiatus. Do these guys never learn? Kind of puts a new spin on his original statement to explain the discrepancy between his PR Peoples statement that he was hiking the appalachian trail and his actual whereabouts Agentina:
“Sanford said that he had considered hiking the Appalachian trail, but at the last minute decided to do something “exotic”.”
This is just life. No villains and no heroes. Not that he didn’t help create this situation but he’s probably been in a marriage of convenience for a very long time. Maybe from the beginning. What many people dismiss as mid-life crises are really just awakenings to the reality of their lives. When you realize you only so much time left, it gets harder to pretend and conform.
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