AP:
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A spokesman for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says the Republican checked in with his staff and was surprised by the attention given to his secretive vacation.
Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer says the governor called his chief of staff Tuesday morning. His last known contact with staff was five days earlier.
Sawyer says the governor was taken aback by the interest his trip to the Appalachian Trail has garnered. Sawyer says the governor decided that with all the attention he'd return to his office Wednesday.
If this story turns out to be true, it's good news -- but it doesn't explain why Sanford's staff and family told multiple conflicting stories over the past 24 hours, and more importantly, it doesn't explain why a sitting governor saw fit to go incommunicado without relinquishing his executive authority.
Keep in mind that yesterday:
- His wife said Sanford had left to get away from his children and do some "writing" -- but now we're told he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, not writing.
- His wife said she didn't know where he was -- but now they say they knew all along.
- His staff initially said Sanford was attending to some projects he had neglected -- but now they say they knew he was hiking all along.
- The Lt. Gov.'s office said Sanford had been contacted and was doing fine -- but that turns out to have been false.
- Sanford's staff said they knew Sanford would be "difficult" to reach -- but it turns out that it was impossible to reach him.
- We learned that Sanford took his journey using a taxpayer-funded, publicly-owned state vehicle, but he clearly wasn't available for any official state business.
Apparently, the good news for Mark Sanford is that he is healthy and well.
The bad news is that he looks about 10x crazier today than he did yesterday, and when he returns on Wednesday, he's going to have a ton of questions to answer.
Then again, the good news for Sanford is that he'll probably just go on Fox to "answer" them.