The C-Street Kerfuffle.

(h/t to Jason Linkins.)

Philandering Republicans Mark Sanford and John Ensign have connections to a house in Washington referred to as C Street, and are affiliated with a religious group known as The Family, who organize the National Prayer Breakfast. Sanford and Ensign are getting "counseling" at C Street for their wayward ways, while Ensign actually lives there (no word on if the joint has a hot tub.)

Also in residence is Tennessee Republican Congressman Zach Wamp, and he's out of sorts over a report Rachel Maddow did, based on his hometown paper, the Knoxville News Sentinel:

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Judging by the foibles of Christian hypocrites like Sanford and Ensign, there's more talk about sex at C Street than a strip club at Happy Hour.

It must suck to have spent all that time preaching to others on how to live their lives only to have it become public knowledge that they were "do as I say, not as I do" kind of guys, eh?

Busted!

And as for Rep. Wamp, keeping secrets and bitching about roommates seems a tad tacky, even for uptight GOP Confederates.

South Carolina GOP Governor Goes AWOL; Big & Sweaty Radio Gasbag Blames President.

Here's the audio:

The Governor Took The Wrong Trail On This Year's Hypocrisy Hike.

FOX News Is At It Again.

Well, lookie there! FOX News misidentifies yet another GOP hypocrite as a Democrat! See that (D) next to Gov. Sanford's name?

Hmm. FOX News has had this problem before:

All in the name of fairness and balance, of course.

"A Conservative Government Is An Organized Hypocrisy."

This post's title comes from British Prime Minister and novelist Benjamin Disraeli.

With South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford back from Argentina and admitting to an extramarital affair, there are these reminders of hypocrisy from ThinkProgress.com:

While serving as a U.S. congressman, (South Carolina governor) Mark Sanford was incredibly critical of his colleagues’ marital misdeeds, including the affairs of former congressman Bob Livingston and President Bill Clinton:

“The bottom line, though, is I am sure there will be a lot of legalistic explanations pointing out that the president lied under oath. His situation was not under oath. The bottom line, though, is he still lied. He lied under a different oath, and that is the oath to his wife. So it’s got to be taken very, very seriously.” [Sanford on Livingston, CNN, 12/18/98]

“We ought to ask questions…rather than circle the wagons for one of our tribe.” [Sanford on how the GOP reacts to affairs, New York Post, 12/20/98]

“I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally (to resign). I come from the business side. If you had a chairman or president in the business world facing these allegations, he’d be gone.” [Sanford on Clinton, The Post and Courier, 9/12/98]

“The issue of lying is probably the biggest harm, if you will, to the system of Democratic government, representatives government, because it undermines trust. And if you undermine trust in our system, you undermine everything.” [Sanford on Clinton, CNN, 2/16/99]

Sanford has also been an opponent of same-sex marriage, saying in 2004, “As Jenny and I are the parents of four little boys, we’ve always taught our kids that marriage was something between a man and a woman.” [The Post and Courier, 2/11/04]

Gov. Sanford, I am not an expert on matrimony, but I was unaware that the man in your ideal marriage can leave his wife and fly to Buenos Aires to hook-up with his mistress. Is that a brand-new definition, or just a Southern thang...

This Twitter Moment Is Brought To You By The 'GOP Council On Sexual Hypocrisy.'

My suggestion for a new Republican campaign slogan: "Oops! I Did It Again!"

Here I Am!

(Thanks to DailyKos for the image.)

From the New York Times:

The mystery of the missing governor has taken another plot twist.

A South Carolina newspaper is reporting that Gov. Mark Sanford said he has been in Buenos Aires, Argentina, since Thursday, not hiking the Appalachian Trail, as his staff had told reporters.

Mr. Sanford’s staff had been unable to reach him for four days, starting on Thursday, and his wife had told The Associated Press that she did not know his whereabouts on Monday. But a spokesman for the governor told reporters on Monday night that Mr. Sanford had been reached, was hiking an unspecified portion of the Appalachian Trail and would return to the office on Wednesday.

In an interview with The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C., Mr. Sanford said he had taken an unplanned trip to the South American country to recharge after a difficult legislative session in which he battled with lawmakers over accepting a portion of the federal stimulus funding.

He had considered hiking the trail, he said. “But I said ‘no’ I wanted to do something exotic,” Mr. Sanford told The State. “It’s a great city.”

Well, Governor, let's hope you knocked back a few Quilmes during your super-secret get-away. And thanks for reminding us that you are every bit as bizarre as Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

UPDATE: Now he's giving a press conference and talking about God a lot. Oh, and the Argentine woman with whom he now admits to having an affair...

I Gotta Get Out Of This Place.

There's a GOP Confederate governor on the loose.

From Politico.com:

South Carolina GOP Gov. Mark Sanford is safe and secure, his office said Monday afternoon, moving to tamp down speculation that he had gone missing.

Sanford has not been in touch with his office since Thursday and left Columbia without his state police detail.

His communications director, Joel Sawyer, wouldn’t disclose Sanford’s location but said that before the governor left town last week “he let staff know his whereabouts and that he'd be difficult to reach.”

“Should any emergencies arise between the times in which he checks in, our staff would obviously be in contact with other state officials as the situation warrants before making any decisions,” said Sawyer.

Sanford’s wife, Jenny, told The Associated Press Monday that she was unconcerned and that the second-term governor is “writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids.”

Sawyer added: “The governor put in a lot of time during this last legislative session, and after the session winds down it's not uncommon for him to go out of pocket for a few days at a time to clear his head. Obviously, that's going to be somewhat out of the question this time given the attention this particular absence has gotten.”

"Out of pocket?" It's a good thing this guy doesn't have the job in which he's been rumored to be interested: Barack Obama's.

UPDATE: The seemingly stressed-out governor is said to be hiking the Appalachian Trail. If Sanford still harbors presidential aspirations in 2012, GOP primary voters just might tell him to take another hike.