WTF Sanford

One wonders what shoe is going to drop -- if Gov. Mark Sanford's wife had no idea where he was on Father's Day and his staff is claiming he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, was he hiking...in the raw?:

We’re not suggesting that the formerly missing Governor of South Carolina specifically ditched his family and security detail to go hiking on Naked Hiking Day. It’s just that one of the days he hit the trail also happened to be the aforementioned holiday...

...Then it took a Farrelly brothers screenplay type of twist. Sanford had not disappeared. According to his spokesman, he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Coincidentally, on Naked Hiking Day.

It’s a big tradition. Many hikers celebrate the summer solstice by hiking au naturel. It just so happened the solstice occurred on Fathers Day — one of the days Sanford was hiking.

If he was hiking. Or is there something else at play? A reported sighting gives the lie to the "official" story:

Local news channel WYFF4 reports:

On Tuesday, sources told News 4's Nigel Robertson that a state vehicle is missing and was tracked down, not to the Appalachian Trail, but to the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta.

Sources told Robertson that a federal agent spotted Sanford in the airport boarding a plane. Robertson was told that the governor was not accompanied by security detail.

...

News 4 called the governor's office, and was told again by staffers that they stand by their original statement that the governor is hiking the Appalachian Trail. They did not want to comment on this story.

It had previously been reported that the governor's cell phone had been tracked to the Atlanta area.

Sanford's staff put out the word late last night that he's hiking the Appalachian. Of course, it would be possible for Sanford to have driven from Columbia to Atlanta, boarded a flight to somewhere else on the trail, got off the plane, and embarked on his hike. But it doesn't seem like the most logical way to do it.

So is/was Sanford hiking? Writing? Exorcising? Tripping 'shrooms? Freaking out?

Or is it possible that there's some tie, even by inspiration, with the recently revealed Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) scandal?:

It's almost a given that a guy who wastes time on the Senate floor blustering about the sanctity of marriage would have an affair with a married woman. So when news broke earlier this week that Sen. John Ensign would be coming clean about his infidelity, we weren't all that surprised.

We did figure he'd step down though, if only because he loves the word "resign." He called on Sen. Larry Craig to resign after his wide-stance problem was revealed. He also called on Bill Clinton to resign when the president's cigar issue became known. Ensign even said that if he was in the same -- ahem -- "position" as Craig, that he would resign. Ensign has also said that he thinks that "we need people who are in office who will hold themselves to a little higher standard."

Well, apparently he wasn't talking about his own higher standards. Ensign merely gave up his leadership position in the Senate, which makes some sense. After all, how can you have seniority when you're such a big baby? Anyway, it would be kind of bizarre if Ensign got all upset and called on himself to resign.

Ensign is also a member of the Christian group the Promise Keepers, begging the question of what promises he's kept.

Another Republican so-called Presidential contender down the tubes. So who knows what's up with Sanford -- and if his wife is out of the loop, what reasons spring to mind?

Maybe John Ensign can join Mark Stanford on that Appalachian Trail.

Outfitted the way God created them.