Q: Did you break off the relationship? Sanford: Obviously not.

[Stephanie]

It's a little premature to be talking about staying on as Governor if he hasn't decided yet to end the affair, don't you think? This guy is a first class narcissist.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/24/AR2009062402099.html

QUESTION: Did you break off the relationship?

SANFORD: Obviously not.

What's that?

QUESTION: Were you alone?

SANFORD: Obviously not.

QUESTION: Did you break off the relationship?

SANFORD: The -- no, it was interesting in how this thing has gone down, John. I think (inaudible) way more detail than you'll ever want.

I met this person a little over eight years ago. Again, very innocently. And struck up a conversation, and I want to go back to the bubble of politics. This is not justifying, because again what I did was wrong, period, end of story.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

(CROSSTALK)

SANFORD: OK, wait -- wait -- wait -- wait. No, I didn't. It was my own ticket.

(CROSSTALK)

Wait -- wait -- guys -- one question at a time. Is that fair enough?

The -- and -- and there's a certain irony to this. This person at the time was separated, and we ended up in this incredibly serious conversation about why she ought to get back with her husband for the sake of her two boys; that not only was it part of God's law, but ultimately those two boys would be better off for it.

And we had this incredibly earnest conversation and at the end of it, I said, "Could I get your e-mail?" We swapped e-mails, whatever. And it began just on a very casual basis -- "Hey, I've got this issue that's come up with my life," or vice versa, "What do you think?" Because when you live in the zone of politics, you can't ever let your guard down. You can't ever say, "what do you think" or "what do you think," because it could be a front page story or this story or that story.

And so there was this zone of protectiveness, and she -- she lives thousands of miles away and I was up here and you could throw an idea out or vice versa. And we developed a remarkable friendship over those eight years. And then, as I said, about a year ago, it sparked into something more than that.

I have seen her three times since then, during that whole sparking thing. And it was discovered...

QUESTION: (inaudible)

SANFORD: ... let me finish -- five months ago. And at that point, we went into serious overdrive in trying to say "where do you go from here," and that's where the Cubby Culbertsons and the others of the world began to help with, you know, how do you get all this right? How do you -- again -- be honest?

SANFORD: And so, it had been back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. And the one thing that you really find is that you absolutely want resolution.

And so, oddly enough, I spent the last five days, and I was crying in Argentina so I could repeat it when I came back here, in saying, you know, while, indeed, from a heart level, there was something real. It was a place based on the fiduciary relationship I had to the people of South Carolina, based on my boys, based on my wife, based on where I was in life, based on where she was in life, and places I couldn't go and she couldn't go.

And that is a, I suspect, a continual process, all through life, of getting one's heart right in life.

And so, I would never stand before you as one who just says, "Yo, I'm completely right with regard to my heard on all things." But what I would say is I'm committed to trying to get my heart right, because the one thing that Cubby and all the others have told me, is that the odyssey that we're all on in life is with regard to heart. Not what I want or what you want, but, in other words, indeed, this larger notion of truly trying to put other people first.

And I suspect, if I'd really put this other person first, I wouldn't have jeopardized her life, as I have. I certainly wouldn't have done it to my wife. I wouldn't have done it to my boys. I wouldn't have done it to the Tom Davis' of the world. This was selfishness on my part. And for that, I'm most apologetic.

[niyad]

1. what an incredible load of codswallop. has anyone else noticed how far down on his list

of priorities his wife seems to come? yesterday at the presser, it was "I hurt her, I hurt my friends, I hurt my wife"

if jenny takes him back, I hope she is smart enough to demand a sizable payment

[dgibby]

2. I hope she demands a pound of flesh,

and I know just where it would come from, too.

[JerseygirlCT]

3. I doubt you'd get a pound. nt

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Sounds to me like he is still in love with the Argentinian woman

and not his wife.

[Stephanie]

5. He makes it clear that it's not over.

Seems that part of the story has been glossed over.