Mark Sanford's Mea Culpa
It's pretty rare for politicians to abandon their regimented schedules, so when aides to South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford accounted for their boss's weeklong disappearance by claiming he had taken a few days to recharge by hiking the Appalachian Trail, it was pretty clear something was amiss. His wife Jenny spurred further speculation by admitting she didn't know her husband's whereabouts. When Sanford finally turned up, he bewildered a rapt crowd with a rambling speech in which he referenced his opposition to President Obama's stimulus package, explained his struggle to abide by the Bible's strictures and apologized to everyone but his mailman for an as-yet-unexplained transgression. Eventually, after several tearful, baffling asides, Sanford cut to the chase and copped to traveling to Argentina for a tryst with paramour María Belén Chapur. Sanford remains in office, but not in his wife's good graces; she packed up the couple's four children and moved out of the governor's mansion.