He lied to his family. He lied to his staff. He lied to his constituents. He manipulated government officials and abused taxpayer funds.

He took a defiant stand against being “railroaded.” But he’s the one responsible for building the tracks to disaster himself.

Half of his state wants him out of office.

But Marshall C. Sanford still won’t go. So now, the intransigent liar and cheater will have to be pushed. Both Democrat and Republican state lawmakers are preparing for impeachment this weekend.

Good.

Ralph Hallow at the Washington Times reports:

South Carolina Republican lawmakers are laying plans for a special session legislative session on whether to impeach and remove embattled Gov. Mark Sanford by the end of the year, several senior state lawmakers have told The Washington Times.

Republican lawmakers in the state House will use a regularly scheduled annual retreat in Myrtle Beach this weekend to discuss the governor’s fate and the details on whether to call a special impeachment session of the legislature before its scheduled reconvening in January, Rep. Gary Simrill, a Republican, told The Times on Thursday.

Two bills of impeachment already are being prepared – one by a Republican lawmaker and the other by a Democrat, Mr. Simrill said.

Mr. Simrill, who said he has voted about 80 percent of the time with the Republican governor, met privately with Mr. Sanford on Tuesday and urged him to resign but to no avail.

Expect more teary press conferences filled with Scripture quotes.

I hereby declare Mark Sanford a double Cone of Shame Award winner:

My opinion of Mark Sanford is well-known. So is my repeated call for him to go away and quick.

It’s taken too long, but South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer has finally asked the lying liar to step down — and state House Republicans are meeting this weekend to discuss impeachment:

Lt. Gov. [Andre Bauer] announced today he is asking Gov. Mark Sanford to resign, saying “serious misconduct” by Sanford as well as “continuing distractions” are making it impossible for the state to move forward.

Bauer promised he would forgo his own plans to run for governor if Sanford resigns in the next month or the Legislature impeaches him by then.

He would not detail what he considers “serious misconduct,” the wording used in the state’s constitution for impeachment, but said it is clear that Sanford is absorbed in his defense and that makes “it virtually impossible for our state to solve the serious problems we are facing without a change of leadership.”

Sanford has been under political attack and media scrutiny ever since he returned from a secret, five-day trip to Argentina and announced June 24 that he had engaged in a year-long extramarital affair with an Argentine woman.

His wife and four sons have since moved out of the Governor’s Mansion and First Lady Jenny Sanford told Vogue magazine in a story published last week that she believes her husband has been “obsessed” with the other woman and has been going through a midlife crisis.

Some of Sanford’s staff watched the Statehouse news conference but returned to their offices immediately afterward without any response.

Bauer’s call, which he repeated in a letter to Sanford, came three days before House Republicans plan to discuss impeachment at a caucus retreat in Myrtle Beach.

With apologies to Dr. Seuss: Marshall C. Sanford, will you PLEASE GO NOW!

You can go by bus. You can go by jet. I don’t care how, just get, get, get.

The inaugural award winners:

Barbara Boxer, for last week’s naked display of liberal condescension, vapidity, and tone-deafness in her “I’ve got a black person’s report right here!” rejoinder to National Black Chamber of Commerce head Harry Alford’s testimony against cap and trade.

Here’s your Cone of Shame, ma’am:

And gotta fit one on Chris Dodd, for lobbyist-bashing hypocrisy in Washington second only to Team Obama’s.

Wear it proudly, corruptocrat:

And on the other side of the aisle, one for lovesick S.C. GOP Gov. Mark Sanford — still in office penning apologies claiming God on his side, quoting scripture, and promising to be more “humble” and “contrite” while spending less time “fighting the tide.” Which appears to mean giving in to the state Legislature more often to save his political hide.

He needs a muzzle and a box of Kleenex with his Cone of Shame:

Your nominees?

The Palmetto Scoop reports tonight that the South Carolina GOP voted to censure lying, lovesick Gov. Mark Sanford: “In the end, 22 voted to censure Sanford, 10 thought he should resign, and nine supported no action against the governor.”

As you all know, I’m in the PLEASE GO NOW camp.

Full story here.

Text of the resolution:

Whereas, the South Carolina Republican Party adopts this Resolution of Censure as a unified expression of the Party’s opinion in the recent matter relating to Governor Marshall Clement Sanford, Jr.; and

Therefore, be it resolved, that the South Carolina Republican Party does, with great regret, censure Governor Mark Sanford for his recent conduct.

More from local S.C. tv station WSOC:

Fellow Republicans Censured Governor Mark Sanford Monday night for his secret trip to Argentina last month to see his mistress.

The held a long conference call Monday night.

22 members of the executive committee voted on a formal reprimand of Sanford. Another 10 voted to ask him to resign, while nine voted to support the governor.

In a statement, Sanford says he appreciates the party’s position and will continue to work to earn back its trust.

The GOP’s lovesick puppy tells another lie, breaks another promise.

Via AP, Mark Sanford’s vow-breaking is a bad habit:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has backed out of a promise to release personal financial records proving he did not use state money for trips to see his mistress.

…Sanford agreed this week to provide the AP with proof of his payment for trips to New York and Argentina to see her.

His staff first said the records might be made available Tuesday, and then the governor’s spokesman said Wednesday Sanford would not release them.

Like I said this morning: Lying Sanford’s days are numbered. Hurry up.

Someone needs to stage an intervention, stat.

***

Guess what? Sanford had a book deal in the works before Maria-gate hit. Maybe he’s hanging on for more material.

I said what I had to say yesterday (“Dear Mark Sanford: Buy a one-way ticket to Argentina already and be gone.”)

The writing’s on the wall. What’s it going to take? Is he going to wait until one of the other women he “crossed the line with” comes forward to provide all the explicit details? How long long will he keep torturing his wife and kids?

Via The State:

Six of 27 members of the conservative Senate Republican Caucus Tuesday night issued a letter calling on Gov. Mark Sanford to resign.

Two additional senators considered among Sanford’s staunchest allies, also said they want him to resign though they did not sign the letter. Two other senior senators who spoke to the State said Tuesday’s revelations moved them closer to asking Sanford to step down.

The letter was crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, and was circulated among Senate Republicans on Tuesday.
SC Governor

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford ponders a question as he admits during an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that there were more encounters with his Argentine mistress than he previously has disclosed.

Martin’s reaction came after Sanford told The Associated Press he had more romantic meetings with his Argentinian lover, Maria Belen Chapur, than he previously admitted, including two trysts in New York.

Sanford told the news agency he also had “crossed the line” with other women.

Attorney General Henry McMaster, who is mulling a run for governor, called on SLED to investigate the governor’s travel after the new confessions.

I am getting almost as sick and tired of the never-ending Sanford circus as I am of the never-ending Jacko circus.

The mistress says she’s “hurt.”

The adulterous governor can’t stop yammering about God and the Bible.

And now there’s more sex, lies, and tears:

In a lengthy, emotional interview with The Associated Press, the governor described seven meetings with the woman, including their first in 2001. Sanford says there have been five over a 12-month period, including two multi-night stays with her in New York.

It was the first disclosure of any get-togethers with her in the United States and contradicted a public confession last week during which he admitted to a total of four encounters in the past year.

I found this passage in Cheaty McCheater’s latest online apology most stomach-turning:

So in the aftermath of this failure I want to not only apologize, but to commit to growing personally and spiritually. Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign – as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword. A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise – that for God to really work in my life I shouldn’t be getting off so lightly. While it would be personally easier to exit stage left, their point has been that my larger sin was the sin of pride. They contended that in many instances I may well have held the right position on limited government, spending or taxes – but that if my spirit wasn’t right in the presentation of those ideas to people in the General Assembly, or elsewhere, I could elicit the response that I had at many times indeed gotten from other state leaders.

Their belief was that if I walked in with a real spirit of humility then this last legislative term could well be our most productive one – and that outside this term, I would ultimately be a better person and of more service in whatever doors God opened next in life if I stuck around to learn lessons rather than running and hiding down at the farm.

They have also made the point that a good part of life is about scripts – that the idea of redemption isn’t something that Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake should just read about, it’s something they should see. Accordingly, they suggested that there was a very different life script that would be lived and learned by our boys, and thousands like them, if this story simply ended with scandal and then the end of office – versus a fall from grace and then renewal and rebuilding and growth in its aftermath.

He claims the best thing he can do for his boys is spend more time away from them trying to salvage his political career.

He wasn’t thinking of his boys’ best interests on Father’s Day weekend or over the past eight years. And he isn’t thinking of their best interests now.

So, go buy a one-way ticket to Argentina already, Gov. Sanford, and spare us all the continued spectacle and ready-for-prime-time agony.

***

What’s next: Mark Sanford bawling on Dr. Phil? Touring his NYC love nests w/Tyra Banks? Self-flagellating on The View?

Enough already.

***

Allahpundit: “His aides seriously need to start steering this guy away from microphones before he ends up telling us which positions he and Maria tried.”

Ew. Just ew. Elliot Spitzer gets all high and mighty over the Sanford scandal. He’s never learned to get off his high horse. Via the NYPost:

There’s a huge difference between what South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford did, and what ex-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer did. “I didn’t fall in love with any of them,” Spitzer was overheard telling LMDC executive director Avi Schick the other day at Solo in the Sony Building on Madison, where they had the $24 prix-fixe lunch.

Right. He didn’t waste time with gooey love notes. He just handed his prostitutes cold hard cash and willfully broke the law.

Mrs. Spitzer was unavailable for comment.

***

Speaking of Ew: A John Edwards sex tape?

Godspeed, Mrs. Sanford. Via McClatchy:

I would like to start by saying I love my husband and I believe I have put forth every effort possible to be the best wife I can be during our almost twenty years of marriage. As well, for the last fifteen years my husband has been fully engaged in public service to the citizens and taxpayers of this state and I have faithfully supported him in those efforts to the best of my ability. I have been and remain proud of his accomplishments and his service to this state.

I personally believe that the greatest legacy I will leave behind in this world is not the job I held on Wall Street, or the campaigns I managed for Mark, or the work I have done as First Lady or even the philanthropic activities in which I have been routinely engaged. Instead, the greatest legacy I will leave in this world is the character of the children I, or we, leave behind. It is for that reason that I deeply regret the recent actions of my husband Mark, and their potential damage to our children.

I believe wholeheartedly in the sanctity, dignity and importance of the institution of marriage. I believe that has been consistently reflected in my actions. When I found out about my husband’s infidelity I worked immediately to first seek reconciliation through forgiveness, and then to work diligently to repair our marriage. We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of right and wrong. I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago.

While she was raising his sons, he was penning crap like this to his mistress:

From Gov. Sanford,
Date: Thursday, July 10, 2008, 12:24 a.m.

“One, tomorrow leave at 5 a.m. for New York and meetings. Will think about you on its streets and wish I was going to be there later in the month when you are there. Tomorrow night back to Philadelphia for the start of the National Governor’s Conference through the weekend. Back to Columbia for Tuesday and then on Wednesday, as I think I had told you, taking the family to China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Thailand and then back through Hong Kong on world wind tour. Few days home then to Bahamas for 5 days on a friend’s boat for the last break of the summer. The following weekend have been asked to spend it out in Aspen, Colorado with McCain – which has kicked up the whole VP talk all over again in the press back home …

Two, mutual feelings …. You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light – but hey, that would be going into sexual details …

***

As if we didn’t have enough of low-life political clown shows today, John Kerry uses Sanford-gate to deride Sarah Palin:

Ugh.