South Carolina's Adulterous Sanctity Of Marriage Advocate To Stay In Office

South Carolina Gov. Mark "Appalachian Trail" Sanford will be allowed to complete his term, despite the scandal surrounding his week-long disappearance to visit his Argentine mistress.

South Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday quashed a move to oust Gov. Mark Sanford over his summertime tryst and his use of state aircraft, saying his embarrassing conduct was not serious enough to merit impeachment. Lawmakers were still considering whether to recommend an official reprimand. Six of the seven panel members said they believed the events surrounding Sanford's extramarital affair involving an Argentine woman did not rise to a high enough level to warrant his removal from office prior to the end of his second and final term in January 2011. "We can't impeach for hypocrisy. We can't impeach for arrogance. We can't impeach an officeholder for his lack of leadership skills," said Rep. James Harrison, the Columbia Republican who headed the panel.

Before cheating on and publicly humiliating his wife, the born-again Sanford also had no qualms in enthusiastically supporting his state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Sanctity. Of. Marriage.