After years of watching political wives stand by their man when their men had not only not stood by them but lay down with other women, Jenny Sanford was a breath of fresh air. After hearing about her husband’s dalliances with an Argentine mistress (and his adoration of her tan lines), Jenny tried to forgive her husband. “But 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,” she said in a statement. “I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago.” It’s a decision she’s stuck by. Now Jenny will be writing a memoir about her experience, to be published next May by Ballantine Books. Of the book, Jenny says, “I would like to show others how important it is to stand firm on one’s principles, stay true to oneself, and respond with grace and honesty to whatever hurdles may come.” The best part of this news? That Mark Sanford had a book in the works which his publisher nixed when the affair scandal broke. Oops. [Galleycat]

“I also feel sorry for the other woman. I am sure she is a fine person. It can’t be fun for her, though I do sometimes question her judgment. If she knew the newspaper had those E-mails back in December, why did she want him to come in June? But I can’t go there too much. All I can do is pray for her because she made some poor choices.”

— Jenny Sanford, in an interview for the ever-important September issue of Vogue, speaking of Maria Belén Chapur, the Argentine woman with whom her husband, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, was discovered earlier this year to be having an extramarital affair. [via WashingtonPost]

When is this Mark Sanford guy gonna get a clue? First the governor of South Carolina gets caught having an affair and now he’s opening up about how he’s had questionable encounters with several women while married. “There were a handful of instances wherein I crossed the lines I shouldn’t have crossed as a married man, but never crossed the ultimate line,” Sanford said in a press conference with the Associated Press. Um, what exactly does that mean? Email flirting? Semi-regular BJs? Why voluntarily spout this information to the media?! Your unlucky kids are going to have to read about what a pig you are.

Along with the rest of America, I’m rubbernecking at South Carolinian Gov. Mark Sanford’s affair with an Argentinian lass, Maria Belen Chapur (and I’m quietly cheering for Sanford’s wife, Jenny, for leaving him).

Cheating doesn’t speak well for a conservative Republican politician who preached “family values.” Sanford’s hypocrisy alone is gross.  But married politicians dropping their drawers for women who aren’t their wives isn’t as interesting to me as the fact that Gov. Sanford told everyone he would be hiking on the Appalachian Trail when he was actually south of the border with his mistress.

Sen. Mark Sanford, the Republican governor of South Carolina, admitted at a press conference this afternoon that he has been having an extramarital affair with a “dear, dear friend” in Argentina for the past year. Incidentally, he and his wife were on a trial separation.

Cuckolded wives and politicians go together like gravy and mashed potatoes. Maybe the wives aren’t surprised—Sanford’s wife apparently knew about his Argentinian affair for months—by the cheating the same way as the public is. But what gets me every time is when Silda Spitzer stands up next Eliot while he grovels for the public’s forgiveness, or Elizabeth Edwards invites Oprah into her home to talk about John’s affair, or Larry Craig’s wife, Suzanne, walks hand-in-hand to his press conference where he denies being gay. I just roll my eyes.