- Then Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a fiscal conservative seen by many Republicans as an attractive standard-bearer for the next presidential campaign, went missing. Worse, he returned.
His confession on Wednesday that he had been in Argentina with a woman not his wife — and not hiking the Appalachian Trial as his staff had said Monday — was another jolt of bad news for a party that has struggled to get off the ropes all year.
That it was the second such confession in little more than a week from a potential Republican presidential contender — Mr. Ensign had been exploring a run in 2012 as well — left party leaders dazed. They spent Wednesday alternating between gallows humor and yet another round of conversations about what the party stands for and who will give it its best shot to retake the White House.
