Luckiest Man On Earth

Mark Sanford made his big announcement about walking the Appalachian Trail with a woman not his wife, and the next day Michael Jackson died. He gave maybe the biggest no-no of an interview to the AP, where he called his mistress his "soul-mate," and within a couple days the Quitta from Wasilla stepped up to the mic. At this rate, Sanford will strangle a bear cub live on South Carolina television, and the next day Osama bin Laden and Britney Spears will announce a secret wedding in Vegas. The guy has timing.

But while it's slipped off the radar nationally, locally in South Carolina the story continues. FWIW, Sanford doesn't want to resign.

After spending the holiday weekend with his family in Florida, Mark Sanford is apparently intent on fighting off calls for his resignation and staying in office, according to one South Carolina Republican who spoke with the governor on Monday.

Richard Yow, a member of the South Carolina Republican Party executive committee from Chesterfield County, received a phone call from Sanford on Monday afternoon. Yow said he spoke to the embattled governor for ten minutes, during which Sanford asked Yow for his forgiveness.

Yow said he told Sanford he could forgive him, but he told the governor that he should resign for the sake of the state and his family. Sanford, he said, rejected the idea.

"He said resigning would be the easy way out," Yow told CNN.

There's a conference call for the South Carolina Republican Party to decide on a formal response to the Sanford troubles. That could range anywhere from a show of support to a formal call for resignation. It's really anyone's guess.