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More trouble: an adviser talks about the South Carolina governor’s lack of accountability
WORLD ^ | June 30, 2009 | Jamie Dean

Posted on 07/02/2009 4:45:19 AM PDT by rhema

An emotional Gov. Mark Sanford continued his confessions today, saying he had more encounters with a mistress from Argentina than he disclosed last week, including a trip to New York City earlier this year to end the relationship under the supervision of a “trusted spiritual adviser” who accompanied him.

Sanford has identified Warren “Cubby” Culbertson of Columbia, S.C., as one of his closest Christian advisers, but in an interview with me, Culbertson declined to comment when asked if he was the adviser who accompanied Sanford to New York. When the Associated Press asked Culbertson yesterday if he had met Sanford’s mistress, Maria Belen Chapur, Culbertson also declined to comment.

Culbertson did say he was unaware of the additional liaisons Sanford said he had with Chapur in New York City and the Hamptons in September and November of last year: “If that’s the case, I’m disappointed.”

In more revelations, Sanford also admitted that he had “crossed lines” physically with other women, but said he didn’t commit adultery until meeting Chapur.

During a press conference last week, Sanford confessed to adultery with the Argentine woman he says he’s known for eight years. The governor originally said the affair turned physical last June, and that he visited Chapur three times in Argentina. Tuesday he confessed to additional encounters with Chapur last year in New York, as well as physical encounters with other women before meeting Chapur that “didn’t cross the sex line,” he said.

Sanford’s pattern of giving into temptation underscores something Culbertson said he told Sanford for years: “You need accountability.” Last week, the governor said during his time in Congress he leaned on members of C Street, a Christian accountability group in Washington, D.C., and that he turned to some of those members for help after his wife discovered his affair in February.

But Culbertson—a longtime Sanford friend who owns a court-reporting business in Columbia and is well-respected in the city’s Christian community—said once Sanford moved to Columbia as governor, accountability broke down. “He’s had very little,” said Culbertson, who has counseled the Sanfords as a couple since the governor’s wife, Jenny, discovered his affair in February and did lead a five-week Bible study with the Sanfords and four other Christian couples in the governor's mansion earlier this year.

It’s not that accountability wasn’t offered: Culbertson said at least six high-profile Christian politicians and businessmen met with Sanford at the beginning of his first term in 2002 to press Sanford to meet regularly with other Christian men. (By then, Sanford had met Chapur.) Culbertson offered to meet regularly with the governor: “Mark agreed intellectually, but it never happened.”

Culbertson said he approached Sanford with the offer several more times over the last couple of years, but Sanford shrugged him off. He said Sanford recently told him, “I’d give anything if I would have done what I said I was going to do.”

It’s hard to know whether such meetings would have stopped Sanford from having an affair. Earlier Tuesday, Sanford still talked wistfully about his sinful relationship with Chapur, even as his wife and four sons retreated out of state. “This was a whole lot more than an affair, this was a love story,” said Sanford. “A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: gopimplosion; sanford

1 posted on 07/02/2009 4:45:19 AM PDT by rhema
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To: rhema

How he got there I don’t know, but this man is a walking nervous breakdown and needs medical treatment.


2 posted on 07/02/2009 4:49:50 AM PDT by Carley (OBAMA IS A MALEVOLENT FORCE IN THE WORLD)
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To: rhema

It’s not like he’s the President of the US chasing 21-year-old interns.

It’s just sex. /sarcasm


3 posted on 07/02/2009 4:53:12 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Carley
I agree. Sanford broke down in “heaving sobs” as he told the AP reporter about having found his “soul mate”. The guy should be institutionalized.
4 posted on 07/02/2009 4:55:04 AM PDT by utahagen
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To: rhema
LOL I defended this man in the beginning but it seems the more he opens his mouth, the more he puts another nail in his coffin.

5 posted on 07/02/2009 4:57:46 AM PDT by SouthDixie (We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly.)
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To: SouthDixie

Same here. Unfortunately I think that after he’s gone there’s going to be a free for all to get those stimulus bucks he prevented.


6 posted on 07/02/2009 5:04:56 AM PDT by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: Carley
How he got there I don’t know, but this man is a walking nervous breakdown and needs medical treatment.

I agree that Sanford has serious troubles...either his wife has turned him away for some reason or he has an inner desire to cheat......perhaps a combo.

Either way, he does need help.

7 posted on 07/02/2009 5:06:45 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (Too many conservatives urge retreat when the war of politics doesn't go their way.)
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To: rhema

Sanford should resign in disgrace.

For his DERELICTION OF DUTY.

His marital/personal issues notwithstanding - any executive who disappears for days on end without valid reason needs to disappear from political life.


8 posted on 07/02/2009 5:08:08 AM PDT by MortMan (Power without responsibility-the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages. - Rudyard Kipling)
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To: MortMan

Seriously, I wish more politicians would disappear for days, weeks, or even months. I am praying for the one day that I turn on my TV and the Messiah is not on it.


9 posted on 07/02/2009 5:13:13 AM PDT by MeSpikeLibs (Global Warming = Global BS)
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To: rhema
He has to make up his mind what he wants. Does he want this latin woman or does he just want to cry and seek sympathy. It's crunch time Governor. Crap or get off the pot.
10 posted on 07/02/2009 5:13:27 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: rhema

“There were a handful of instances wherein I crossed the lines that I shouldn’t have crossed as a married man, but never crossed the ultimate line”

Is this another BJ Clinton line?


11 posted on 07/02/2009 5:19:58 AM PDT by maggief
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To: rhema

Bill Clinton, BILL CLINTON, BILL CLINTON, bill clinton. Any way you say it, it comes out SHITE.


12 posted on 07/02/2009 5:24:10 AM PDT by Waco (Libs exhale too much)
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To: maggief

I don’t know, but it goes great with his new campaign slogan:

“I’d give anything if I would have done what I said I was going to do.”


13 posted on 07/02/2009 5:28:33 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Carley

Yep, Mark is going to hit bottom real hard. As soon as his hottie flips him off, he will think his life is over.


14 posted on 07/02/2009 5:28:34 AM PDT by devane617 (Republicans first strategy should be taking over the MSM. Without it we are doomed.)
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To: All

Sanford’s mental state questioned:

“As the saga of Sanford and his Argentine lover continues, the public, the governor’s political rivals and some allies are speculating about the governor’s mental stability and whether he’s able to lead the state.”
http://www.thestate.com/sanford/story/849427.html


15 posted on 07/02/2009 5:35:02 AM PDT by Andy'smom
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To: maggief

LOL. I wondered about that statement, as well. Probably didn’t go that far.

I’m curious why his advisers/staff are allowing him to keep talking to the press about this liason. Unbelievable. It’s as if he’s trying to fail as governor.


16 posted on 07/02/2009 6:35:46 AM PDT by Girlene
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To: Carley

SOMEBODY, close to this man personally, take the mics away from him, convince him to resign immediately, and get the man some lithium!!


17 posted on 07/02/2009 7:25:46 AM PDT by gidget7 (Duncan Hunter-Valley Forge Republican!)
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To: MortMan

DERELICTION OF DUTY

Agreed. Or at the very least, strong evidence for impeachment. Get this guy the heck out of here.


18 posted on 07/02/2009 7:54:28 AM PDT by b359 (The goat is old and gnarly....)
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To: All
... The pain... The humanity!...

What an idiot... :)

19 posted on 07/02/2009 9:29:12 AM PDT by ElPatriota (The SILENCE of the Catholic Church on the war on family-values is *** DEAFENING ***)
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To: Venturer
does he just want to cry and seek sympathy

The fact that he feels compelled to unburden himself repeatedly in interviews, making more and more damaging confessions to the public, is really weird.

20 posted on 07/02/2009 10:25:33 AM PDT by BusterBear
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