Is sanford's disappearance a GOP problem? (hee hee)

[Philosoraptor]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/24/politics/main5109231.shtml?tag=stack

(AP) South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's mysterious disappearance from his state, topped with misinformation from his staff about where he had gone and what he'd been doing, is the latest sign that Republican governors; once thought to be President Obama's most credible adversaries; haven't quite lived up to their billing. (Read the latest news about Sanford here)

From Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's cringe-inducing nationally televised response to Obama's first budget address, to Texas Gov. Rick Perry's suggestion that his state might secede, GOP governors; including those said to be eyeing a potential 2012 presidential bid; haven't exactly looked like the political grown-ups many party strategists had promised.

And none has had a rockier go of it than the party's best-known governor, Alaska's Sarah Palin. The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee has been dogged by ethics complaints and has engaged in public feuds with David Letterman and with Levi Johnston - the former fiancé of Palin's teenage daughter, Bristol, and the father of Bristol's infant son.

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But the latest high-profile fiasco involves Sanford, whose outspoken effort to refuse part of the federal stimulus money due to his state has made him a darling of conservatives and fueled talk that he harbors presidential aspirations.