Mark Sanford is even more awkward than we thought

(Image credit: Pool/Getty Images)

published 16 July 2015

It probably comes as no surprise that things were a little weird around the offices of former Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) in 2009, after he returned from going AWOL for six days and admitted to having an extramarital affair with his mistress in Argentina.

Luckily for the rest of us, Barton Swaim worked in Sanford's offices as a speechwriter during the scandal, and he's just published The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics, which unloads all the gloriously hysterical details about the former governor and the strange aftermath of his fall. Some of the best anecdotes, like the one below, come when Sanford tries to apologize:

"Aahh." That was [Gov. Sanford's] preface to saying anything significant. "Aahh. But that's why I called you in here. I just wanted to say the obvious, which is the obvious."Paul gave me a look of incomprehension."I mean, the obvious — which is that I caused the storm we're now in. And that's made everything a little more difficult for everybody in here, and for that I want to say the obvious, which is that I apologize. But you know" — he rose up in his seat to an upright posture — "you know, I was telling one of the boys" — the governor had four sons — "this morning. We were up early and I was saying, 'Look, the sun came up today.' It's a beautiful thing to see. And it’s a beautiful thing regardless of the storms of life. Of which this is one."People shifted in their seats and glanced at each other questioningly."As it happens," the governor went on, "and before this storm started, I'd been reading Viktor Frankl's book about being in a concentration camp. And it's just incredible to me how you can find beauty, you can find reasons to keep going, in the most appalling circumstances. And I just wanted to say to everybody, keep your head up. Keep pushing forward. And let's not be in the dumps here. The sun came up today. Aahh. We’re not in a concentration camp. So let's not stay in the dumps. We can't make much progress on the important things if we’re in the dumps. So if you're in the dumps, get out. I mean, of the dumps. Get out of the dumps."Nobody spoke. [Politico]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.