What is the first rule if you find yourself in a hole?

       Stop digging.

       South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is in one, to be sure.     He's already a resident at the Divorce Suites Hotel, hoping to salvage his marriage after publicly (and shakily) admitting to an affair last week.

       He told the AP Tuesday about his liaisons with his Argentinian paramour, admitting to more encounters than previously reported while going into greater detail about how their relationship grew.     To some, it's great reading.     To me, it's a case of TMI and WRC: Too Much Information and Who Really Cares?

       The issue in the Sanford case isn't the affair--that's between he and the Mrs., and she's done a succinct job of making her feelings known by tossing him out.     There's talk of reconciliation, although I don't know how that process is served by the Governor telling all to the wire services.     

       What IS the people's business is how South Carolina's top executive treated his staff and constituents during his five-day trip to Argentina.      We all know about his proported hiking trip that turned out being a swan song with the other woman in Buenos Aires.   He was out of state.    He was out of touch.    He lied about where he was.      He wasn't doing his job.

       I've never been a Governor, nor will I be.     I understand the job description, though, and part of it requires your head to be into affairs of the state 24/7 and for your butt to be 100% accessible.       Sanford failed on both counts, and should do the right thing: step aside.     His credibility is bruised, his judgment questionable and his mental state delicate.     If nothing else, he should leave and tend to his emotionally battered family.     A political comeback could be considered after enough time passes--the way things get chewed up and spit out in today's news cycle, his plight will be forgotten before the leaves start changing.

      Mere allegations were enough to win Rod Blogojevich the hook in Illinois--impeached before he ever went on trial.      Here we have Mark Sanford confessing to all manner of things, yet he remains on the job.     

      How does that work?     And where do the rest of us get jobs like that?