Last night the leaders of South Carolina's Republican Party met behind closed doors as they tried to decide to do with this scoundrel Mark Sanford, the man who made "hiking the Appalachian Trail" a popular euphemism for "having an affair in Argentina and then talking about it, nonstop."

Assume the position, Governor…

After nearly four hours of discussion Monday evening, leaders of the South Carolina Republican Party voted to censure Gov. Mark Sanford, reprimanding him for secretly leaving the state to visit his lover in Argentina.

While the vote reveals how the state’s GOP leadership feels about the scandal, it has no practical effect on whether the governor remains in office.

But surely Sanford knows his effectiveness as a leader will be compromised by all this media scrutiny, not to mention the costly investigations that have only just begun. Surely he won't keep dragging his state and his family through this mess…

[South Carolina GOP committee member Richard] 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.

Poor Mark Sanford.

All these trials and tribulations, and he doesn't even have a higher calling.