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Jenny Sanford's memoir hit bookstores Friday.

(CNN) – When South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford returned to the United States last June from Buenos Aires, where he had been having one last secret tryst with his Argentine mistress, he hopped in a vehicle driven by a former aide who had sped through the night to meet him at the Atlanta airport.

Sanford was on his way back to Columbia, to appear before a phalanx of reporters and television cameras to explain to South Carolina and the nation why he had mysteriously disappeared from the state a week earlier.

But first, he had to call and check in with his trusted political adviser - who also happened to be the wife he had betrayed.

"Do you know what kind of storm you are returning to?" an incredulous Jenny Sanford said she asked her husband. "And where do we stand?"

Her husband told her the "good news": the affair, which Jenny Sanford had discovered the previous January, was finally over after a year. "I told you, it's all behind us," he explained. "Everything's good."

"Good?" Sanford writes in her new memoir, "Staying True," which landed in bookstores Friday. "What part of this did he think was good?"

Mark Sanford's office had no comment on the book.

Chris Allen, the aide who sat alone in the car with Sanford as he spoke to his furious wife on the phone, told CNN in an e-mail Friday that the long drive to Columbia was "awkward, emotional, almost fictitious, and at this point a blur."

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Mark Sanford visited Washington on Thursday.

Washington (CNN) – On the morning after delivering his final "State of the State" address in Columbia, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford strolled through the Capitol rotunda Thursday afternoon along with South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis.

Asked why he was in Washington, Sanford, a former House Member, walked toward the House floor as the chamber was about to vote and told CNN: "I was going to catch up with some friends on the House floor."

Sanford said he has not yet met Massachusetts Sen-elect Scott Brown.

Another Republican governor, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was also visiting House lawmakers today. He is slated to meet with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the entire House delegation from his state.

South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford's memoir will now hit stores February 5 instead of the original April release date.

(CNN) – South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford's memoir, "Staying True," has been fast-tracked and will now hit bookstores on February 5 instead of the original April release date.

Sanford's publisher, Ballantine Books, announced the new date on Tuesday.

Sanford landed the book deal in September, just a few months after her husband, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, admitted to an affair with an Argentine woman. In December, Sanford released a statement saying she is filing for divorce "after many unsuccessful efforts at reconciliation."

According to a synopsis of the book on the publisher's Web site, her memoir "reveals the private ordeal behind her very public betrayal - and offers inspiration for anyone struggling to keep faith during life's most trying times."

"She chose to let Mark Sanford deal with the embarrassment and political fallout from his own actions while focusing her own efforts privately on raising their children to be men of character, even in the face of the lies their father has told," the synopsis reads.

South Carolina panel votes against impeaching Sanford.

(CNN) - South Carolina lawmakers voted down a resolution Wednesday to impeach Mark Sanford, voting instead to formally rebuke the embattled governor for taking a secret trip to Argentina to see his mistress, and for the misuse of state airplanes.

The House Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a resolution to rebuke Sanford, saying the governor actions brought "ridicule, disgrace and shame" to South Carolina.

The panel agreed with a move last week by a special House subcommittee that called Sanford's behavior "reprehensible," "arrogant" and "indefensible" - but concluded that the Republican governor's actions did not rise to the constitutional level of impeachment.

The rebuke passed Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee moves to the full House and Senate, where no action is expected until next year.

"I'd like to thank the Committee for its work and deliberative approach today and throughout the process," Sanford said in a statement following the vote," adding he obviously agrees "with the Committee's reasonable decision to reject impeachment."

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(CNN) – Jenny Sanford, the wife of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, said Friday she is filing for divorce.

She said in a statement that "the dissolution of any marriage is a sad and painful process."

"This came after many unsuccessful efforts at reconciliation, yet I am still dedicated to keeping the process that lies ahead peaceful for our family," the statement said.

The Sanfords have lived apart since June, when the governor admitted to an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman.

The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the divorce filing.

(Updated with additional information and Gov. Sanford's reaction after the jump)

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Mark and Jenny Sanford have been living apart since he revealed an affair last summer.

(CNN) – Will South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford be watching Wednesday night when his wife Jenny sits down with Barbara Walters in her first television interview since her husband admitted to an extramarital affair in June?

The governor isn't saying.

Speaking to reporters in Charleston shortly after a House panel rejected an impeachment measure against him, the Republican was asked his thoughts on Jenny's TV appearance. He chose his words carefully.

"She has been real grace under fire," he said of his wife. "And I think she has made a lot people in this state and this country quite proud."

Pressed on whether he plans to watch, Sanford grinned.

"You will never know," he answered.

Mark Sanford and his legal team won a big victory on Wednesday.

(CNN) – A South Carolina House panel voted down a resolution Wednesday to impeach Gov. Mark Sanford, but the embattled Republican faces one more procedural hurdle before his survival in office is guaranteed.

In their final meeting to consider the impeachment resolution, members of the special House subcommittee called Sanford's behavior "reprehensible," "arrogant" and "indefensible" - but six of the seven lawmakers on the panel concluded that the Republican's behavior does not rise to the constitutional level of impeachment.

Sanford has been under scrutiny since June, when he left the country for five days to visit his Argentine mistress without informing his staff or the Lieutenant Governor of his whereabouts.

Under House rules, the measure will also be considered by the full Judiciary Committee, but it's unlikely the committee would come to a different conclusion than the subcommittee.

Lawmakers will still considering a bill to censure Sanford.

Sanford's legal team scored a victory on Thursday.

(CNN) – A special House panel considering an impeachment measure against South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford decided Thursday that their review will not include most of the state ethics charges filed against the governor last month.

South Carolina state lawmakers voted to throw out 28 of the 37 civil charges filed by the state Ethics Commission, most of which involved Sanford's purchase of business class tickets with taxpayer money and his use of campaign funds.

State House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison, who is overseeing the special impeachment panel, said the ethics charges do not rise "to the level of serious misconduct or a serious offense" that would merit removing Sanford from office.

Harrison's subcommittee is still evaluating Sanford's use of state-owned aircraft along with the original impeachment resolution, which focuses on whether Sanford broke the law by secretly leaving the state in June to visit his mistress.

One of Sanford's attorneys, Ross Garber, applauded the decision.
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Mark Sanford, a Republican, has refused to resign in the face of criticism from his own party.

(CNN) – A panel of South Carolina lawmakers who gathered Tuesday to formally consider impeaching Gov. Mark Sanford voted to broaden the scope of their inquiry to include 37 new ethics charges against the Republican.

Those civil charges were revealed Monday by the South Carolina Ethics Commission, which had conducted a three-month investigation into Sanford's use of state finances. The governor and his legal team now face a hearing before the Ethics Commission to determine if Sanford broke any state laws by charging the state for first- and business-class flights, using state-owned aircraft for political travel and tapping into campaign funds for personal use.

The lawmakers, members of a special subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee that met for the first time Tuesday, decided to include the ethics charges in their review and scheduled four more meetings of the subcommittee for December.

The group will review the Ethics Commission report over Thanksgiving and decide if the charges should be included in the impeachment resolution, which accuses Sanford of "serious misconduct" for leaving the state in June to visit his Argentine mistress without leaving in place a chain of command.

The seven lawmakers - four Republicans and three Democrats - listened to sworn affadavits from key players in the scandal and entered into the record news reports from June highlighting Sanford's absence from the state.

Rep. Greg Delleney, one of the Republicans who drafted the impeachment measure, appeared to warn Sanford against fighting an impeachment effort, should the subcommittee decide to move forward.

"Impeachment is a political process, it's not a legal process," Delleney said at the meeting, which was attended by Sanford's attorneys. "There is no appeal from an impeachment process. Impeachment is final. Impeachment is solely the constitutional power, duty and responsibility of the South Carolina House of Representatives."

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Sanford is also facing a possible impeachment effort.

(CNN) – The South Carolina Ethics Commission has charged Gov. Mark Sanford with 37 counts of violating state ethics laws, according to a complaint released by the commission on Monday.

The complaint follows a three-month investigation into Sanford's use of taxpayer money.

Sanford is accused of using tax money to purchase business-class airfare on domestic and international flights, flying on a state-owned aircraft to political gatherings or events "which involved no official business," and spending campaign funds for personal use such as purchasing a ticket to attend President Barack Obama's inauguration in January.

South Carolina law requires state officials to purchase the lowest fares available for flights, and bars the use of state aircraft for personal use.

Sanford's office did not respond to requests for comment about the charges.

The governor, once a rising star in the Republican party before he revealed an extramarital affair in June, will now face a hearing along with his legal team before a three-member ethics panel. Cathy Hazelwood, general counsel to the state Ethics Commission, told CNN that no date has been set for the hearing.

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Sanford impeachment measure to be formally considered.

(CNN) – A special House committee in South Carolina will formally consider an impeachment resolution against Gov. Mark Sanford for the first time next Tuesday, the Republican chairman of the committee told CNN Friday.

The resolution, filed by a handful of House Republicans earlier this week, will be examined by an ad hoc committee of seven lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

The group will meet for the first time next week, after Sanford provides the legislature with the results of a state Ethics Commission investigation into the governor's travel expenses, Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Harrison said.

The first meeting of the special committee on Tuesday will likely focus on Sanford's infamous trip to Argentina this summer, which led to revelations of an extramarital affair and calls for his resignation. Harrison said the group will then spend the Thanksgiving holiday poring over the Ethics Commission report before meeting again in December to include any additional language in the resolution.

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Sanford's job is safe for the time being.

(CNN) – A Republican legislator in South Carolina moved to introduce a resolution of impeachment against Gov. Mark Sanford on Tuesday during a one-day special session of the state legislature, but his attempt was ruled "out of order" by the Speaker of the House, who said the measure must be submitted at a later date.

Speaker Bobby Harrell, also a Republican, said that state Rep. Greg Delleney will have to wait to offer his impeachment resolution during a so-called "pre-filing" period in November, when lawmakers will be allowed to submit bills in advance of the regular legislative session, which begins in January.

Harrell would then decide which House committee would handle the resolution and potentially build an impeachment case against the governor.

Delleney claimed his measure still has "significant support" among House Republicans and predicted it will get out of committee and to the House floor for a vote in January.

But removing the governor from office ultimately requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate. Delleney admitted to CNN that such a vote "is not an easy thing to come by."

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Mark Sanford had been considering a White House bid before his affair was revealed.

(CNN) – Before an extramarital affair came to light in June that effectively ended his future political ambitions, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said repeatedly that he was not thinking about running for president in 2012, despite clear indications that he was working to build a national profile among conservatives.

But he admitted Thursday that his once busy itinerary was distracting him from his official duties as governor.

"My life before had become stupidly busy with all of my responsibilities - fundraising, speaking engagements across the country, a book deal," Sanford said in an interview with the Florence Morning News editorial board. "I haven't been this focused on my job in a long time because I don't have all those responsibilities anymore."

"I have my family and whatever's going to happen there," he continued. "And I have my job and whatever's going to happen there. You can drive yourself crazy sitting around thinking about 'the might have beens' of life. I'm here, because I think I can still make a difference."

Mark Sanford, a Republican, has refused to resign in the face of criticism from his own party.

(CNN) – A resolution of impeachment against Gov. Mark Sanford is likely to be introduced next week during a special session of the South Carolina legislature, but lawmakers said the governor's job is safe for the time being.

Republican state Rep. Greg Delleney told CNN his resolution lists three charges against Sanford: dereliction of duty for leaving the state to visit his mistress in Argentina in June; attempting to cover-up the scandal; and bringing "disgrace and shame and ridicule" on the state.

"If that is not serious misconduct in office, I don't know what is," Delleney said of Sanford's actions.

The one-day special session was not called to address the Sanford scandal, a point stressed by GOP leadership in both chambers. Instead, lawmakers are meeting to tweak a state law that will extend unemployment benefits for thousands of South Carolinians who began losing those payments over the weekend. The state has an unemployment rate of 11.5 percent.

But most Republicans in the legislature want the governor to resign and several are ready to begin the impeachment process, even as the results of a state Ethics Commission investigation into the governor's travel expenses are still pending.

Delleney said his goal is "to get the ball rolling" on impeachment in a committee before the legislative session officially begins in January, when he hopes the resolution can be quickly brought to the floor for a vote.

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Mark Sanford, a Republican, has refused to resign in the face of criticism from his own party.

(CNN) – A resolution of impeachment against Gov. Mark Sanford is likely to be introduced next week during a special session of the South Carolina legislature, but lawmakers said the governor's job is safe for the time being.

Republican state Rep. Greg Delleney told CNN his resolution lists three charges against Sanford: dereliction of duty for leaving the state to visit his mistress in Argentina in June; attempting to cover-up the scandal; and bringing "disgrace and shame and ridicule" on the state.

"If that is not serious misconduct in office, I don't know what is," Delleney said of Sanford's actions.

The one-day special session was not called to address the Sanford scandal, a point stressed by GOP leadership in both chambers. Instead, lawmakers are meeting to tweak a state law that will extend unemployment benefits for thousands of South Carolinians who began losing those payments over the weekend. The state has an unemployment rate of 11.5 percent.

But most Republicans in the legislature want the governor to resign and several are ready to begin the impeachment process, even as the results of a state Ethics Commission investigation into the governor's travel expenses are still pending.

Delleney said his goal is "to get the ball rolling" on impeachment in a committee before the legislative session officially begins in January, when he hopes the resolution can be quickly brought to the floor for a vote.

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Jenny Sanford will participate in a race to benefit breast cancer.

(CNN) – South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford will make her first public appearance on Saturday since separating from her scandal-plagued husband and moving out of the governor's mansion in August.

An aide to the First Lady announced Thursday that Sanford will participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, a Charleston-area 5K run/walk to benefit breast cancer research.

The first lady has kept a low profile since her husband, Gov. Mark Sanford, revealed an extramarital affair in June. She gave an interview to the Associated Press shortly after the affair and was the subject of a glowing profile in Vogue Magazine last month, but has been otherwise silent. Sanford is also writing a memoir, set to be published in May 2010.

Jenny Sanford will participate in a race to benefit breast cancer.

(CNN) – South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford will make her first public appearance on Saturday since separating from her scandal-plagued husband and moving out of the governor's mansion in August.

An aide to the First Lady announced Thursday that Sanford will participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, a Charleston-area 5K run/walk to benefit breast cancer research.

The first lady has kept a low profile since her husband, Gov. Mark Sanford, revealed an extramarital affair in June. She gave an interview to the Associated Press shortly after the affair and was the subject of a glowing profile in Vogue Magazine last month, but has been otherwise silent. Sanford is also writing a memoir, set to be published in May 2010.

Jenny Sanford's memoir will be published in May 2010.

(CNN) – Jenny Sanford, the estranged wife of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, is writing a book.

Sanford has sold the rights to her "inspirational memoir" to Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, the publisher told CNN Tuesday. The memoir is slated for release in May 2010.

Ballantine did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. Aside from a flattering interview with Vogue magazine, Sanford has remained mostly silent since June, when her husband publicly revealed an affair with an Argentine woman. In July, she and the couple's four boys moved out of the governor's mansion.

Gov. Sanford also had a deal to write a book about fiscal conservatism before the scandal short-circuited his political career. Sentinel Publishing was planning to publish "Within Our Means" in March 2010, but the company released Sanford from the deal in July, calling it "a mutual decision."

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he can feel Joe Wilson's pain.

(CNN) - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he can feel Joe Wilson's pain.

Sanford on Thursday compared the scrutiny of Wilson - the Republican congressman who was formally reprimanded by the House of Representatives for shouting at President Obama - to the ongoing political war he has faced since revealing an extramarital affair in June. Sanford called it "the same dynamic."

"The guy apologized, and then you can have a bunch of other people come back and say, 'We want you to apologize again and again and again,'" Sanford told CN2 News in Rock Hill, South Carolina. "But what do people want out of federal representation? They want somebody representing them up in Congress."

"At some point in all of life, the question is not, 'When is someone going to make a mistake?', but 'When do the rest of us move on?,'" he said. "He apologized to the president. Does he have to issue 25 more apologies before folks will leave him alone?"

"Having seen some of this process a little up close and personal, my thought is it's time to move on," he concluded.

The South Carolina Republican Party voted to censure Sanford in July.

(CNN) – Just hours after Gov. Mark Sanford held a news conference Thursday to fight back against Republican legislators seeking his ouster, the South Carolina Republican Party dealt him another blow by formally calling for his resignation.

Two-thirds of the GOP's executive committee voted to call for the governor's resignation at the end of an hour-long conference call organized by state Republican Party Chairwoman Karen Floyd.

Floyd sent a letter to Sanford after the result was announced informing him of the vote.

It is a stinging rebuke for Sanford from the grassroots wing of the party that has long been his base of support. Members of the party's executive committee are volunteers elected by their fellow political activists - the kind of Republicans who make phone calls, stuff envelopes and knock on doors during election years.

While Sanford has sparred publicly over his two terms with state GOP lawmakers, who have also called for his resignation, the state's grassroots activists have been dependably in his corner.

The vote was also a formal change of course for the state party: Floyd convened a similar conference call in July after Sanford revealed his extramarital affair, which resulted in a vote to censure Sanford for "repeated failures to act in accordance" with the party's core principles and beliefs. But at the time, the party did not ask for the governor to step down.

Sanford's spokesman Ben Fox immediately released a statement following the vote insisting "that working South Carolinians are ready to move beyond this political circus and media-driven distraction." He thanked the committee members who voted against the measure.

"We'd also thank those on the committee and others across the state who've cautioned against a rush to political judgment that would ultimately overturn an election before all the facts and indeed the 'rest of the story' is laid out," Fox said.