The State has a detailed account of the stop:

As Sanford’s driver approaches the patrol car and pulls out his badge, Salter asks: “You got a good reason for running 85?” The agent responds he’s driving Sanford.

“Not a really good reason to be speeding,” Salter replies.

“Tell him that,” the agent says, walking back to his car.

The governor then shakes hands with the trooper before returning to his car — without leaving a ticket. Needless to say, the Department of Public Safety was not happy.

As if it couldn’t get any worse, a few years ago Sanford’s Lt. Governor Andre Bauer was caught doing 101 mph and also escaped ticketless. At the time, Sanford’s spokesman issued a statement on the governor’s behalf, stating that the state offices “believe very strongly that preferential treatment should never be a factor when enforcing the law.” Doh!

Check out the full story at The State and the video below:

(via Daily Intel)

The Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza reached out casually via email (asking Sanford’s communications director, “Dude, is everything ok?”). A “Fox News correspondent” did as well.  So did Stephen Colbert. Personally.

But before we get to him let’s deal with the FNC side of the story. The State didn’t name the Fox News “correspondent,” but we’ve got the details.

Mediaite has learned the Fox News “correspondent” who reached out to the missing Governor was Griff Jenkins, whose reporting mainly consists of ambushes of various kinds. Jenkins is a features reporter (and a producer), rather than a hard news correspondent.

In the email, Jenkins wrote: “Having known the Governor for years and even worked with him when he would host radio shows for me – I find this story and the media frenzy surrounding it to be absolutely ridiculous! Please give him my best.” This was, of course, sent before Sanford himself admitted to the truth.

The confusion over the seriousness of what happened was echoed in Colbert’s email. In a tongue-in-cheek note to the Governor’s communications director, Colbert downplayed what happened as he pitched Sanford to be a guest on The Colbert Report. “If the Governor is looking for a friendly place to make light of what I think is a small story that got blown out of scale, I would be happy to have him on,” wrote the fake news guy, just hours before the real story broke.

Who knew Colbert should have been included in Mediaite Oddsmakers?

The State‘s piece today illustrates what everyone already assumed – Gov. Sanford kept everyone, including his staff, in the dark over his whereabouts, surprising even his friends about the Argentinian love affair (or “love story,” as Sanford insisted it be called in the AP interview). It only makes the news conference, which sounded like a big story at the time, that much more huge.

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