'My Political Days Are Over'

OK, then, can we wrap this up today? Maybe by the weekend? In case you haven't gotten the message, it's time to go.

Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said Wednesday his political career will end when his term ends in a year and a half.

Until then, Sanford said, he plans to focus on giving future South Carolina governors -- Republican or Democrat -- the tools they need to succeed in office.

``This is truly not about Mark Sanford anymore,'' Sanford said Wednesday morning during a speech to the Twin City Rotary Club in Batesburg-Leesville. ``A lot of folks were convinced that I was running for president. My political days are over.''

Sanford apologized to the friendly crowd for letting them down. The two-term Republican governor, barred by state law from running again, admitted to a yearlong affair with an Argentine woman whom he visited after vanishing on a secret trip in June.

Speaking of his Argentine honey, he actually plans to have her come live with him at the governor's mansion. Is it just me or do you smell a reality show in the works here?

The strains of Latin music could soon be wafting from South Carolina's executive mansion.

Embattled Gov. Mark Sanford is considering having his Argentine lover, who he has called his "soul mate," join him at the Governor's Mansion now that his wife and four sons have moved out, a Web site claims.

* The arrival of Maria Belen Chapur at the mansion in Columbia will "take time," according to a source close to Sanford, reported FITS.com, a Web site run by Will Folks, who served as a Sanford spokesman until 2005.