Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), for example, told Fox News this morning that he’s “disappointed” in Sanford, but he’s not ready to ask to governor to resign, arguing that his capacity to govern hinges largely on the health of his marriage.

I’m not sure where he is in his personal life with his wife. And that does have a lot to do whether or not he should continue. South Carolina needs some strong leadership right now, so if he’s not together … We need to do what’s best for our state, and we are looking at that right now.

DeMint, of course, had urged former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) to step down after his arrest for lewd conduct in an airport men’s room. Heterosexual flings, it seems, don’t threaten family values quite so much.

This is a sad day for everyone who knows and is friends with the Sanford family.  Mark, Jenny, and their four boys are some of the best people you could ever know, and it was gut-wrenching to watch today’s press conference because nobody – nobody – saw this coming.  This would be tough enough to deal with for a normal family, let alone a very public family that’s going to have this story on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper and leading every newscast.

Taking off my Sanford hat for a minute and looking at this from a crisis communications role, this will definitely cause considerable short-term public relations damage, but this will eventually fade into the background.  While a handful of questions remain outstanding, this only festers and continues to worsen if there’s some remaining issue of malfeasance, and I believe Sanford put that to rest in his press conference.  The media storm will be painful to weather in the short term, but it will pass.  What the Governor has to do now is show that he is a steady-hand at the wheel when it comes to his official duties and start working on repairing his home life.

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In a drawn-out press conference that began with a long series of apologies and repeated references to his friend Tom Davis, Sanford finally came to “the bottom line” when he said, “I’ve been unfaithful to my wife.” His mistress is an old friend with whom he began a relationship a year ago, he said.

The revelation comes on the heels of a similar admission by Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who, like Sanford, has been mentioned as a possible 2012 presidential candidate.

Sanford’s wife and children were not present at the conference.

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