Not the governor's office, but his marriage. How else can you explain his bizarre interview with the AP today in which he acknowledges that he's had relationships, though not fully carnal, with other women, that Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine siren who drew him to abandon office and sanity two weeks ago, is his soul mate, and that he's trying now to fall back in love with his wife. This surely is not the right way to woo Jenny Sanford back.

Afterall, Jenny Sanford is already on record as having thrown him out to preserve her "dignity." Where's the dignity in taking back someone who thinks you're second fiddle? You can just hear her reaction. You have to fall back in love with me?! Forget it.

Of course, then Sanford could claim he tried, but Jenny rejected him. So he keeps the governor's office — plenty of people want him to stay, as this editorial from McClatchy's The State newspaper makes clear — and maybe has a chance with soulmate Maria, who's really said nothing, one way or the other.

One thing is clear: for the sake of the boys, Mark and Jenny really need to call it quits. Imagine growing up in the "reconciled" Sanford household, shuttling back and forth between his bedroom and hers, carrying messages, trying to keep your head down and avoiding any possibility of glancing at Dad's e-mail. The Sanfords clearly like to use others to carry their messages to one another. If AP were a child, you'd have to pity it, whipsawed first by Jenny's confessional last Friday and then Mark's today. That's no way to live, and the Sanfords' "spiritual advisers" ought to remember that sometimes surrender is the better part of valor.

Besides, living on Sullivan's Island and visiting Dad at Christmas in Punta del Este doesn't sound all that bad. If Jenny'll let them come.