Giving account

Politics | Gov. Mark Sanford's spiritual mentors saw a lack of accountability in his life, and their worst fears were realized | Jamie Dean

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Warren "Cubby" Culbertson—one of Gov. Mark Sanford's closest friends—always worried about the temptations Sanford faced as a high-profile official. "Satan doesn't attack minnows, he attacks whales," says Culbertson, a Columbia, S.C., businessman who is well respected in the city's Christian community.

When Sanford ran for Congress in 1994, Culbertson refused to support financially his longtime friend's campaign, saying he feared the "pitfalls and dangers" Sanford would face as a congressman away from his family. The pair remained friends, but Culbertson says Sanford was incredulous: "He was relentless that it wouldn't happen to him."

Sanford's resolve didn't last. In an agonizing press conference on June 24, the Republican governor of South Carolina confessed: "I've been unfaithful to my wife." After going incommunicado from his staff and family for five days, and creating "a fiction" regarding his whereabouts, a tearful Sanford admitted he had been in Argentina visiting his mistress. He apologized to Jenny Sanford, his wife of nearly 20 years, and to their four young sons.