Awful: Sanford's wife learned of affair by discovering letter from mistress; Update: I won't resign, says Sanford

He seemed so raw and tormented at Wednesday’s presser and so authentic about the grief he felt that I simply assumed he’d gone to his wife after he first realized he was in love and tearfully confessed the whole thing. Nope. File this away with the lies he told his staff about where he was going and the fact that he was prepared to spend fully 10 days incommunicado in Buenos Aires had the media not started making noise about his absence. Oh, and did I mention that Mrs. S now claims she told him to end the affair — before he upped and left for Argentina?

If 50 percent said he should quit yesterday, figure it’ll be upwards of 65 once this report, replete with details about a weeping Jenny, starts making the rounds.

South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford says she discovered her husband’s affair in January when she found a letter to the governor from his mistress.

Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press on Friday she told him to end the affair and was shocked this week when she found out he’d gone to Argentina to see his mistress. She says she believed Gov. Mark Sanford had gone somewhere to work on writing a book…

She wept as she displayed her boys’ stellar report cards and said she most worries about how they’re being affected by the scandal. Jenny Sanford says she plans to take them out of the state for the weekend.

Byron York has six hard questions for Sanford, including whether his supposedly tortured soul ever planned to come clean had he not been caught at the airport by a reporter. Let me add a seventh: Whom does Sanford suspect of leaking the e-mails to his mistress? The State newspaper claimed they got copies of the messages from an anonymous tipster in December; Jenny Sanford now claims she stumbled upon some sort of letter from Maria in January. Hmmm. If she’s not the tipster herself, did the tipster also forward Maria’s letters to her?

Here’s the clip of his cabinet meeting this morning; the first four minutes are more than enough. Evidently he’s been thinking hard about King David and Psalms. Shouldn’t he have been thinking about the Ten Commandments, say, a year ago? Click the image to watch.

Update: Come on, Mark. Hit the road.

“I remain committed to rebuilding the trust that has been committed to me over the next 18 months, and it is my hope that I am able to follow the example set by David in the Bible – who after his fall from grace humbly refocused on the work at hand,” Sanford said in a statement following a meeting with his Cabinet. “By doing so, I will ultimately better serve in every area of my life, and I am committed to doing so.”

Asked by POLITICO if the statement indicated that Sanford would not resign, his spokesman, Joel Sawyer, emailed: “Correct.”