South Carolina's Sanford back at work

COLUMBIA, S.C. - It was a routine state Cabinet meeting - routine, except for the 20-plus television cameras and reporters scrunched into a tiny room in a building next to the state's Capitol.

They were there to watch South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford conduct his first official meeting since making a very public - and torturous - admission that although he has been married for 20 years, he'd carried on a passionate love affair with a woman in Argentina.

Sanford, it seemed, anticipated the media scrum. As he walked to the meeting down a corridor lined with camera bags, tripods and snaking power cords, he held his head high.

"Hey guys," Sanford said to the media in an even tone. "How are y'all?"

Yet the question remains: Can Sanford effectively govern, now that salacious details of the affair have come to light?

None of the 12 Cabinet members present during Friday's meeting asked Sanford about the romance. They didn't have to.

It had been the stuff of tabloid headlines and intrigue since he returned to South Carolina on Wednesday after jetting off to Argentina for a secret rendezvous with his mistress.

And Sanford kicked off the meeting by apologizing to each of them as cameras clicked and reporters scribbled notes and recorded it all.

At one point, he likened his confession and future to the biblical plight of King David - and looks of nervousness and incredulity crept into the officials' faces.

Maybe they were afraid he woul

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