What Is He Thinking? Sanford Violates All Rules of Sex Scandal Management

In straying from the confess-and-take-cover approach of other wayward politicians, Sanford not only conducted a rambling and lengthy press conference last week explaining his torrid extramarital affair with an Argentinian beauty -- complete with hard-hitting questions from reporters -- but he granted days' worth of soul-baring interviews to The Associated Press. 

In them, he confessed he "crossed lines" with other women besides his paramour, Maria Belen Chapur. He acknowledged he met up with Chapur more times than he originally said, and declared that the woman at the heart of the scandal is his "soul mate" -- but he would try to save his marriage anyway. 

"Painful," is how Democratic consultant Chris Kofinis described the AP interviews. 

Sanford's behavior has led political consultants and observers to scratch their heads and wonder what in the heck the two-term Republican governor is trying to accomplish. 

Kofinis, who knows a thing or two about political sex scandals -- he's a former adviser to John Edwards -- is among those perplexed by Sanford's behavior. 

"It's a strange strategy, to say the least," he told FOXNews.com. 

Kofinis said it looks like Sanford is trying to salvage his career more than his marriage, by trying to appear honest and at the same time reveal so many details that the prying press doesn't have any more muck to rake. 

"That may be the biggest problem with his approach," Kofinis said. "From a crisis management perspective he has to accept the fact that his political career is over, and that if he wants to salvage his personal, and maybe his professional, life in the long-term, the best thing he can do is resign and resign quickly." 

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