(CNN) – Jenny Sanford, the wife of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, said Friday she is filing for divorce.

She said in a statement that “the dissolution of any marriage is a sad and painful process.”

“This came after many unsuccessful efforts at reconciliation, yet I am still dedicated to keeping the process that lies ahead peaceful for our family,” the statement said.

The Sanfords have lived apart since June, when the governor admitted to an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman.

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the divorce filing.

(Updated with additional information and Gov. Sanford’s reaction after the jump)

After Mark Sanford made a nationally televised admission about his affair, there was a flurry of calls for the governor to resign and multiple investigations by media organizations and the state Ethics Commission into whether Sanford tapped taxpayer resources for personal use.

In November, the South Carolina Ethics Commission charged Sanford with 37 violations of the state ethics code.

The commission will hear arguments involving those civil charges from Sanford’s legal team early next year. The state attorney general is still evaluating the ethics complaint to determine whether criminal charges should be pursued.

Several Republican state legislators drafted an impeachment resolution against Sanford, accusing him of “dereliction of duty” for disappearing from the state last summer without informing his staff or the the lieutenant governor.

But that measure was essentially killed by a special House Judiciary Subcommittee on Wednesday, which instead recommended censuring the governor for his behavior.

Sanford has said repeatedly that he will not step down from the state’s top office.

Jenny Sanford’s full statement:

Statement from First Lady Jenny Sanford

Columbia, S.C. – December 11, 2009 – As so many of us know, the dissolution of any marriage is a sad and painful process. It is also a very personal and private one. Because Mark and I are public figures, we have naturally had less privacy with which to deal with our difficulties than do other couples. Indeed, I know it will soon become known so I choose to release this brief notice that I am now filing for divorce. This came after many unsuccessful efforts at reconciliation, yet I am still dedicated to keeping the process that lies ahead peaceful for our family.

I remain thankful to so many across this state and nation for their words of encouragement and prayers during this difficult time. Please know the boys and I are doing well and are blessed with the incredible support of friends and family and bolstered by our faith and the unfailing love of our God above.

-#####-

Update: In response to the announcement, Gov. Sanford released a statement Friday taking “full responsibility for the moral failure that led us to this tragic point.”

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
MARK SANFORD, GOVERNOR

Columbia, S.C. – December 11, 2009 – With regard to Jenny’s public statement, Governor Sanford had the following to say:

“While it is not the course I would have hoped for, or would choose, I want to take full responsibility for the moral failure that led us to this tragic point. Jenny is a great person, and has been a remarkable wife, mother and First Lady. She has been more than gracious these last six months and gone above and beyond in her patience and commitment to put the needs of others in front of her own. While our family structure may change, I know that we will both work earnestly to be the best mom and dad we can be to four of the finest boys on earth.

“I will join with her in asking the press to respect our shared desire for privacy as we quietly move forward. We respectively ask for your prayers.”

-###-
-#####-

Republicans argue that retiring House Democrats are avoiding tough re-election bids next year.

Washington (CNN) – House Democrats are pushing back against GOP claims that Rep. Brian Baird’s decision to not seek re-election signals that the party in power is in store for a drubbing in 2010.

With his announcement Wednesday, Baird, a six-term Congressman from Washington state, became the third Democrat this year to announce plans to retire. Six other House Democrats are leaving at the close of the 111th Congress to seek another office.

The National Republican Congressional Committee heralded Baird’s decision as a sign that “Democrat incumbents are feeling the ground shaking underneath them” as they head into the next cycle.

Not so fast, argues Ryan Rudominer of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Rudominer pointed out that at this time in 2007, roughly one year before the GOP took a beating for the second straight election cycle, 15 House Republicans had announced their retirement. Three more Republicans had chosen to leave their seats in pursuit of higher office.

“All year long, national Republicans have predicted a tidal wave of Democratic retirements and just like they falsely predicted winning last month in a seat that had been Republican since the Civil War, we haven’t seen anything like the number of Republican retirements at this point last cycle,” Rudominer said in an e-mail.

Though the political landscape looks good for House Republicans next year, Democrats have not seen the same wave of retirements that occured before Republicans famously took back the House in 1994, when 28 Democrats chose not to seek re-election.

But Ken Spain, communications director for the NRCC, insisted that Republican victories in the the Virginia and New Jersey governor’s races have incumbent Democrats starting to re-think their futures.

“Democrats can spin their retirement problem all they want, but they know deep down that members of their caucus are looking at the same abysmal poll numbers as everyone else and wondering if it is better to retire now or lose in November,” Spain told CNN.

Mark and Jenny Sanford have been living apart since he revealed an affair last summer.

(CNN) – Will South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford be watching Wednesday night when his wife Jenny sits down with Barbara Walters in her first television interview since her husband admitted to an extramarital affair in June?

The governor isn’t saying.

Speaking to reporters in Charleston shortly after a House panel rejected an impeachment measure against him, the Republican was asked his thoughts on Jenny’s TV appearance. He chose his words carefully.

“She has been real grace under fire,” he said of his wife. “And I think she has made a lot people in this state and this country quite proud.”

Pressed on whether he plans to watch, Sanford grinned.

“You will never know,” he answered.

Washington (CNN) – Rep. Brian Baird, D-Washington, announced Wednesday that he will not run for a seventh term next year, making him the third Democratic congressman to retire and effectively end a career in elected public service.

“This is not an easy decision to be sure, but I believe it is the right decision at the right time,” Baird said in a statement, where he also promised to serve out his term “with the same level of commitment I have always given the people” of the 3rd Congressional district.

Two other Democrats, Dennis Moore of Kansas and John Tanner of Tennessee, previously said they were retiring with no plans to run again. Six other House Democrats will leave at the close of the 111th Congress to seek another office.

President Obama won Baird’s district in 2008, but President Bush won it in 2004.

The National Republican Congressional Committee cheered Baird’s decision as a sign that Democrats would rather “throw in the towel” than face difficult re-election bids next year.

“With this being the third retirement by a swing-district Democrat in as many weeks, it is clear that the Democrat incumbents are feeling the ground shaking underneath them,” said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain in an e-mail to CNN. “As the unemployment rate remains unacceptably high and Democrats continue on with their out-of-touch agenda, independent voters are rightfully fleeing the Democratic Party.”

Mark Sanford and his legal team won a big victory on Wednesday.

(CNN) – A South Carolina House panel voted down a resolution Wednesday to impeach Gov. Mark Sanford, but the embattled Republican faces one more procedural hurdle before his survival in office is guaranteed.

In their final meeting to consider the impeachment resolution, members of the special House subcommittee called Sanford’s behavior “reprehensible,” “arrogant” and “indefensible” — but six of the seven lawmakers on the panel concluded that the Republican’s behavior does not rise to the constitutional level of impeachment.

Sanford has been under scrutiny since June, when he left the country for five days to visit his Argentine mistress without informing his staff or the Lieutenant Governor of his whereabouts.

Under House rules, the measure will also be considered by the full Judiciary Committee, but it’s unlikely the committee would come to a different conclusion than the subcommittee.

Lawmakers will still considering a bill to censure Sanford.

David Plouffe managed Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

(CNN) – Barack Obama’s former campaign manager is taking sides in a high-profile Democratic primary.

David Plouffe sent a fundraising appeal Wednesday to supporters of Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, the frontrunner for the state’s Democratic Senate nomination, calling Fisher “a champion for Ohio workers.”

Fisher has garnered support from the party establishment in his bid to replace Sen. George Voinovich, who is retiring next year. But before Fisher can take on the likely Republican nominee, former Bush administration budget director Rob Portman, Fisher must first defeat Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in the Democratic primary. Brunner trails Fisher in statewide polling and has struggled to raise money since announcing her candidacy.

But Plouffe is keeping his eye the general election. He wrote that Portman’s policies under Bush cost Ohioans jobs and helped spark “the worst economic recession in our lifetimes.

“If Karl Rove was the ‘architect’ of Bush’s campaigns, then Portman was the ‘architect’ of Bush’s economic agenda,” he wrote in the e-mail. “We can’t go back to the same failed policies that got us where we are today. And that’s why we need Lee Fisher.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, needs to apologize for comparing GOP critics of health care reform to opponents of the Civil Rights Act. Steele called it “an ignorant statement,” in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”

“The reality of the country right now is, you’re seeing played out in large measure the arrogance of power,” Steele said, appearing with Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine. “Where Democrats feel that they can come to well of the Senate, say whatever they want to say, do whatever they do, and there’s not a daggone thing you can do about it, America. ‘You can’t stop us.’ Well, I’m here today to say you can.”

Kaine countered that sharp words are coming from both sides of the aisle, pointing out that Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, recently described Medicaid as “a medical ghetto.”

“That’s language that probably isn’t appropriate either,” the DNC chair said.

Steele took aim at an administration plan, outlined Tuesday by President Obama, to help small businesses. The RNC chairman claimed that any boost the plan would give to small business will be counteracted by a growing tax burden, regulatory burden and new health care laws being enacted by Democrats. “It’s not real,” Steele said of the jobs plan. “That’s the reality of it.”

Kaine said Republicans have no plan except “to be against anything the president is for” and boasted that the stimulus package has “saved or created 1.6 million jobs.” His Republican counterpart called the 1.6 million figure “imaginary.”

Steele also elaborated on his plan to publish a new book in January about the Republican Party. Asked about the upcoming book, Steele said it will focus “the future of this country and our party.”

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke about Mike Huckabee's clemency decision and a potential third party run in 2012.

Washington (CNN) – Sarah Palin said in a recent radio appearance that Mike Huckabee made a “horrible decision” nine years ago to commute the prison sentence of the man suspected of killing four police officers in Washington, but she added that her “heart goes out” to the former Arkansas governor.

In an interview last week with conservative radio host Lars Larson, Palin called the murders “tragic” and “unfathomable.”

“It was a bad decision obviously, but my heart goes out to Huckabee,” the former Alaska governor said. “I love him, and I feel bad for him to be in this position. But I feel even worse for the victim’s families in this situation. I do feel bad for Huckabee, but it was a horrible decision he made.”

Huckabee has said he regrets the decision to commute the sentence of the suspected shooter, Maurice Clemmons, but said he thinks he made the right assessment at the time. Palin said she had never pardoned or granted clemency to prisoners when she served in Juneau.

“I don’t have a whole lot of mercy for the bad guys,” she said. “I’m on the good guys’ side.”

Pressed on her political ambitions, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee would not rule out a third party run at the White House in 2012.

“That depends on how things go in the next couple of years,” she said. “It really does depend. There are enough Republicans who are realizing, ‘Oh whoops, some of us liberal republicans have screwed up.’ And I’m not including myself in that group, but some liberal Republicans have screwed up.”

Palin said her decision rests on whether or not the GOP does a better job of appealing to its conservative base.

“If the Republican Party gets back to that base, I think our party is going to be stronger and there’s not going to be a need for a third party, but I’ll play that by ear in these coming months, coming years,” she said.

Harry Reid is being targeted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Washington (CNN) – Republicans on Monday were quick to pounce on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, for comparing the battle over health care to the battle over the legacy of slavery.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee purchased a Web ad on the popular Drudge Report asking readers: “Do you agree with Harry Reid?”

Those who click on the ad are taken to an NRSC Web site called “Health Care Task Force,” which asks readers to sign a petition and “stand up to Harry Reid and his insulting remarks.”

Reid, who is in danger of losing his re-election bid next year, made the remarks Monday morning on the floor of the Senate.

“Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all Republicans can come up with is this: slow down, stop everything, let’s start over,” Reid said.

“If you think you’ve heard these same excuses before, you’re right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said slow down, it’s too early, let’s wait, things aren’t bad enough.”

Harry Reid is being targeted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Washington (CNN) – Republicans on Monday were quick to pounce on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, for comparing the battle over health care to the battle over the legacy of slavery.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee purchased a Web ad on the popular Drudge Report asking readers: “Do you agree with Harry Reid?”

Those who click on the ad are taken to an NRSC Web site called “Health Care Task Force,” which asks readers to sign a petition and “stand up to Harry Reid and his insulting remarks.”

Reid, who is in danger of losing his re-election bid next year, made the remarks Monday morning on the floor of the Senate.

“Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all Republicans can come up with is this: slow down, stop everything, let’s start over,” Reid said.

“If you think you’ve heard these same excuses before, you’re right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said slow down, it’s too early, let’s wait, things aren’t bad enough.”

Sanford's legal team scored a victory on Thursday.

(CNN) – A special House panel considering an impeachment measure against South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford decided Thursday that their review will not include most of the state ethics charges filed against the governor last month.

South Carolina state lawmakers voted to throw out 28 of the 37 civil charges filed by the state Ethics Commission, most of which involved Sanford’s purchase of business class tickets with taxpayer money and his use of campaign funds.

State House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison, who is overseeing the special impeachment panel, said the ethics charges do not rise “to the level of serious misconduct or a serious offense” that would merit removing Sanford from office.

Harrison’s subcommittee is still evaluating Sanford’s use of state-owned aircraft along with the original impeachment resolution, which focuses on whether Sanford broke the law by secretly leaving the state in June to visit his mistress.

One of Sanford’s attorneys, Ross Garber, applauded the decision.

“It is appropriate that the committee dismissed the bulk of the allegations against the Governor,” Garber said in a statement released by the governor’s office. “These allegations clearly did not rise to the level of serious crimes and serious misconduct in office required to justify impeachment of a governor for the first time in the history of South Carolina.”

Harrison said the panel will meet again next Monday to decide whether to send an impeachment resolution on to the full Judiciary committee.

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, a Republican who is running to succeed Sanford next year, is still evaluating the Ethics Commission report to decide whether the state will pursue criminal charges.

UPDATE: Sanford’s personal attorney Butch Bowers said he is “pleased” with the vote.

“This decision confirms that Governor Sanford has followed the letter and spirit of the law,” Bowers said in a statement. “We look forward to resolving this matter quickly and showing, as the Committee’s actions today demonstrate, that this administration has been a consistent ally of the taxpayer.”

(CNN) – The political arm for the nation’s Democratic governors named Delaware Gov. Jack Markell its new chairman Wednesday, entrusting him with protecting 19 seats in 2010 as he also tries to help elect Democrats win 18 seats currently held by Republicans.

Markell takes the reins of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) from Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Markell, who was elected in 2008, heads into a critical midterm election where control of redistricting is on the line.

“The American people haven’t forgotten who drove the country into the ditch,” Schweitzer said at a news briefing. “If their story is we’re going to go back to the good old days of Bush and Cheney, they’re going to lose more elections in this cycle than any in history.”

Huckabee granted clemency to Maurice Clemmons in 2000, when he served as governor of Arkansas.

(CNN) – The Arkansas coordinator for Mike Huckabee’s political action committee resigned Tuesday, citing the former Arkansas governor’s decision nine years ago to grant clemency to Maurice Clemmons, the man suspected of murdering four police officers in Washington state.

Jason Tolbert, who runs a conservative blog, served as Arkansas state coordinator for HuckPAC in a volunteer capacity.

“My departure was with a heavy heart but was done after serious prayer and consideration,” Tolbert wrote on his Web site. “Some have asked about the timing. As most could imagine, the recent news of the last two days along with the response did play a role in this decision but was not the sole factor.”

Huckabee said Tuesday he takes “full responsibility” for the clemency decision.

“I acted on the facts presented to me in 2000, the former GOP presidential hopeful said in a statement. “If I could have possibly known what Clemmons would do nine years later, I obviously would have made a different decision. But if the same file was presented to me today, I would have likely made the same decision.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has not weighed in on the so-called 'purity test.'

Washington (CNN) – An ally of Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele claimed Tuesday that the so-called “purity test” being circulated by some RNC members is a publicity stunt designed to “stick it” to Steele after he defeated other candidates for the chairmanship in last January’s election.

“You’ve got a few backbenchers who are unhappy,” said Shawn Steel, an RNC member from California and one of the chairman’s top supporters on the committee. “They don’t have the power they once had under the previous chairman, and that’s what motivating this. This is an attempt to stick it to Chairman Steele by the losers.”

The resolution, still in draft form when it was leaked to reporters late last month, would prohibit party funds from going to GOP candidates who disagree with elements of a proposed 10-point ideological platform. The proposal has sparked a pointed debate between conservatives who want candidates to adhere to strict principles and moderate Republicans who want to broaden the party’s appeal.

Citing e-mail exchanges with his fellow committee members, Steel estimated that almost 80 percent of the RNC opposes the purity test. “This resolution will fail,” Steel told CNN. “It will absolutely fall on its face. The resolution was just to stir the pot. It’s for reporters.”

Steel made similar assertions in a Politico op-ed Tuesday about the resolution and alleged that the resolution’s chief sponsor, Indiana committeeman Jim Bopp, Jr., is frustrated because he lost a legal contract with the RNC once Steele became chairman.

Contacted by CNN, Bopp called that claim a “flat out lie” and said he is still representing the RNC. Bopp said he isn’t sure why Steel is targeting him with “personal attacks,” but suggested that his fellow committee member “feels he is losing the argument and the only recourse he has is personal attacks.”

Bopp stressed that the resolution “has nothing to do with Michael Steele.”

“It has to do with the desire of RNC members to take every reasonable step to re-establish our conservative bona fides, and put out money where our mouth is,” Bopp said.

Palin is beginning the second part of a nationwide book tour.

(CNN) – An aide to Sarah Palin downplayed reports Tuesday about the former Alaska governor’s use of a private jet during certain legs of a national bus tour to promote her memoir, “Going Rogue.”

While it’s not unusual for political figures to fly from state to state before hopping on a bus to head to events, Palin is taking heat for using a private jet for some of her travels, with one report claiming that the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee flew in style while leaving her staff behind to ride the bus during long journeys.

But Jason Recher, who is traveling with Palin and coordinating logistics for the tour, said that’s not true.

Palin was joined by her family and a handful of staffers on each flight leg, said Recher, who noted that the jet was paid for by Palin’s publisher, Harper Collins. He said the publisher originally wanted all of the book tour travel to be by plane, but Palin lobbied for a bus tour.

The private jet transported the Palin entourage for several legs of the tour, including from New York City to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the beginning of the tour last month. The bus then took them to book signings in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania before the group boarded the plane to Rochester, New York. The private plane was also used for flights from Rochester to Roanoke, Virginia; from Fayetteville, North Carolina to Birmingham, Alabama; and from Birmingham to Jacksonville, Florida.

Palin also took to the skies to visit with Billy and Franklin Graham in Montreat, North Carolina on November 22, but not on Harper Collins’ dime. Instead, she was picked up in Roanoke on Franklin Graham’s provate plane and flown to Billy Graham’s mountaintop home. That plane took Palin on to Fayetteville after the private visit.

Recher calculated that Palin and the people traveling with her spent about 24 hours total on board the “Going Rogue” bus during the first seven days of the book tour.

Democrat Chad McGowan is hoping to unseat Republican Jim DeMint next year.

(CNN) – The Democrat who wants to be South Carolina’s next United States Senator might not see eye to eye with President Obama if he’s elected next November.

In fact, Chad McGowan — a Rock Hill trial attorney who national Democrats see as their best hope to unseat conservative Republican Jim DeMint — appears to oppose the bulk of the White House’s economic agenda, including the stimulus package and “a government takeover of healthcare.”

McGowan’s campaign outlined those stands Tuesday in a statement disputing the DeMint team’s claim, made Monday, that McGowan supports Democratic health care reform legislation in Washington.

“DeMint’s folks get their facts from the same place they’ve gotten their imaginary economic figures,” McGowan spokesman Tyler Jones said in an e-mail to CNN. “The accusation that Chad McGowan has endorsed President Obama’s health care plan is blatantly false. And Chad is on the record opposing the stimulus, opposing the bailouts, and opposing a government takeover of healthcare.

“This is the second time in as many months DeMint and his folks have outright fabricated Chad’s positions,” Jones continued. “Those games may work in Washington, but they won’t work here in South Carolina. Instead of making up positions, Chad will continue to present real ideas to fix our economy, create jobs and help South Carolina’s hard working middle class families.”

That McGowan might not march in lockstep with other Democrats in Washington isn’t exactly a surprise: He told CNN in October that he was once registered as a Republican and voted for Lindsey Graham in last year’s Senate election. McGowan also called himself “a gun person.”

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint has earned a national following among conservative Republicans.

(CNN) – The Democrat hoping to unseat Jim DeMint next year took direct aim at the conservative South Carolina senator for the first time on Monday, accusing him of putting “personal political ambitions” ahead of his constituents.

Chad McGowan, a trial attorney who formally entered the 2010 race in October, pounced on a remark DeMint made on a recent conference call with supporters that was printed Sunday by McClatchy newspapers.

“All of you all over the country — please remember that Senate seats are not about a particular state,” DeMint said on the call, according to McClatchy. “They’re about our country. Every vote I take is not about South Carolina. It’s about the United States of America.”

McGowan has avoided confronting DeMint directly since jumping into the race, but he said in a statement he was “disappointed” by the comments.

“It’s the same story over and over,” McGowan said. “Jim DeMint and his personal political ambitions come first. In times like these, we need TWO Senators who care about South Carolina, who advocate for South Carolina, and who produce for South Carolina. If we had that, we would be making real progress on some of the problems we face in our schools, employment, and crime.”

He also knocked DeMint for spending time making endorsements in prominent Republican primaries around the country. The Republican has thrown his support behind conservative Senate hopefuls Marco Rubio in Florida and Chuck DeVore in California.

“An election in California or New York doesn’t matter to the man or woman in South Carolina who can’t find a job,” McGowan said. “This is a question of priorities.”

DeMint response after the jump

UPDATE: DeMint campaign manager Luke Byars responded to McGowan in an e-mail to CNN.

“Senator DeMint votes for freedom and what is in the best interest of the United States of America and that is always in the best interest of South Carolina,” Byars said. “While Senator DeMint put forward a jobs plan that would have helped thousands of South Carolina businesses and families by lowering taxes, this personal injury lawyer would have joined his liberal friends in Washington on the failed stimulus that have left South Carolina at record high unemployment.

“And he just announced his support for Obama’s government takeover of health care that would kill more jobs, raise taxes, raise health premiums, and put Washington bureaucrats between South Carolinians and their doctors.”

Mike Huckabee commuted Clemmons' sentence when he was governor of Arkansas in 2000.

(CNN) – Mike Huckabee took to the radio airwaves Monday to explain why, as governor of Arkansas in 2000, he commuted the nearly 100-year prison sentence of Maurice Clemmons, the man suspected of murdering four police officers in Washington state.

Clemmons was sentenced to 95 years in prison in 1989 for a host of charges, including robberies, burglaries, thefts and bringing a gun to school. Huckabee cited Clemmons’ young age — 17 at the time of his sentencing — when he announced his decision to commute the sentence, according to newspaper articles. Clemmons was paroled in August 2000, after 11 years in prison.

On the Monday morning episode of “The Huckabee Report” — the Republican’s daily radio commentary — he pointed to “a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington state” as the reason Clemmons was allowed to re-enter society. Repeating what he said in a statement released Sunday night, Huckabee noted that the Arkansas parole board granted Clemmons’ parole after he received the commutation.

“He was arrested later for parole violation, taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him,” Huckabee told listeners. “It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior, but was not kept incarcerated by either state.”

Huckabee, who is considering a making second presidential run in 2012, also spoke to Fox News radio about his decision.

“If I could have known nine years ago, looked into the future, would I have acted favorably upon the parole board’s recommendation? Of course not,” he said. “One of the things that is horrible and just, again, one of the realities you have to confront is the criminal justice system is far from perfect, and in this case it failed miserably on all sides.”

RNC members have drafted what's being described as a 'purity' resolution.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — One of Republican National Committee members who helped draft resolution that would prevent moderate candidates from receiving party money said Tuesday that the measure is not intended to challenge to the leadership of Michael Steele, the RNC chairman.

“I think it’s sufficiently broad so as not to handcuff him,” Nebraska committeeman Pete Ricketts said of the so-called “purity” resolution, which first leaked to reporters Monday.

The resolution, sponsored by Indiana committee member Jim Bopp Jr., proposes a ten-point ideological platform for the Republican party and would require GOP candidates to adhere to at least eight of those points. If not, a candidate be prohibited from receiving financial assistance from the RNC.

Bopp told CNN Monday that the resolution will help Steele avoid criticism from the right-wing of the party. “This resolution will establish standards so that he won’t feel obligated to support every Republican and not feel criticized,” he said.

Ricketts said the resolution was sparked in large part by the contentious special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district, in which a third party candidate, Doug Hoffman, entered the race as an conservative alternative to the moderate Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava. Conservative activists nationwide rallied to Hoffman’s side, eventually driving Scozzafava from the race, which was ultimately won by Democrat Bill Owens.

“NY-23 crystallized for us some of the issues the Tea Party people had with Republican party,” said Ricketts, one of the resolution’s ten co-sponsors. “We felt like we needed to send a message that we are the party of conservative values. This resolution is one way to demonstrate that we mean what we say.”

Ricketts disagreed with the suggestion that the measure is an attempt to purge moderate voices from the GOP.

“It’s just the opposite,” he told CNN. “What it says is that we are a broad party, that we understand people are not going to agree with us on every issue.”

He said the resolution, which could be introduced at the RNC Winter Meeting in Hawaii come January, is still “a work in progress.”

Palin has signed 20,000 books, aide estimates.

Washington (CNN) – Sarah Palin has signed 20,000 copies of “Going Rogue” during her nationwide book tour, a staffer traveling with the former Alaska governor estimates.

Palin will have visited 13 cities and traveled 4,000 miles by the end of Tuesday, with 80 percent of that travel done aboard the “Going Rogue” bus, according to Jason Recher, an adviser to Palin during her vice presidential bid now assisting with book tour logistics. Recher ticked through the statistics while riding the bus to Palin’s stop at The Villages retirement community in central Florida.

He said Palin has sold 700,000 copies of her memoir so far.

“She is truly enjoying it,” Recher told CNN. “I think she’d rather spend her time talking to folks like this rather than going to to fundraisers or talking to donors. She’d rather be signing books and meeting people than being a politician.”

Recher said Palin is paying attention to some of the media coverage about her tour, but added: “We don’t have time to sit around listening to people in Washington and New York.”

Palin chatted with Sen. John McCain by phone last Friday while traveling through Ohio, Recher said, the first time the two have spoken since the book hit stores.

“He told her he really liked the book,” Recher said, noting that Palin sent the McCains five copies of the book. He said McCain and Palin agreed that the back-and-forth sniping between former McCain and Palin advisers over the last several weeks “is not relevant to everyday people’s lives.”

After three Florida stops Tuesday, Palin will travel to Richland, Washington to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family before resuming the tour.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum will visit the crucial primary state of South Carolina in December.

Washington (CNN) – Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum doesn’t appear to be shy about his 2012 intentions.

The Republican, who was thumped by 18 points in his 2006 re-election bid, has met with conservative activists in Iowa, delivered a speech to a Right to Life dinner in Michigan and has stepped up his public criticism of President Obama.

Now he’s headed to another early primary state: South Carolina.

Santorum will campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Gresham Barrett in Bluffton, Spartanburg and Greenville on December 8 and 9. Barrett, currently a member of Congress, is one of five candidates seeking the GOP nomination for governor.

“I’m also looking forward to visiting with South Carolina families to discuss the issues that matter to them and the future of this country,” Santorum said in a statement announcing the trip. “Too much is at stake to sit back and not participate in the critical discussion of how to address these issues.”

Washington (CNN) – Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, said Friday that he will formally announce his retirement from Congress this weekend so he can focus on his run for governor next year.

Abercrombie has scheduled a press conference for Sunday.

“I cannot claim the Governorship should be a cornerstone of our democracy and not make the campaign for it the center of all my efforts,” Abercrombie said in a statement posted on his campaign Web site.

The 10-term congressman said he already shared his decision with the White House, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation. Abercrombie’s move will trigger a special election to fill the remainder of his term.

Five other House Democrats are seeking higher office and will leave the House at the end of the 111th Congress. Three House Democrats are retiring with no plans to run for elected office.

The Hawaii governorship is current controlled by Republican Linda Lingle, who is prevented by law from seeking another term in 2010. The Democratic Governors Association sees the Hawaii race as one of their best chances to pick up a seat next year.

McCain had some harsh words for the AARP.

Washington (CNN) – The John McCain of 2009 is singing a different tune than the John McCain of 2008.

On Thursday, the Arizona senator hammered the AARP on the Senate floor and on his Twitter account for supporting a proposal by Senate Democrats to cut millions from Medicare to help pay for health care legislation.

“I call on seniors to cut up their AARP cards and send them back to them!” McCain tweeted Thursday afternoon.

Endorsing Democrats in the health care fight seems to have changed McCain’s thinking on the AARP, the nation’s most influential senior lobby. During his 2008 presidential bid, the Republican nominee praised the group’s leadership in some key policy battles.

“I say God bless AARP for everything they are doing, not only for the present generations of Americans, but for future generations,” McCain told an AARP audience in September of last year. “That’s your duty, that’s your strength, and that’s why I love to see you at every town hall meeting. And that’s why I always try to let you talk.”

McCain thanked the group for working with him on what he called “the big fights,” citing tobacco legislation and campaign finance reform. “This organization has been an incredibly valuable contributor to the important discourses I just mentioned, and it’s been there for decades, for decades,” he said at the time.

Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for McCain, said his objection to AARP is based on what the group is doing now, not what they did in the past.

UPDATE: John Ashbrook, a spokesman for the Senate Republican Communications Center, points out that the AARP changed course from some of their past positions on Medicare cuts.

During the Clinton administration’s push to reform health care, for example, the AARP expressed concerns about cutting Medicare as a way to pay for legislation.

‘If we’re talking about Medicare cuts alone as a way of financing health reform, we would fight that with all our strength — we’ve gone as far as we can go down that road,” John Rother, the AARP director of federal legislation and policy, told the Los Angeles Times in 1993.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has not weighed in on the so-called 'purity test.'

Washington (CNN) – An ally of Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele claimed Tuesday that the so-called “purity test” being circulated by some RNC members is a publicity stunt designed to “stick it” to Steele after he defeated other candidates for the chairmanship in last January’s election.

“You’ve got a few backbenchers who are unhappy,” said Shawn Steel, an RNC member from California and one of the chairman’s top supporters on the committee. “They don’t have the power they once had under the previous chairman, and that’s what motivating this. This is an attempt to stick it to Chairman Steele by the losers.”

The resolution, still in draft form when it was leaked to reporters late last month, would prohibit party funds from going to GOP candidates who disagree with elements of a proposed 10-point ideological platform. The proposal has sparked a pointed debate between conservatives who want candidates to adhere to strict principles and moderate Republicans who want to broaden the party’s appeal.

Citing e-mail exchanges with his fellow committee members, Steel estimated that almost 80 percent of the RNC opposes the purity test. “This resolution will fail,” Steel told CNN. “It will absolutely fall on its face. The resolution was just to stir the pot. It’s for reporters.”

Steel made similar assertions in a Politico op-ed Tuesday about the resolution and alleged that the resolution’s chief sponsor, Indiana committeeman Jim Bopp, Jr., is frustrated because he lost a legal contract with the RNC once Steele became chairman.

Contacted by CNN, Bopp called that claim a “flat out lie” and said he is still representing the RNC. Bopp said he isn’t sure why Steel is targeting him with “personal attacks,” but suggested that his fellow committee member “feels he is losing the argument and the only recourse he has is personal attacks.”

Bopp stressed that the resolution “has nothing to do with Michael Steele.”

“It has to do with the desire of RNC members to take every reasonable step to re-establish our conservative bona fides, and put out money where our mouth is,” Bopp said.

Mark Sanford, a Republican, has refused to resign in the face of criticism from his own party.

(CNN) – A panel of South Carolina lawmakers who gathered Tuesday to formally consider impeaching Gov. Mark Sanford voted to broaden the scope of their inquiry to include 37 new ethics charges against the Republican.

Those civil charges were revealed Monday by the South Carolina Ethics Commission, which had conducted a three-month investigation into Sanford’s use of state finances. The governor and his legal team now face a hearing before the Ethics Commission to determine if Sanford broke any state laws by charging the state for first- and business-class flights, using state-owned aircraft for political travel and tapping into campaign funds for personal use.

The lawmakers, members of a special subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee that met for the first time Tuesday, decided to include the ethics charges in their review and scheduled four more meetings of the subcommittee for December.

The group will review the Ethics Commission report over Thanksgiving and decide if the charges should be included in the impeachment resolution, which accuses Sanford of “serious misconduct” for leaving the state in June to visit his Argentine mistress without leaving in place a chain of command.

The seven lawmakers — four Republicans and three Democrats — listened to sworn affadavits from key players in the scandal and entered into the record news reports from June highlighting Sanford’s absence from the state.

Rep. Greg Delleney, one of the Republicans who drafted the impeachment measure, appeared to warn Sanford against fighting an impeachment effort, should the subcommittee decide to move forward.

“Impeachment is a political process, it’s not a legal process,” Delleney said at the meeting, which was attended by Sanford’s attorneys. “There is no appeal from an impeachment process. Impeachment is final. Impeachment is solely the constitutional power, duty and responsibility of the South Carolina House of Representatives.”

Delleney said governors can be impeached regardless of whether a crime was committed.

Ross Garber, one of Sanford’s attorneys, called the impeachment hearing “an extraordinary and extremely rare process. In a statement released after the meeting, Garber said that the governor’s “temporary absence from the state in June” does not merit his removal from office.

“As was pointed out in the hearing this afternoon, the state Constitution ensures that the chain of command in state government is not threatened because the Lt. Governor is automatically transferred command in the event of an emergency during the governor’s temporary absence,” Garber said.