sanford

Gov. Mark Sanford speaks during a news conference at the State Capitol in Columbia on Wednesday.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford told the woman with whom he was having an affair they were “in a hopelessly impossible situation of love” last year when he was thought to be under consideration for the Republican vice presidential nomination, according to e-mails obtained by The State newspaper. The Columbia-based newspaper, which acquired the e-mails in December, told CNN that the governor’s office had confirmed their authenticity on Wednesday. When contacted by CNN, a spokesman for the governor would neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the e-mails.

The e-mails between the GOP governor and a Buenos Aires, Argentina, resident named “Maria,” were exchanged in July of last year, according to the newspaper.In one July 10 message, Sanford told the woman about his plans to take a family vacation and meet with then-Republican presidential candidate John McCain who “has kicked up the whole VP talk all over again in the press back home …” before he veered into more emotional territory.”You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty,” Sanford wrote, according to the e-mails published on the newspaper’s Web site.

“I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light — but hey, that would be going into sexual details …” “…while all the things above are all too true — at the same time we are in a … hopelessly impossible situation of love….” he added.