House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn slammed fellow South Carolinian Joe Wilson for the Republican's outburst at President Barack Obama during his address on health care.

"Lie! You lie!" Wilson shouted at the president during a passage of the speech in which the president said illegal immigrants would not be covered by his health care plans.

Clyburn said the episode was as disgraceful -- if not more -- as Gov. Mark Sanford's revelation that he traveled to Argentina to conduct an extramarital affair when state officials believed he was on vacation in the nearby Appalachian Mountains.

"I thought he [the governor] had embarrassed us as much as we could be embarrassed. But to have a congressman use the floor of the House of Representatives in a joint session to insult the president the way Joe Wilson did is as embarrassing as anything anyone could think of," House Majority Whip James E.Clyburn, D-S.C., said. "Our state can do without this."

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Obviously, Buenos Aires isn't the best place to be if you want to run South Carolina. But for the crowded field of 2010 gubernatorial hopefuls, it's looking more and more like South Carolina isn't the best place to be, either.

That could boost the fortunes of Rep. J. Gresham Barrett, who publicly has avoided the palace intrigue in Columbia in the wake of Gov. Mark Sanford confessing that he had an affair with an Argentinian woman.

"If you exist, you're getting dirt on you. It's filthy. There is so much destruction. At the end of the day it will be the last man standing," said a South Carolina Republican strategist who has not taken sides in the 2010 gubernatorial race. "So maybe Gresham Barrett is the winner."

When it looked like South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's long, strange trip to Argentina might simply have been an erratic response to a tense legislative session, fellow politicians were happy to joke about his weeklong disappearance from public view and staff contact.

But Sanford's admission of an extramarital affair changed that in some corners.

"Now, I see that it's not humorous at all, and I'm feeling Mark's humiliation. Certainly, I don't want to add to that humiliation," said Rep. Bob Inglis, a South Carolina Republican who had kidded earlier in the day about what he thought was a bout of "quirkiness" from Sanford.

"Mark spoke of moral absolutes. The truth is that none of us is capable of fully living the truths that we proclaim, so each of us is dependent on grace," Inglis said. "I haven't always agreed with Mark's policies or politics, but today I want more than ever to be his friend."

In a sign of that sentiment, Inglis declined to call for Sanford's resignation and suggested a little humility might improve Sanford's rocky relationship with the Republican-controlled legislature.

"He may be less than a 100 percenter," Inglis said.

The odd tale of the missing South Carolina governor has been on the tips of wagging tongues across Capitol Hill today, as politicians try to figure out why Republican Mark Sanford returned from Buenos Aires, Argentina, when his staff initially said he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

"Argentina, Appalachian Trail, they both start with 'A,'" joked Rep. Bob Inglis, a South Carolina Republican who could hardly contain his amusement at the situation.

"It's best for the governor's staff to know where he is and how to contact him," he said on a more serious note.