In the moments after she announced she would resign the governorship of Alaska, MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan compared Sarah Palin to Richard Nixon in 1966.

Nixon returned from exile following his loss in the 1962 California gubernatorial election -- "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" -- to win the presidency in 1968. "We traveled all over the country on behalf of Republican candidates, built up this enormous good will," Buchanan said of a 1966 Nixon barnstorming tour that helped lay the groundwork for his bid two years later.

Buchanan, an aide to Nixon at the time and in the White House, knows better. Palin is no Nixon.

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.