There may be disagreement over whether Gov. Mark Sanford is despicable, pitiable or simply unstable, but in the wake of Wednesday’s revelation about an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman there is certainty in that he is an embarrassment to this state.

Sanford admitted to his yearlong affair at a news conference Wednesday afternoon after returning to South Carolina from Argentina following a six-day, unexplained absence from the state. His failure to appear in public and the lack of staff or even family knowledge as to his whereabouts had become national news over the past week. He explained where he had been and why Wednesday afternoon, but the reasons for his absence and failures to his wife, four sons and the people of South Carolina are unacceptable.

Sanford has been under an inordinate amount of stress for the better part of this year due to his dogged resistance to accepting $700 million in federal stimulus money for South Carolina. It was, however, pressure he brought on himself.

The governor’s fight against overwhelming sentiment in the General Assembly and among South Carolina citizens to accept the money seemed noble to some at first, but as it dragged on he became a caricature not just in the state but around the nation.

We are a state struggling to improve our national image. Sanford’s somewhat Quixotic fight to reject the federal help when his state has the third highest unemployment rate in the nation and is suffering through its hardest economic times since the Great Depression was odd, at least.

Now he disappears for six days, tells no one where he is going and only ’fesses up after he’s spotted at the Atlanta airport. The reins of state government were lying slack while he was gone because he told none of the people he should have that he was leaving.

You might be able to pull that kind of stunt when you are single and unemployed. For the governor of a state, husband and father, though, it is unconscionable.

Sanford obviously has some issues he needs to deal with. He has a Legislature in revolt and his future effectiveness is in serious doubt. He has betrayed the trust of the people he was elected twice to serve as governor. And certainly not least, he has shown himself unfaithful to his wife and family.

We question how the governor can do justice to all of these issues, when each of them by themselves would demand his full and long-term attention. Mark Sanford has a lot to think about, including whether in the best interests of his state and family, he should resign as governor.