Sanford: I Won't Be 'Railroaded' Out of Office

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford rebuffed his lieutenant governor's call to resign today, two months after he admitted an affair, saying he will not be "railroaded" out of office and plans to finish his term. At a news conference hours after Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer called for him to step down, Sanford said the people of South Carolina want to move past the scandals.

"I'm not going to be railroaded out of this office by political opponents or folks who were never fans of mine in the first place," the Republican said. "A lot of what is going on now is pure politics, plain and simple." Heeding Bauer's call to resign would be like "heaven on earth," Sanford added, because it would get him out of the public eye, but it would not be right. "Me hanging up the spurs 16 months out, as comfortable as that would be, as much as I might like to do that on a personal basis, it is wrong," he said. (More Mark Sanford stories.)