Take a hike

South Carolina voters are struggling to understand how their top official, Governor Mark Sanford, could simply vanish for four days. No one, apparently not even his wife, knew where he was.

Strange. His assistant said he needed to clear his head after the last legislative session.

Finally, last night his staff revealed that they believed Gov. Sanford was out hiking somewhere on the Appalachian trail — which means they’ve pinpointed his location to a 2,100-mile region of the East.

He still hasn’t been seen or contacted by telephone…

New York voters, meanwhile, wish their political leaders would join Sanford in the wilderness.

Maybe a couple of days trudging the Northville-Placid trail would clear the heads of our own gang of eccentrics.

Maybe in the backwoods the Lord of the Flies scenario playing out in Albany would finally reach some conclusion.

Whoever comes out with the conch shell gets to be Majority Leader…