My only quibble: Newsweek's headline. "Atlas Hugged." If you want to know why the journalism industry is in trouble, there's your answer.

As for the content? Let's skip over Sanford's all too predictable attempt to claim that Ayn Rand is more relevant now than ever by blaming the current financial crisis on an excess of government, rather than on a failure to restrain an out-of-control free market. I ranted about that last week in "Scary Fantasy Alert: Ayn Rand Will Not Die."

Much more interesting is Sanford's grounds for being critical of Ayn Rand: the failure of her "outlook" to "include the human needs we have for grace, love, faith, or any form of social compact."

There is one more major flaw in Rand's thinking. She believed that man is perfectible -- a view she shared with the Soviet collectivists she hated. The geniuses and industrial titans who retire to Galt's hidden valley create a perfect society based on reason and pure individualism; and Galt himself, in the 57-page speech near the book's end, explicitly denies the existence of original sin. The idea that man is perfectible has been disproved by 10,000 years of history. Men and women are imperfect, or "fallen," which is why I believe there is a role for limited government in making sure that my rights end where yours begin.

Again, Sanford doesn't just talk the "men are imperfect" and "fallen" talk, he walks the walk. It is a rhetorical tour de force to so deftly turn his own infidelity into a critique of Rand, who was famous for her atheism and staunch opposition to the notion there was anything of value to be found in religion.

But Sanford's line of argument does us the favor of exposing the uneasy contradiction at the heart of the modern Republican Party. The GOP wants government out of our lives, but God in -- in our schools, our bodies, our marriages and our justice system. And not just any God, but their God in particular, their Jesus, their original sin and their faith in when life originates. Tell me again, Governor, how your rights end where mine begin?

Ayn Rand would be appalled at the Republican will to mandate America's values based on a particular version of religious faith, and would not be shy to call the GOP to account for its hypocrisy. Let's give her some credit for that, rather than target it as her weakness.

CNN's Peter Hamby notes that this is a particularly tough blow for Sanford; he'd always fought with other South Carolina lawmakers, even fellow Republicans, so losing their support didn't hurt so bad. But these are party activists, long Sanford's base, and they'd been sticking by him. Not anymore.

Still, if he hasn't resigned yet, Sanford isn't likely to do so now. In fact, earlier in the day he'd held a contentious press conference at which he declared his intention to remain in office. And in a statement after the vote, he said, "South Carolinians are ready to move beyond this political circus and media-driven distraction."

Now, Bobby Harrell, the speaker of South Carolina's House, has added his voice to the chorus.

"What has become clear is that Governor Sanford’s issues will continue to dominate our state as long as he remains in office," Harrell said in a letter to the governor delivered Tuesday. "Whether he should be removed from office is a question that will need to be answered from the State Ethics Commission investigation, but our state’s future is too important to have the Governor’s issues overshadow everything we do for the next fifteen months. For the good of our state, Governor Sanford should step aside."

CNN's Peter Hamby reports that "Harrell got an earful from members of the House Republican caucus at their annual retreat in Myrtle Beach last month, when a majority of House Republicans said the governor should either resign or be impeached."

Sanford publicly rejected Bauer's call for his resignation; he's likely to do the same with Harrell's.

But, Sanford said, he wasn't going to take the lieutenant governor up on his offer:

As much as I might like to do that, as much as I might want to do that, I really believe it'd be wrong for a couple of different reasons ...

A lot of what's going on now is pure politics, plain and simple. And so what I talk about in my letter [to Bauer] is, you know, 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, one, because, as much as you might dislike somebody, it is not right to go out and try and rewrite history, because we have an incredible record when it comes to watching out for the taxpayer. And there have been attempts to sort of rewrite history on that front ...

I also think it's wrong given the constitutionally weak status of the governorship in South Carolina. As much as I might want to fold the tent, again, for future governors, just because folks might be frenzied up or frightened or other things in the General Assembly, does not mean it is the right time to fold the tent.