Should he stay or should he go?

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s confession of an extramarital affair has reignited old arguments over private behavior and the public trust. Sanford resigned from his position as head of the Republican Governors Association, but should he also surrender his gubernatorial seat?

There is a credible argument to be made that the private life of a public figure is exactly that — private. We should judge our politicians by what they do in their public life. And a certain generosity of spirit should be extended toward the peccadilloes of the private life — even in the case of a Bible-thumping, “family-values” politician who supported the impeachment of President Clinton.

But Sanford’s public life has also been questionable, and he let his private affair intrude upon his public duties.

Sanford’s fiscal stinginess led to numerous and protracted fights with South Carolina’s Legislature. During his first term, Sanford threatened to close the state government down rather than approve a “pork-barrel” budget. His most notorious stunt was hauling a pair of piglets into the statehouse.

Before his affair became public, most of America knew of Sanford as the governor who was defying President Obama — refusing to accept $700 million in federal stimulus money. If Sanford couldn’t use the money to pay off old debts, he said he didn’t want it.

His stance was widely unpopular and sparked protest rallies. South Carolina public school administrators took Sanford to court, since the $700 million in question was earmarked to support education. If the South Carolina Supreme Court hadn’t ruled — as it finally did — that Sanford “has no discretion over the appropriation of funds,” a South Carolina already wounded by the recession would have been forced to close schools and throw teachers out of work.

Rather than feuding over the funds, Sanford should have turned his attention to administering the money efficiently and addressing the economic crisis in the state. Unemployment has been a pernicious problem in South Carolina for decades, but in May the state unemployment rate leapt to 12.1 percent, tied for third highest in the nation. This was not a time to turn down stimulus money.

Sanford’s quirky political stances smacked of grandstanding, as he appeared to be putting his own interests ahead of his state’s, and he was positioning himself for a presidential bid in 2012.

He dashed that dream in Argentina. When he admitted that he met with his mistress while he was on state business in Argentina in 2008, he crossed the line between private and public. He has vowed to repay the state “the full cost of the Argentina leg of the trip,” but that won’t cut it.

Nor does he have an adequate explanation for going AWOL over Father’s Day weekend, not letting anyone know his whereabouts.

These are not the actions of a responsible chief executive.

His voluntary resignation would be fully appropriate.

Darryl Lorenzo Wellington is a poet and critic living in Charleston, S.C. He can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.