Pundits have been filling the airwaves over the past week speculating about if and when South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, the latest family values-touting Republican to admit to adultery, might be forced to resign. Some pundits even suggested he might resign over the July Fourth holiday weekend.

The holiday has come and the resignation of a controversial governor has been announced, but it’s not Sanford. It’s Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Here’s the opening of her official statement:

Governor Sarah Palin announced today that she will not seek a second term as Governor of the State of Alaska and will relegate the power of governor to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell in order to serve Alaska’s best interests. Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will move into Parnell’s current role.

“People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing’s more important to me than our beloved Alaska,” said Governor Palin. “Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine.”

…“I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” said Governor Palin after the announcement. “Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose. It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success. I look forward to helping others – to fight for our state and our country, and campaign for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops, and energy independence.”

Conventional wisdom is she’s leaving office in order to work full time preparing to run for president in 2012, but Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has been doing some digging and says Palin’s motivation appears to be a “colossal sulk,” and a desire to paint herself as a victim of the liberal media:

3:52 PM … So what happened exactly? As I just mentioned in our editorial chat, this clearly happened so quickly that Palin hasn’t even had a chance to come up with a coherent cover story for her resignation. Some context is probably helpful here, however. Remember that based on the public record, Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor…

4:06 PM … Wow. It just gets better and better. Apparently one of Palin’s rationale’s for resigning is that she would not stand by while so many taxpayer dollars were being spent investigating her

Over to you, Gov. Sanford.

Update: On MSNBC just now, Alaska-based reporter Shannyn Moore just told David Schuster that rumors have been circulating in the state for weeks that Palin or someone close to her would be facing criminal charges. Moore, a long-time Palin observer, said it would be out of character for Palin to give up the governorship voluntarily this way, so maybe there is something to the rumors.