To the victor goes the Alaskan king salmon — and a little good-natured trash talk. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford thanked his Alaskan counterpart, Gov. Sarah Palin, for fulfilling her part of a bet the two Republicans had on the recently concluded ECHL finals.

The South Carolina Stingrays defeated the Alaska Aces, meaning Palin had to deliver her state's famed fish to Sanford.

Sanford sent Palin what he called a consolation prize-sized portion of shrimp, grits and She- Crab soup from a Charleston restaurant. He wrote Palin that he hoped the gift would "help you in consoling those rough feelings that will probably plague you for months, if not the years, ahead, as a result of the defeat of the Aces by the almighty Stingrays!"

Sanford also hoped Palin could sweeten the deal with some of her state's famed Alaskan king crabs, perhaps "a full tractor-trailer load," he wrote in the June 10th letter.