Mark Sanford

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A South Carolina House panel is holding a hearing today on the pending impeachment of Mark Sanford. So far not much has come out of it, but I did just get this in my inbox:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Embattled SC Gov. Mark Sanford faces 37 ethics charges he broke travel, campaign funding laws.

I’ll update this post as more information becomes available.

UPDATE:

NPR has more:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford faces ethics charges he broke state laws more than three dozen times by violating rules on airplane travel and campaign money, according to details of the allegations released Monday.

It's up to the state attorney general to decide whether to file criminal charges. Sanford's lawyers have claimed the allegations involve minor and technical aspects of the law.

So we could be looking at an actual criminal trial against the once future face of the GOP.

Mark Sanford was supposed to have a book come out next year – a typical move by anyone planning to run for President. Well we know what happened with old Marky boy, but there’s a problem. Viking, the would be publisher of Sanford’s book, already had their new catalog go to the printing press and included in it – well just look here.

It came out this week that Mark Sanford used a government airplane to go get a haircut, hence making the cost well over $1,000.

When I first heard that I kept thinking about the John Edwards haircut fiasco. The right went after him viciously for this, calling him a hypocrite for spending $300 on a haircut when their are poor people out there who can’t even afford a $8.00 trim. Oh the hypocrisy of a man who championed for the poor to spend this kind of money!

But lets think about Mark Sanford, a man who was a beacon of conservatism to many. How is it “conservative” to spend so much government money on a haircut? This is true hypocrisy, but the coverage of it was much shorter lived than that of Edwards’ haircut. I guess that is what they mean by “liberal media”.

The detail of Sanford’s little lover’s rendezvous in Argentina keep emerging. The latest round shows that Sanford’s office truly didn’t know where he was and couldn’t contact him:

Gov. Mark Sanford’s chief of staff, Scott English, called the governor’s cell phones 15 times during the governor’s secret trip to Argentina to visit his lover last month. But the governor never picked up.

Meanwhile Sanford’s communications director, Joel Sawyer, worked to minimize the fact the governor had been out of touch with his staff for about four days.

Records released Monday show Sawyer juggled e-mails and media calls from around the nation, giving a consistent message that was later proven to be untrue.

One phrase comes to mind – dereliction of duty. How can anyone trust their leader who takes the job so lightly to just leave? Here’s an example of what this dereliction caused:

Those records also show Sanford declined a dinner invitation from a company looking to expand its business in South Carolina because Sanford planned to be in Argentina that day.

So with South Carolina in economic hell, Sanford misses an opportunity to bring in business and jobs. He sure didn’t go into hiding when it came to turning down stimulus money, but when actual economic growth potentials emerge he is AWOL.

South Carolinians and their state assembly need to get rid of this disgrace. This isn’t a situation of partisanship, but rather a question of leadership. Sanford just lost the state business opportunity because of his poor judgment. What next? Will his state suffer in a disaster while he is off on some secret little booty call?

And anyone not calling for his resignation shows poor judgment in management skills. If one of my employees just left with no warning they wouldn’t have a job to come to, and that’s a practice carried out by every business I can think of. So this isn’t just a question of Sanford’s affair, but, and more importantly, his ability to be an executive. Do the right thing and start impeachment hearings.

My level of respect for this woman just went down some:

The real issue now is one of forgiveness. I am willing to forgive Mark for his actions. We have been deeply disappointed in and even angry at Mark

Mark Sanford publicly admits he doesn’t even love his wife, but that’s ok. She can forgive him. Yeah go ahead and forgive him. That just gives him a reason to go out and do it more.

It’s amazing to hear Sanford now admit he had “crossed the line” with more women. So Sanford stood before the people of his state last week and lied while begging forgiveness. He even has been invoking God on his lies. This man is a plethora of sin.

But if that isn’t enough, this part really got me:

During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he's trying to fall back in love with his wife.

Now we have a man who is putting his political future before his family. Growing up in a family where your parents are no longer in love is not fun, and becomes stressful. Sanford isn’t thinking about his wife or his kids. He wants to put on some charade just so he looks politically viable. And any Republican who supports Sanford’s will to remain in office are every bit as guilty as he is. If people like Lindsey Graham and Joe Scarborough are truly friends of Sanford then they would tell him he needs to either resign or let go of his family. Let Jenny move on and stop prolonging the inevitable pain his children will go through. This isn’t about politics, its about human lives.

I find it very interesting that Mark Sanford is now equating himself to King David:

I have been doing a lot of soul searching on that front. What I find interesting is the story of David, and the way in which he fell mightily, he fell in very very significant ways. But then picked up the pieces and built from there.

No where in the Bible does it say you can pick and choose which parts you want to live by, so I have to Matthew 7:1

Don't judge, so that you won't be judged either

Judge is exactly what Mark Sanford did back in 1998 during the Clinton impeachment hearings:

In 1998, Sanford was a Republican congressman from South Carolina when he demanded "moral clarity" from Clinton and called on him to resign. "Very damaging stuff. This one's pretty cut and dried," Sanford told The Post and Courier in September 1998. "I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally [to resign].”

Sanford is refusing to leave office, yet he judged Bill Clinton and voted for him to be removed from office. This is a pure double standard, and one becoming more common amongst Republicans every day. Sadly the religious right is the enablers of this double standard. Like the guy on the corner trying to sell drugs, the religious right tries to sell votes to Republican politicians by getting them to say what they want to hear.

Perhaps the best path to recovery for the Republican Party is to just tell the dealer “no”. Tell the religious right that they will no longer bow to them and that they can no longer lead by a double standard. A majority of Americans are not going to tolerate this anymore. Republicans already point some of the blame for their fall from power to people like Larry Craig and Mark Foley. Now they can add Mark Sanford and John Ensign to their list of scapegoats, but the part as a whole needs to realize they are equally as guilty as these men.

Mark Sanford should do the right thing, not only for his state, but for his party. He should resign from office. If anything being governor is about the same as having two full time jobs. How can he work on making amends to his family and repairing the damage his libido has done to them if he continues serving?

There is no argument that when it comes to our politicians and their little sexcapades we have a double standard in this nation – a standard clearly divided amongst party lines.

Take John Edwards, Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer or Jim McGreevey. These four Democrats suffered severely for their extramarital affairs. One was impeached, two were force out of office and the other has no political future.

But when we switch to the Republican side and look at Mark Sanford, John Ensign, David Vitter and Larry Craig, they were able to continue. Craig of course decided not to run again, but that was his choice. Mark Sanford and John Ensign have vowed to stay in office even though the hypocrisy now triumphs over any good they can do. These were men who adamantly yelled for Bill Clinton to be impeached. Now that they are swimming in the same pool, impeachment isn’t an option.

So why is this? I can only assume that Democrats are held to a higher standard by the public and their own beliefs. This really puts a damper on the Republican Party being the party of values, since every value they claim to believe they end up ignoring.

Republicans have a major problem moving forward. Not only are they viewed poorly on every issue across the board, but the one issue they always did have is now gone. That issue is family values. People like Tony Perkins try to hold on to yesteryear and thinking the Republicans are the superior moral beings, but the people have realized that Republican superiority is now synonymous with hypocrisy.

Just go this:

Sure he’ll pay it back, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that he did it to begin with. While this asshole was out showboating over his rejection of the stimulus funds, he knew damn good and well that he was abusing taxpayers dollars. This guy is a major fraud and shouldn’t be allowed to remain in office. But we are talking about a Republican. They never make their cheaters leave office. Only the Democrats live up to that higher standard.

The man who leads the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, has jumped the shark yet again. Today he is blaming the Sanford affair on President Obama:

So it’s Obama’s fault that Mark Sanford had to go out and get some? Oh and don’t forget that this has been going on for quiet a few years, and possibly before Obama was even in the Senate. Now that is power!

Rush just proved once again that he is a deranged idiot willing to say anything. Thank God no one takes him seriously. Well no one except the GOP, which accounts as no one in our nation anymore.

"I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally (to resign)... I come from the business side," he said. "If you had a chairman or president in the business world facing these allegations, he'd be gone."

Mark Sanford talking about Bill Clinton’s affair in 1998. 11 years later and he is now on the receiving end with no talk of resigning. Just another GOP hypocrite exposed.

How fiscally conservative is it to have a mistress in another country?

An interesting point is that during the raging wild fires last month that were threatening South Carolina’s biggest tourist area, Myrtle Beach, Mark Sanford was not around. He was “out of town” while his state burned. So was he in Argentina flaming the fires of lust while his state burned? I certainly hope legislatures in South Carolina are asking this and judging rather he is capable of continuing as their governor.

Read this and then see if you start thinking what I am thinking:

The wife of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said Wednesday in a statement that she continues to love her husband, but that she asked him to leave their home two weeks ago because "I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect and my basic sense of right and wrong."

(emphasis added)

Um the Sanford’s live in the Governor’s Mansion. So wouldn’t it be her duty to leave? It isn’t called the Governors Wife’s Mansion.

But something else sticks out here. This whole debacle started last week when Sanford’s wife said “I haven’t seen my husband”. She started the media frenzy, yet never mentioned this. Now that is very curious.

I know a lot of people are saying they feel sorry for her, but I don’t. She made this into a bigger public spectacle than it needed to be by sounding that alarm last week. Now she can accept the public scrutiny that comes with such a poor judgment call.

So now that Mark Sanford has become a lying, cheating, and down right idiotic person, how does FOX treat the news? Well KOS shows us:

Every damn time. And I am sure we will hear an apology from them in the next day or so. Just like every other time in the past. Just save it FOX – we all know you are sorry.