Talk Elections

Yeah, I know, another freakin' Sanford thread.  But this one has serious intent.

Even without the sexual escapades, Sanford went AWOL for several days without leaving anybody in charge of the state.  That is a grave error of judgement, far moreso than the affair itself.  Let's be thankful that there were no emergencies in that time that required the attention of South Carolina's chief executive.

Incidentally, Spitzer announced his resignation two days after his story broke, upon threat of impeachment by the NY legislature.

Depends on whether or not he used taxpayer funds, which would be pretty amusing given that Sanford was a major figure in the "Tea Party" movement.

Spitzer never used public funds to hire the prostitutes.  Although he of course broke the law while Sanford didn't, at least Spitzer didn't irresponsibly leave his state ungoverned for several days.

Well under SC laws, Sanford broke the law as well.

Spitzer resigned by his own will; I don't believe Sanford's feet will be put to the fire unless he was using government money. I could be completely off base though.

I'll give him 2-3 weeks.

Unless the General Assembly gets called back for a special session, it would be January before Sanford would have to worry about a possible impeachment, so unlike Spitzer, he probably has several months to let this cool down somewhat.  Plus there's the effect a resignation/impeachment would have on the 2010 race.  Since both our Lt. Gov. and our Attorney General are running, the AG has no incentive to go after Sanford unless Mark and Maria met  via Craigslist.

Thank you for the insight.

Still, I can envisage a trial by media toppling him.  Furthermore, if other top state leaders join with Bauer in lynching him, is it possible for him to be forced to resign even without due process by the General Assembly?

He should have resigned today, IMHO.

I agree.

Besides hes blown it as Gov anyway with the states UMP rate at historic levels.  I hope he didn't use tax payers money for these trips.

Unlike Blago, no one is going to worry that Sanford will do more criminal mischief if left in office than if forced from it.  So far both Bauer and Sen. Jake Knotts (R-Lexington) who is one of Sanford's more notable foes have refrained from calling for Sanford's resignation.  Possibly the media might attempt a lynching, but I don't see anyone on the Republican side of the aisle leading the way.  Indeed, from the viewpoint of the General Assembly, having a governor who no one cares if his vetos get overridden gives them more power than they would get by forcing him from office, so they might choose to refrain from impeaching him for that reason as well.

I can't see Sanford caring much about what the media thinks of him as he never has, so unless there is another shoe out there to drop, and he resigns to keep it hidden, I doubt Sanford will resign and give Bauer a leg up on 2010 by being the incumbent.

Agreed.

There is zero reason for Sanford to resign. He did not commit a crime, and his personal life is nobody's business. However, he lied in public, so his political career is finished. What a pathetic dumb ass! And he may have been irresponsible, but that is not a capital offense either.

I would not resign under these circumstances, but then I would have refused to discuss my personal life as well, much less lie about it.

What laws did Sanford break?

Methinks you'd be singing a different tune had there been some kind of crisis in South Carolina last weekend, and nobody could find the governor...

Adultery is a crime in the great state of South Carolina.

Where he wasn't when he committed it, so it's moot. I don't think adultery is illegal in Argentina, nor would Argentina really care about prosecuting him even if it was.

Regardless he should be impeached simply for his derelection of duty.

I agree. The blatant irresponsibility he showed is just staggering.

The legislation  (http://www.scstatehouse.gov/CODE/t16c015.htm)makes no mention of whether the adulterer must have committed the act within South Carolina.  It could be argued that he broke the law by virtue of being a resident of the state.


My point all along.

fornication is technically illegal in SC?  cool

He's either going to be forced out within the next two or three days or he won't be. The media is going to be bored of this by week's end.

I'm already sick of it.

Affair + with foreigner + public funds + disappearance + all this happening in SC = only a matter of time.

Agreed. If he survives a week, he should survive till the end of the term. But, you know the old joke:

"Doctor, will he live?"
"Well, if you call THAT life."

He'd survive, but would he govern?

His ability to spend 20 minutes in front of the cameras talking smoothly shows remarkably thick skin. But he'd have to deal w/ the legislature, he'd have to deal w/ the media, and they all are smelling blood.  Governing won't be much fun. A senator can keep quiet in the crowd of a 100. A governor is publicly out there every day (unless he is in Argentina). Does he really want to read about this affair for months? How is he going to be "saving his marriage", with the story being repeated over and over? Does he really care to have newspapers comparing the style of his executive orders w/ his e-mails? And, most importantly, what for? To have more veto overrides?

Of course, Clinton showed that anything is possible. But presidency and governorship are different beasts. I really don't see what is it exactly that Sanford would like to do in his remaining time in office.  Staying would just smack of masochism. Resigning would be a sensible thing to do.

Though, of course, there is a reason I am not a gov'nor of any island :)

I haven't seen this yet.  Do you have a source?

I should add that my prediction assumes that nothing else is revealed... an assumption which may be rather foolish considering how this story started.


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24164.html

Not clear if he met the woman though

Given that neither Larry Craig, David Vitter, or John Ensign ever bothered to resign, I don't see why Sanford will feel compelled to. Unless he's impeached, he'll finish out his term and slink away into a cushy consulting job.

But he'll be around til 2011.

They are senators. A senator can pretend he is a chair, or something, long enough for the scandal to dissipate. A governor can't. What is he going to do over the next few weeks: hike the Appalachian Trail?

Governors in South Carolina have so little power, he wouldn't have much to do even without this affair having become public.  Plus, he has just as much clout with the General Assembly now as he did a week ago.

He'll be there until the end of his term and then fade away.

A good point made at my work: If any of us had disappeared for as long as Sanford did with no notification to work, it would be considered job abandonment and we would be fired. I'd say Governor is a bit more important job, so why not the same standard?

Less than a week.

A few weeks.

I think he'll finish his term.

I find it amazing that Eliot Spitzer hired some prostitutes and resigned two days after it hit the headlines, but Mark Sanford abandoned his state completely for several days to hike some Argentinian tail, and he remains safe?  Let's get some perspective.

It's OK, because he impeached Clinton for not going terribly far out of his way to get a BJ.

Clinton was impeached for perjury.  Why is it so hard for liberals to understand that?

Depends on your defintion of perjury, I suppose.

However much time Sanford has left as governor, I doubt it would be long enough for him to finish out his term. 

Whose is kidding who?
Perjury was just the fig leaf.

Ya, but that is not the stuff of resignation, and it certainly isn't legally or ethically required. Moreover, in the governor's absence, the lieutenant governor is authorized to act, and I am quite confident that without the personage of the governor on hand, the state of South Carolina could muddle through just fine.

I am more interested in judging politicians pursuant to their policies and skill at dealing with the big issues. This fixation on detritus such as this strikes me as deflective of that, and rather neighborhood adjacent indeed to well - a red herring.

Sue me!  :P

Actually there was some concern as to whether Bauer would have been able to act if needed.  Our laws concerning the transfer of power in such a case are so vague concerning what constitutes a temporary absence or an emergency that a Attorney General's opinion that was written well before Sanford was even governor opined that it might well need to be settled by a court.  I expect we will have one or more bills introduced next session to clarify when a transfer of power takes place.

I'm starting to think this.

After the latest revelations, I will be surprised if he survives to the end of July.  :P

Boy i made a mistake on this one thinking he'd go til 2011.

Mea Culpa city......wow

He's gone in  July.

He'll last until January when the General Assembly next comes into session, but if he doesn't stop talking, he'll get impeached and divorced.  I can't see Sanford resigning at this point for political reasons.  It's not as if he has any political future to salvage, and I don't see any real harm he is doing to the GOP in the state that might prompt he to quit.  The only reason he would resign would be if Jenny tells him to.

Sanford backs out of promise to release records
15 mins ago
 
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has backed out of a promise to release personal financial records proving he did not use state money for trips to see his mistress.

A day after Sanford declared in an emotional Associated Press interview that his mistress is his soul mate, spokesman Joel Sawyer says the governor does not want to discuss personal matters in the media anymore. The state is investigating Sanford's travel to see the Argentine woman the governor identified as his lover.

Sanford agreed this week to provide the AP with proof of his payment for trips to New York and Argentina to see her.

His staff first said the records might be made available Tuesday, and then the governor's spokesman said Wednesday Sanford would not release them.

***********************************************************************

I think it's going to be much sooner

Quite the reverse.  The fact that he's finally starting to shut up more likely indicates he's decided to ride this out no matter what.  Until the General Assembly comes back into session, there's no way to force him out if he's willing to ignore what the media says about him, and he's been pretty good about doing that the past few years.

Wait a minute. At what point did he start to shut up?

Just because he claims he doesn't want to talk about it anymore, doesn't mean he won't.  He wanted to break off the affair, and well we know how that turned out....

Is Sanford really dumb and reckless enough to actually use state funds for his long distance trysts?  If so, color me absolutely amazed. If he did, he needs to spend a few months in jail.

Looks like he could serve out the remainder of his term. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24620.html)

Can some one in SC please impeach this attention-whore. I mean I felt sorry for him, but he just won't STFU.

 he is going to work things out with his wife, but his lover is his "Soulmate"


Sanford can go to hell.


Mega HP

I predicted as much.  Sanford is too stubborn to resign, and the Assembly won't impeach him for just adultery, which while it is still a crime on the books, apparently hasn't been used in over a century.

Besides, since he said he was shutting up, he's stayed shut up.