In the glare of intense media scrutiny, a call by the lieutentant governor to resign and pending impeachment talks by House Republicans, Gov. Mark Sanford delivered a message Wednesday to reporters and his political enemies: back off.
While everyday South Carolinians have moved on since he admitted to an extramarital affair about two months ago, the governor said, the media are trying to rewrite history and his political enemies are scavenging for payback ammunition.
Sanford said that if his record is stacked against the records of past governors and other politicians, he’ll come out looking “incredibly good.”
Compare Mark Sanford’s Argentine action and his honest reaction to it to Edward Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick action – leaving a women to die a slow death trapped in a car at the bottom of a pond while Kennedy cowardly ran away and left her to die – and you’ll wonder why Sanford is being savaged by the media while Kennedy is being eulogized as a wonderful and great American by the same media. It’s a perfect example of what’s wrong with the media today.
The media?
Well, of course the media went hard after the Argentina story, but it is the cover-up that is killing Sanford now. Did the press force Sanford to accept (then decline to report as he was required to by ethics guidelines) trips on planes provided by political contributors? Did the media force Sanford to use state planes for –um– personal trips?
I guess the only things keeping people from blaming the “liberal media” for Sanford’s troubles are A) That the media sure ain’t liberal here in South Carolina and B) It is his fellow Republicans who are trying the hardest to take Sanford down. The Dems down here are too few and disorganized to do much besides cheer from the sidelines.
For the record, I think he should stay–he is no worse than other SC governors (a bad lot, historically speaking), he paid back the state for the Argentina Adventure, and the Lt. Governor (also GOP) who would take over has his own skeletons in the closet. And, since Sanford (then a congressman) spent so much energy in 1998 calling for Clinton’s resignation and pushing to impeach the President, poetic justice demands that Sanford spend his last 16 months in office trying to govern under similar conditions. It’ll be good for his soul.
Politically, I like Mark Sanford, but I can’t help agree with #2. This fiasco is of Sanford’s making and no one else’s.
I agree that Sanford should resign — but not for leaving the state “leaderless” during his time in Argentina or any such silly nonsense as that as such wild and breathless sentiments merely grossly inflate the importance of government leaders being present to help lead the state through possible “crises.” Nor do I think Sanford should resign for not following the law regarding airline travel, since it now unfolds that other governors weren’t either.
I think he should resign because he committed adultery on his wife, thus cannot be trusted, and is a thorough disgrace because of those things. I don’t particularly care if liberals commit adultery, but when conservatives do — that’s cheek and it’s gross hypocricy.
RE: “That the media sure ain’t liberal here in South Carolina . . . ”
I’m not sure what that means. The State is a liberal newspaper. The Greenville News is a mix of both liberal and conservative journalists. And the Post and Courier is a conservative newspaper. One can fairly easily tell these things by which way the journalists fall on the collectivization and expansion of the State — the State generally supports boondoggle government bureaucraticization of things, the Greenville News waffles back and forth, and the P&C is generally opposed.
One would think he had signed his own death warrant. Yet here he is, still in office, as safe as can be, as far as I can tell. How can this be?
Do you suppose he has not considered that this puts all politicians in an unsavory light, and this will be in his last will and testament? Larry
What is the American tradition re resignations in dishonour? Here in Canada, a minister in the cabinet- including the PM himself- has traditionally resigned over a moral indiscretion or a bad administrative action, even if the latter was committed by a deputy assistant minister. If it cast the least shadow over the government party, out he went. But PM Jean Chretien refused to maintain the custom, so that now the press doesn’t even bother to report an elected official’s immorality so long as he’s good at his job.
#2. Yes, I suppose the Associated Press is not the media. I just wonder why the non-media AP hasn’t expended the effort on investigating the likes of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Charlie Rangel and others who are soaking up bribes and constantly taking actions which are changing this country from a free country to a marxist country as they have in attempting to destroy Mark Sanford. I guess that’s not nearly so important as working overtime to destroy a man who made a mistake, confessed it and asked for forgiveness. And, by the way, has there been an official investigation which shows Sanford has used state aircraft for purely personal trips? Or, is that just the reporting of the non-media Associated Press?
What ever the Governor says is incredible, and I never cease to marvel at the ways in which ideologues of the right and left jump to defend their boys and girls whenever they’re caught with their pants and skirts down. Wanna bring up Ted Kennedy – why not Mr. Craig, Mr. Gingrich (getting his while his wife is dying), and other immoral Republicans? Why don’t we insist on holding every politician accountable instead of blaming the media or using other well-known tactics to avoid confronting the real issue? Sanford’s wife should be governor – she’s not complaining about the media or the sins of the members of the opposite party or whining about everyone ganging up on Sanford. She is the only one in the entire mess who has consistently and steadfastly focused on the real issue.
“The Charleston Post and Courier reports that Mark Sanford, as a congressman, called on Clinton to resign when his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky was revealed. Sanford is now Gov. Sanford. And, as just about everyone knows by now, he confessed today that he had an affair with a ‘dear, dear friend’ in Argentina.
“But back in 1998, according to the Post and Courier, he said of Clinton, ‘Very damaging stuff. This one’s pretty cut and dried.’ Calling the overall situation messy, he added: ‘I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally [to resign].'”
—[url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/06/sanford-and-ensign-called-on-clinton-to-resign-after-his-affair.html]source[/url]
I am not defending Sanford’s adultery and general childishness. Disgusting. However, #8, ember, Clinton’s misbehavior was conducted with an employee in the office, and he compounded this by committing perjury and suborning perjury. Sanford hasn’t done that so far as I know.