The S.C. Ethics Commission has charged S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford with 37 counts of breaking state ethics laws. The commission filed its charges last week but only released them Monday.
Those charges allege that, in 18 instances, Sanford authorized, approved or allowed the purchase of business-class airfare so that he could travel to and within the continents of Europe, Asia and South America.
Four of the flights cited involved a 2008 state Commerce Department trip to Brazil that Sanford extended to Argentina so that the married, two-term Republican governor could see his Argentine lover.
Sanford may be a total idiot, but this is a total waste of time. The Budget and Control just cut $16M more from child protective services at the SC Deaprtmant of Social Services two weeks ago. But we are going to impeach and try, at a multi-million dollar price tag, a Governor whose political ambitions are ruined and over, and who acccording to our own Supreme Court has no power anyway. And that will make Andre Bauer our governor, the only man in SC who makes Mark Sanford look like a Nobel Lauriate. If he has committed criminal violations, indict and try him and send him to jail. But, with 12% + unemployment and the state budget in the tank the politicians need to get to some real work and forget this grandstanding non-sense.