Leadership in South Carolina - NYT calls for Sanford to resign.

[jefferson_dem]

Leadership in South Carolina

If ever a chief executive rendered himself inoperative, Gov. Mark Sanford did so in skipping out on his responsibilities to South Carolina’s four million citizens for six days on a secretive personal fling in Argentina. In the process, Mr. Sanford failed to transfer emergency powers to the lieutenant governor, as provided in the State Constitution, leaving his state vulnerable to all manner of crises while the governor was nowhere to be found.

This is a compelling reason that Mr. Sanford should resign from office. There are others. He lied to the state and his staff in concocting a false trail to mask his trysting. He tapped taxpayer funds to drum up a trade mission last year that allowed him to see his lover.

It’s not encouraging that the governor compared himself on Friday to King David, the adulterous and murderous Biblical king who fell out of God’s favor “but then picked up the pieces and built from there.”

Any attempt by Mr. Sanford to retain power will prolong the civic shambles he has made. The real issues of government, beginning with the state’s grave economic problems, will be relegated to an afterthought as further details spill out about the governor’s personal lapses. The repair of Mr. Sanford’s family life, while ardently hoped for by empathetic supporters, should not be confused with restoring responsible government.

There is every indication that Mr. Sanford would have maintained his cavalier abuse of the governorship but for the discovery of his official recklessness by The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C. In his mystery odyssey, the governor eluded his security detail and drove a state car to the airport with the whereabouts locater turned off. Surprised by a news photographer in returning from Buenos Aires, the governor countered with his rambling public confession. (How public officials of both parties expect they can indulge themselves without some enemy revealing their hypocrisy is one of the running mysteries of politics.)

Since Mr. Sanford thought enough of his political peers to resign as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, he has a comparable duty to South Carolina voters. Unfortunately, his spinners are emphasizing contrition, not competence, in describing a new mission of “building back the trust” of the people. Mr. Sanford should get out of the way of the need to build back the government he undermined.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/opinion/27sat2.html?_r=1&src=twr&pagewanted=print

[Captain Hilts]

1. Damn Yankees! States rights!!!

[jefferson_dem]

2. Right. This will be like a badge of honor for the Guvnah and his redneck backers.

Oh well... Fuckem.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Why is the NYT providing their opinion? They don't live in SC.

I'm sure the citizens of SC don't need help from NY on what to do. Their media is probably doing a fine job.

[Cha]

5. Yeah, they are..

<snip>>>

Gov. Sanford, While You Were Out

Secretly in Argentina from June 18 to early June 24, Governor Sanford was reportedly out of contact with his staff and could not be reached until a call early on June 23. We thought we’d mention a few things he missed while he was gone:

• On June 18, there was the admittedly toned-down second anniversary of the Charleston Nine tragedy. Sanford attended the major anniversary event held last year.

• On June 19, the state Employment Security Commission announced that South Carolina’s unemployment rate had reached 12.1 percent, a record high.

• On June 20, a Mt. Pleasant doctor reported treating two people for swine flu.

• June 21 was Father’s Day

• On June 22, renowned local blacksmith and artisan Philip Simmons and longtime Strom Thurmond staffer Warren Abernathy died.

• On June 23, State Ports Authority announced new CEO, and reported traffic at a more than 10 year low.

• On June 24, President Barack Obama held a White House meeting with five governors (including two Republicans) to discuss health care reform.

Sanford admits affair, state paid for Argentina trips

Governor Mark Sanford said Wednesday that it was an affair with an Argentinian woman that caused him to deceive his staff, the media, and the public regarding his mysterious disappearance last Thursday.

In December, the Associated Press reported that taxpayers had spent $21,488 in 2008 on Sanford trips to China, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as nearly $2,000 in travel from his own office.

It was revealed Monday that Sanford had taken a law enforcement Surburban last week and had not been heard from since. His wife, his staff, and state law enforcement didn't know where he was. Late Monday, staff members released statements that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but his car was found Tuesday evening at the Columbia International Airport. Early Wednesday, a reporter from The State newspaper caught up with the governor after he exited a plane from Argentina at an Atlanta airport.

<<<much more>>>>
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/sanford-timeline-from-the-trail-to-argentina/Content?oid=1222454

[Faygo Kid]

8. Well, gowy gee whiz that a paper would editorialize about this outside of SC. Secede now!

Yep, because they don't live there, the NY Times should stay out of the business of the governance of SC, and the DAMNED YANKEES SHOULD KEEP THEIR OPINIONS TO THEMSELVES.

Seems to me we heard that same trash about 149 years ago.

I hope the Palmetto State papers feel every right to comment on NY State, and I'm sure they did with Spitzer.

Give me a freaking break here. You can do better.

[Hawaii Hiker]

10. Since when is the NYT's OP/ED only restricted to the events happening in

Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, & Manhattan?...

With the gross mis-use of power & a downright stupid comparison Sanford makes between himself & King David, he should be called out..I don't care what paper it is....This clown WAS a possible presidential candiate in 2012...

[Cha]

4. Yeah, this okay for

out of staters to read about the governor of South Carolina's scandal but it ain't going to mean shit to TPTB in SC..right?

[frazzled]

6. In fact, it's likely to backfire in the way that ...

the U.S. getting "tough" with the Iranian government would only be an excuse to villify the protest movement as foreign-inspired lackeyism.

The NYT criticizing their governor will probably only make South Carolinians rally around him, to protect him from the devil northern elites.

[Cha]

9. Hopefully, we'll

be surprised!

[MadMaddie]

7. But....But he paid the money back!!

:sarcasm:

Bye..Bye..Sanford!!

[rhett o rick]

11. WTF? Resign? Did the NYT missed the fact he is a rupuke? They don't have to resign. ala Craig and

Vitter. They can be "cured" ala Ted Haggard.

F'ing hypo-criteas

[davidpdx]

12. He not only betrayed his family, but his state

If he does not resign, he should be impeached.