Carolina Politics Online

GOP gubernatorial nominee Nikki Haley has spent the past two weeks in closed-door meetings with S.C. business leaders, seeking to mend fences and calm fears about her commitment to business in the state.

That is an unusual position for a Republican, whom political observers say is the favorite to be elected governor in November.

Haley’s opponent, state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, won the endorsement last month of the S.C. Chamber of Commerce. The chamber, which Haley has described in the past as pro-bailout and pro-big spending, has typically leaned Republican in this Republican-dominated state.

Haley is trying to head off Republican support for Sheheen, who has been courting the business community and positioning himself as the candidate more interested in working with business and the General Assembly on economic development.

At the heart of the business community’s discomfort with Haley is her rocky relationship with the GOP-controlled Legislature. Haley, a House member from Lexington, won the Republican nomination in runaway fashion over seasoned opponents in Attorney General Henry McMaster, U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett and Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, partly by running against the General Assembly.

The State

A candidate who truly believes in the idea of limited government can actually be an anathema to the business community, rather than a welcomed God sent.  The corporate welfare leaches sucking at the government tit have no interest in a politician who will not be keen on the idea of using taxpayer dollars to subsidize their bottom line.  This was something that Governor Sanford rarely would do and corporate beneficiaries of our money are concerned that Haley will play the same kind of hard ball.

As for our state legislators, they are worried first and foremost about protecting their fiefdoms.  They have had a rocky eight years with Sanford who wasn’t afraid to call them out on their bullshit and Haley is likely to follow suit.  How ironic to see a Republican legislature, the party of “limited government”, panicking over the prospects of another four to eight years of a true limited government state CEO.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has closed two chapters of his life, agreeing to pay $74,000 in fines to resolve ethics charges brought against him after last summer’s revelation of an extramarital affair, and receiving word that a judge had formally ended his 20-year marriage to his wife, Jenny.

The term-limited Republican agreed Thursday to pay the fines to resolve dozens of ethics charges, including a taxpayer-funded rendezvous with his Argentine mistress, marking the end to a months-long saga.

Within minutes, the governor’s marriage had been dissolved by a family court judge in Charleston County, 100 miles from the state capital of Columbia.

The Washington Post

And yet Sanfraud won’t do the honorable thing and resign.  His unwillingness to completely own up to his failures casts a black eye on his party who most certainly doesn’t want the embarrassment of losing the gubernatorial race in one of the most Republican states in the country in what is shaping up to be a very good year for the GOP.  In the same respect, it probably doesn’t help either that the Republican controlled state assembly could have removed him from office and chose not to.

COLUMBIA — Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday that President Barack Obama’s decision to abandon a decades-old plan for Nevada’s Yucca Mountain could cost South Carolina $1.2 billion and leave the permanent storage of thousands of tons of nuclear waste in question, and the governor is prepared to sue over it.

Sanford urged Obama to back off his Feb. 1 decision and stick to the 23-year bipartisan compact to use the Nevada facility as a resting ground for the country’s nuclear waste, including 4,000 metric tons temporarily housed at the Savannah River Site and elsewhere in South Carolina.

The two-term Republican governor said Obama was motivated to reverse course as a way to ensure U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s re-election in Nevada.

The president decided to eliminate all funding for the facility and withdraw its license application with the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Post and Courier

The Yucca Mountain nuclear storage containment site is something that I happen to know a bit about.  My father lived back in Las Vegas during the 1990s and worked on this project for a government contractor.  There is absolutely nothing unsafe about this containment facility nor does it pose any threat to the people of Nevada.  The Yucca Mountain is over an hour away from Vegas and in the middle of friggin nowhere.

I agree with Sanford that this all a political ploy by Obama.  He’s willing to cost our state over a billion dollars and throw billions more away to try and save Harry Reid’s political carcass which has already started rotting and sticking up the place.  Of course people in Nevada have protested against it.  Nobody wants to have nuclear waste in their backyard, but that isn’t happening in Nevada nor would it if the Yucca Mountain project were to commence again.  The bulk of the outcry is based on ignorance.

That move by Obama contradicts his claim that he is suddenly supportive of nuclear power.  How can he says he wants to see more nuclear power plants built while simultaneously shutting down one of the major nuclear storage projects in the country?  He can’t have it both ways.

For the next 15 years, South Carolina taxpayers will be paying back nearly $400 million in bonds, including interest, for the new Boeing assembly plant in North Charleston.

And the Chicago-based aerospace giant, which posted $16.7 billion in revenue and $1.2 billion in operating cash flow for the most recent third quarter, will be getting more than $100 million of the bond package up front from the Palmetto State.

The S.C. Budget and Control Board took less than five minutes this morning to unanimously authorize the sale of $270 million in bonds for construction of the 787 Dreamliner final assembly plant, which will be located next to two other Boeing plants.

The total interest on the bonds is estimated at $129,077,721.70, according to S.C. Department of Commerce documents provided today to The Nerve. With the $270 million in principal, that comes out to $105,020.45 in taxpayer-funded debt for each of the 3,800 promised jobs.

The Budget and Control Board – made up of Gov. Mark Sanford, state Treasurer Converse Chellis, state Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper, R-Anderson – didn’t mention the total cost of the bonds before quickly approving them this morning.

The Nerve

This really isn’t surprising given the state legislature’s appetite for endless spending and government waste over the years in Columbia.  It is out of character, however, for Governor Sanford to sign his name onto something like this.  Perhaps all of the controversy over the past months regarding his “hiking trip” to Argentina has made him much more concerned about his legacy upon leaving office.  Opposing this taxpayer hand out to corporate America may have been the responsible thing to do, but it sure wouldn’t have been the populist route.

Mark Sanford

Want to be Jackass of the Year for 2010? It’s easy! All you have to do is be a lying hypocritical bastard who betrays his core supporters and cheats on his wife and family. That seems to be the best way to earn the wrath of CPO’s readers, who twice in two years have chosen just such a loser as their top jackass. Last year, John Edwards took home the prize. This year, it’s Mark Sanford. Hell hath no fury like a CPO reader scorned, I suppose.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Sanford tops this list because of the shitty way he treated his more-than-patient wife, the disgusting disregard he showed his children, and the mockery and disrepute he brought to the governor’s office. Then by not doing the decent thing (resigning and going the hell away), he’s subjected South Carolina to such an ongoing circus that there’s a trapeze set and a dancing bear outside the state capitol.

So for all that, Mark Sanfraud is a supreme and total jackass.

But Sanford is not only a jackass for what he did; he’s a jackass because now he can’t do what he could have done. If I may plagiarize Classic Hollywood for a moment: Mark Sanford coulda been somebody. He coulda been a contender… instead of a bum. And not just a contender for president in 2012; that’s just a job. Sanford could have been the voice of an entire political movement that is desperately needed in America. Since 1994, he had been been regarded as a continually ascending star on the right and as an articulate and passionate spokesman for libertarian conservatism. In much the way that Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan re-defined the Republican Party,  Sanford too could have led a generational and ideological shift that could have forever changed this county.  Instead, he threw it all away for a booty call.

When I spoke about Kay Hagan and Bev Perdue, I noted that they were both fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time. Sanford too had that opportunity rolled out to him on a silver platter. America faces more internal danger today than it’s faced at any time since the Civil War. It is indebting itself at a suicidal pace and taxing itself out of prosperity. The treasury prints money like toilet paper. It clings to entitlement programs it simply cannot afford. It faces an older generation that continuously asks what more the government can do for them, and a younger generation that clamors for their own goodie train to start chugging up the tracks.

Into all this could have strode a voice of reason and fiscal sanity. A leader who didn’t just talk about making government smaller, but actually took steps to do it. Somebody who wouldn’t be afraid to tell the teet-suckers and the governments hacks to shove off. Someone around whom like-minded conservatives and libertarians could rally. Mark Sanford was going to be that man. It was going to be his time. And when his country needed him to step up and lead… he stepped out to cavort on the Appalachian Trail in Argentina with his soulmate on the taxpayer’s dime.

He leaves behind him only the shadow of what could have been. Not just for him, but for the country. Maybe another, better man or woman will step up and be the leader America needs.

Or maybe not.

Mark Sanford is a dule-threat jackass. In one selfish, mindless, conceited act of stupidity, he betrayed the people who loved him the most- his family. In that same act, he also let down the people who could have needed him the most- his fellow countrymen. Mark Sanford could have been somebody… he could been a contender, a president, an ideological lodestar for an American revitalization…

Or he could have simply been a good husband and father.

Instead, he’s a jackass. The biggest one of 2009.

For the past three years the Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington have released their list of the ten biggest political ethics scandals of the year.  We’ve had more than our share of notoriety this year here in South Carolina and this is yet another list that we couldn’t escape.  Yes, you’ve probably guessed it.  Mark Sanford has made CREW’s list of top ten ethics scandals of the year.  That infamous hike to Argentina along the Appalachian Trail ranked up there with Congressman Charlie Rangel’s (D-NY) tax cheating and Senator John Ensign’s (R-NV) blackmailed extra-marital affair.

The aught decade of the 21st century showed a man with a promising political future and hopes of change and reform for our state fall from grace virtually overnight.  Sanford managed to get some of the things done he wanted, but most of his ambitious agenda fell along the way side.  Unfortunately for him, his legacy will be that of a marriage and an Argentine “soul mate.”

Perhaps the teens will show better promise.

Just a few days after Governor Sanford stated that he wanted to reconcile with his wife, despite the fact that he admitted she was not his true soul mate earlier this year, Jenny Sanford has officially gone and filed for divorce.  Good for her.  I’ll bet she has a higher approval rating around the state than the governor.

So that’s that.  It sounds like Jenny will be available now.  If you’re interested give her a call at 867-5309.

Heh, I really thought they were going to go for it.  Instead they censured him, which is basically the political way of shaking your finger at someone and saying naughty, naughty and that’s about all the weight it carries too.

While the General Assembly gets ready to vote for whether or not to impeach Governor Sanford, several pollsters have been reporting surprising opinions from the electorate.  Overall, South Carolinians aren’t all that supportive of throwing Sanford out of office.  Democrat pollster Public Policy Polling shows that 58% of the state’s voters are opposed to impeachment while 32% are supportive.   45%, however, do think he should voluntarily resign.   Additionally, Rasmussen released a poll showing similar results with 49% opposed to impeachment while 36% favored it.

The findings of the State Ethics Board are in and it is looking dismal for our dear leader.  According to the board, Sanford has misused campaign funds to attend a meeting of the Republican Governors Association and a trip to Ireland among others.  It also found he used the state plane to attend a birthday party, get a haircut, and fly his family to Myrtle Beach.  There is also the flight upgrades to First Class for some international trips he took, the ones where he wasn’t hiking the Appalachian Trail to Argentina.

I am at a loss as to how he will explain these away.  In all honesty, I’ll bet past governors have done the same thing, but that certainly doesn’t excuse it.  The rules are the rules and they must be followed.  If I were him, I’d start packing my bags.

Like I’ve been saying, they aren’t going to rest until Sanford is pushed out of the governor’s office one way or another.

COLUMBIA — A South Carolina ethics panel said Wednesday that Gov. Mark Sanford should face charges he violated state laws tied to a three-month investigation into his travel and campaign finances.

The State Ethics Commission decision did not provide details of its decision or the specific charges Sanford would face during a hearing of the panel early next year. Officials said those details — which should include whether the accusations involve civil or criminal allegations — will be released next week.

The commission “found probable cause exists on several allegations. They wanted me to point out that a finding of probable cause is not a finding of guilt. It is only one phase in the process,” said Herb Hayden, the commission’s executive director, after a daylong, closed-door meeting of the panel.

The Post and Courier

Now Bobby Harrell says that Sanford’s affair is not enough to merit impeachment and I agree with that, however, that is precisely why this fishing expedition is taking place.  Something has got to be found.

Like I said, they’d stall it and with a weak excuse too.

House Speaker Bobby Harrell rejected the measure, saying lawmakers are operating under a rule that allows them to consider a limited number of items in the special session this week.

Midlands Connect

I found this to be a more well reasoned position.

House leaders have said they want to wait until the Ethics Commission finishes it work before considering impeachment, meaning the House would not consider the issue until January.

The State

And that’s acceptable.  Allow the Ethics Commission to complete their investigation and then see if there is any legitimate reason to bounce the governor out.  Cheating on his wife is not an impeachable offense.

State Rep. Greg Delleney, R-Chester, says lawmakers would have explored impeachment immediately, had they been around. He says the results of that investigation aren’t needed for the House to begin work on impeachment and he plans to introduce a resolution Tuesday that accuses Sanford of dereliction of duty for abandoning his post without telling anyone in the chain of command where he was going.

“This is just getting the ball rolling,” Delleney said last week.

The Post and Courier

This was inevitable.  If it actually make it to the House floor for a vote it will easily pass.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the House leadership tries to stall it at first, but ultimately the pressure will be there to vote on it.  Sanford’s goose is cooked.

When I am traveling 85 on an interstate in a 65 MPH zone and get pulled over I get a ticket.  I have heard legends of these cops that just give warnings, but I do not believe they exist for one has yet to cross my path.  I imagine as well that when you are traveling 85 MPH on the highway and get stopped you probably get a ticket as well.  When Governor Sanford orders his driver to travel at 85 he gets a ticket too.  Oh wait, he doesn’t?

The governor’s vehicle was pulled over on Interstate 385 while he was traveling back to Columbia on Tuesday. Sanford had made stops in Gaffney and Easley that day.

The dashcam video from the traffic stop showed Sanford’s driver getting out of the car. The trooper, Lance Cpl. R.S. Slater, then asked the driver if he had a good reason to be going 85 mph in a 65 mph zone. The agent then told Slater that he was driving the governor.

Slater: “Not really a good reason to be speeding is it?”

Agent: “Tell him that.”

Slater: “What?”

Agent: “Tell him that!”

The video showed Slater walk over to the side of Sanford’s vehicle, shake his hand and let the agent go with a warning.

Director of Public Safety Mark Keel said that after reviewing the incident a ticket for speeding will be issued to the agent.

Fox Carolina

So if you’re the governor’s chauffeur, a little wink, a little nod and you’re on your way.  Until the dash cam video is made public and we all know about it, that is.

One set of rules for the politicians.  One set of rules for the rest of us.

Boeing is choosing between South Carolina and Washington to be the home of their new facility that will construct the 787 Dreamliner.  Both Governor Sanford and Governor Christine Gregoire of Washington are making their cases to Boeing as to who is positioned for this plant.

“Commercial aerospace is in our blood,” Gregoire, a two-term

Democrat, wrote in a 32-page report, “The Business Case for Consolidating Boeing 787 Assembly in Washington” that was recently released.

“Washington is the highest quality location Boeing could possibly identify for siting additional 787 production,” she continued.

“Washington has a large, highly skilled and adaptable workforce, an attractive business climate, stable and sustainable government, a robust and funded infrastructure improvement plan, a strong education system, and the highest quality of life of any competitor state. Washington also has a highly competitive cost environment.”

The Post and Courier

Gregoire’s right.  Let’s face it.  South Carolina isn’t known for our stellar level of education.  Seattle has Microsoft and a much larger selection of highly educated residents than our state does.  On the other hand, we provide lower cost labor and the Boeing plant would bring more educated people to our state to fill some of those jobs.

South Carolina is trying to make its best argument, including the state’s low union presence, in intense, behind-the-scenes business recruitment efforts, but neither Gov. Mark Sanford’s office nor the state Department of Commerce would comment.

I really can’t predict how this is going to turn out.  I guess it will really come down to what element Boeing is weighing higher, a larger pool of highly educated potential employees to choose from or a lower bottom line due to more reasonable labor costs.  Hopefully, with the economic times being as they are, Boeing will be more focused on the money factor.

What’s the matter with South Carolina?  That’s the question asked by Politico columnist Alexander Burns.  Indeed, South Carolina has been a focal point of hot bed politics and political scandal recently, but as former State Republican Chairman Katon Dawson points out, it’s really nothing new.

Dawson agreed, citing the state’s long and tempestuous political history as a mark of pride: “South Carolina’s been yelling from the top of our lungs on national politics since this nation was formed and entered the union.”

Consider the attention, sometimes unwanted, that we’ve received over the past year.  You could write a whole book on Mark Sanford.  The Governor went from being the favorite son of conservatives and economic libertarians to rumored presidential candidate only to then fall from grace as his scandalous extra-marital affair became headline news around the nation.  Sanford’s status rose quickly when he was the only governor to fight the wasteful stimulus package thrust on us by the Federal government.  He received endless and thunderous applause at the Greenville Tea Party earlier this year, yet in a flash all of that respect and fame soured to notoriety and disappointment as details of his Argentine “soul mate” Maria Chapur pierced the airwaves.

Look at conservative rising star Senator Jim DeMint who has made it his career to call out waste and corruption in Washington D.C. and be the general in the battle against the unconstitutional overreaching grip of the Federal government.  DeMint took flak earlier this year when referring to health care as Obama’s “Waterloo”, but was he necessarily wrong?

On the flip side is Republican Congressman Bob Inglis who hasn’t wavered in ruffling the feathers of the conservative base of his Congressional district.  He has taken an onslaught of criticism for his changing opinion towards accepting the fraudulent theory of man made climate change.  Even more recently he riled the far right at a town hall meeting when he told them to turn off Glenn Beck.  Inglis has earned himself several primary challengers in next year’s election.

Let’s also not forget former State Treasurer Tom Ravenel who was sent up the river for the distribution of cocaine.  Then of course, Joe Wilson has become the most well known Congressman in America over the past couple of days for his outburst during Obama’s Congressional address accusing the President of lying.

Is this bad for South Carolina?  Are we embarrassing or are we emboldened?  We did fire the first shot in the Civil War, after all.  I guess the impression of our state is in the eye of the beholder.  We certainly aren’t perfect, but we definitely could be worse.  We aren’t in a full fledged melt down like California.  We aren’t chasing every business and hard working American out of the state like New York.  Our own scandals really aren’t any less comparative than those of Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio.

Personally, it gives me a lot to write about and opine on.  I’d probably be pretty bored with writing if I lived in Vermont.

I wrote about this last week.  The House Republican Caucus had a taxpayer funded junket in Myrtle Beach over this weekend and the skinny was that they would consider a possible impeachment of Sanford.  I said then and I obviously still think that if Sanford doesn’t resign they will follow through on the threat.  Sanford has no happy alternative, but it would behoove him to resign and bow out gracefully rather than his legacy forever being the governor who got impeached.  At least if he leaves by his own accord he’ll save that little teensy bit of dignity he has left.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Sixty-one South Carolina House Republicans asked Gov. Mark Sanford to resign Wednesday, questioning his ability to lead the state since his unannounced summertime trip to see a mistress in Argentina and investigations of his state and private travel that followed.

“Your decision to abandon our state for five days, with no defined order of succession and with no known way to contact you, is inexcusable,” said a letter from the lawmakers signed by House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham.

The letter, which listed the names of 59 other lawmakers, came a day after the House speaker issued a similar call. Any move to impeach the GOP governor would begin in the House, which has 72 Republicans, 51 Democrats and one empty seat. Bingham’s office said an additional member joined the effort after the letter landed on Sanford’s desk.

The chamber’s Democratic leader, Rep. Harry Ott, D-St. Matthews, has said his caucus will discuss the governor next month.

The AP

There are more than enough votes to impeach.  They need 83.  60 Republicans appear to have committed.  You can guarantee that all the Democrats will vote for it so Sanford will lose this battle in a landslide and hence the war will be over.  Sanford’s last stand.

Jake the Fat Man is out in front of the cameras again in the continuance of a long feud between him and Governor Sanford.  This time Knotts, not surprisingly, is joining in the chorus calling for Sanford’s ouster from the Governor’s office.

State Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, on Thursday called on the General Assembly to remove Gov. Mark Sanford from office after Knotts accused his fellow Republican of launching a smear campaign against Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and gays.

In a letter to each member of the General Assembly, Knotts, of West Columbia, said Sanford is behind recent, unsubstantiated Internet reports that Bauer, 40, is gay.

Knotts, a former police investigator, produced no proof to tie Sanford or his allies to the Internet reports.

The State

That’s hardly conclusive proof to give him enough ammunition to make an accusation like that, but at this point it’s anything goes for Sanford’s political enemies to get rid of him.  It’s true that Sanford and Bauer have had a complicated relationship, but starting up homosexual rumors against a political opponent is not Sanford’s style.  Certainly supporters of him may very well be behind it, but I doubt Sanford has knowledge of who.

What do you think? Will Sanford be forced out? I don’t doubt it one bit. He’s really made enemies with the legislature over the years, not that that was necessarily a bad thing. The legislature really has done a piss poor job for this state and Sanford has called them to task on it many times, but regardless, they don’t like him and he had made it clear he has no plans to leave on his own.

Rawl said the state House looks likely to move ahead with impeachment, and from the chamber’s standpoint, he had one request of lawmakers: Settle the issue this year.

“Let’s get it out, get it done before January,” he said. “We can’t afford to let impeachment proceedings hold up the entire legislative session again.”

The Post and Courier

The State House Republican Caucus, wining and dining themselves on our dime this weekend in Myrtle Beach, have shown no love for Governor Sanford.  According to The State many state reps are pushing for impeachment, but House Speaker Bobby Harrell is insisting on waiting for the results of a pending ethics report.  Two things are certain .  They want Sanford gone and Sanford isn’t leaving unless forced to.