Sanford Must Go

I really don't care who SC Governor Mark Sanford sleeps with.  That's not my business, or anyone else's, and I don't think having extramarital sex impacts upon a person's ability to do even a complicated job like governing a state.

I am enough of a language geek to delight in the fact that we now have a new euphemism for extramarital affairs, though--"Hiking the Appalachian Trail."  It has a certain ring to it that we wouldn't have got from "Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail," for instance.  So we're indebted to the governor's staff for that one.

He also told the first reporter who confronted him at the airport that he had been "driving the Buenos Aires coastline," which would be more convincing if Buenos Aires had much of a coastline and wasn't a mostly landlocked city of 14 million people with some of the worst traffic in the world.  That one won't catch on, though, because it doesn't have as mellifluous a flow as "hiking the Appalachian Trail."

So Sanford has done us the favor of brightening up the language.  That's not why he should resign immediately, nor is the affair.  (Nor is his idiotic response to the federal stimulus program, although that's a good reason never to vote for him for any other office). The reason he should go is that he lied to his staff about where he was going.  It's good that they weren't in the position of having to lie to the press, but the governor of a state can't be out of touch with his staff for five days.  Should some sort of emergency requiring instantaneous action have developed, they had to be able to reach him.  On top of that, he left a state vehicle sitting at the airport while he was away, so he seems to have misused state funds for his "hike."  Did he used state funds to pay for his plane ticket?  We'll find out.

A governor who is away from his desk and unreachable?  Entirely unacceptable.  Sanford should resign, and he should have done it this morning when he made his announcement.  Every day he stays in office is a slap in the face to the people of South Carolina.

John Ensign down, Mark Sanford down.  Who will be the next Republican 2012 hopeful to flame out?  Any guesses?

Comments

[Shiai]

Well, Palin seems indestructible to her own foibles, but it doesn't mean she has a Baked Alaskan's chance in hell in the primaries. Jindal keeps making the mistake of opening his mouth. Pawlenty thus far is the smartest, having decided that the best thing he can do is NOT run for any office in 2010, thus minimizing his chances of swallowing his foot up to his thigh in an election prior to '12.

[Anita]

I think "hiking the Pacific Crest Trail" would be a better euphemism. Buenos Aires is coastal enough. Nonetheless he should move to Argentina and learn the tango. His family would probably be happier.

[Jeff Mariotte]

Pawlenty has to be considered a possible for 2012. I'd like to think that Charlie Crist is, too. It's hard to imagine him winning a Republican primary, though, given the ideological purification that's been going on in the party. He might be too smart and realistic to be allowed to remain a Republican.

And of course, Crist and Pawlenty could be brought down by scandal between now and then...you just never know.

[Shiai]

Well, some conservatives have already been supporting a whispering campaign against Crist, furthering the rumor that he's a closeted homosexual, presumably to undermine him with the base well in advance of '12.

And Pawlenty's in a bit of a tricky spot. He has to do his lawful duty as governor, but he also doesn't want to go into the primaries as the man who signed the paperwork that put Al Franken in the Senate. I'm sure he's praying nightly for the Supreme Court to step in and order him to do so, so that he can later explain that he didn't want to do it, but the law is the law. ;)