South Carolina: 2009 - a Year of Turmoil for Governor Mark Sanford

It's almost the end of 2009 and as a South Carolina resident; I thought it fitting to reminisce about some of the gifts that SC gave to the news media this year. It was truly a year of turmoil for our Governor Mark Sanford and a blitz of dirty laundry for news sources.

South Carolina was repeatedly in the news, story after story, regarding the misbehaving of Gov. Mark Sanford, and SC and our Governor was the butt of many jokes from late night talk show hosts like Jay Leno and David Letterman. I can't say that I blame them. SC gave them some great material! I'm certainly glad another year of SC lack of politics and Government has come and gone. Maybe next year will be better. It has to be, doesn't it?

The NYTimes.com has even given our small State a "Thank you" for the entire media blitz we obliged this year. In an article written by Robbie Brown and published in the NY Times on 12/19/09, he writes that when Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations looked at his annual list of most remembered quotes, SC was quite impressive in it's offerings of 3 out of the 10 most revealing quotations of 2009.

Lucky us! The first quote worthy of Shapiro's list came from a town hall attendee in Simpsonville, SC with "Keep your government hands off my Medicare." South Carolina hosted quite a few health-care town halls that became quite rowdy in 2009.

The second quotation that made the top ten in the Yale Book of Quotations for 2009 came from Rep. Joe Wilson of SC, "You lie", during one of President Obama's health care addresses back in September, 2009. I can't say I disagreed with this one statement.

The third quotation that won SC a spot in the limelight, was the never forgotten, "The Governor is hiking the Appalachian Trail" declared by a spokesman of our Governor. Much to our chagrin, our Governor had actually been visiting his Mistress in Argentina, not hiking! He left our State of SC with reportedly no one in charge for five days. How is that for responsibility?

Then the SC government proceeds to take steps to impeach the Governor for his misconduct in leaving the State without anyone knowing how to reach him and with no one in charge, abusing his power as Governor of SC, causing ridicule and dishonor to our State and to himself. In mid Dec. the Judiciary Committed voted 18 to 6 not to impeach Governor Sanford on the above charges. Instead the Committee voted unanimously for a resolution to censure the Governor, which amounts in my opinion to a mere public reprimand.

Our Governor is still facing possible ethics charges for misuse of State funds to purchase Business class airline tickets, misuse of campaign funds, and misuse of State planes. He could level criminal charges for these ethic complaints against him. Somehow, I don't think that will happen unfortunately.

In my opinion, I give the Governor kudos for this smart quotation in front of God and everyone else in the world, "I've found my soul mate", referring to his "mistress" mind you, not his wife and the Mother of his children. This sounded like a love-sick 16 year old to me, not a person in a prominent position such as Governor, or decent husband or Father.

The only sane thing that has happened in Columbia, SC during 2009 is Jenny Sanford's filing for a divorce. I applaud her for not standing up for her man and his "soul mate."

Maybe Jenny Sanford should launch a campaign to be South Carolina's next Governor!

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/weekinreview/20brown.html?_r=3

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/us/politics/11wilson.html

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/sanford-resurfaces-from-argentina/

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/20091217sanford.pdf