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Tuesday, August 11, 2009
News Did it really take this long to discover he broke the law?
Posted By Cheris Hodges on Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 10:37 AM
If justice is swift, this is my last Mark Sanford blog.
But we are talking about South Carolina, so I'll probably be writing about the governor until he leaves office on his own. You know, when his term is up.
According to an Associated Press story, The S.C. senate says Sanford broke the law, not when he left the state without leadership while he was poking Maria in Argentina, but when he took first class flights and charged it to the taxpayers.
State Sen. David Thomas, whose budget committee investigated Sanford's flights after reports last month by The Associated Press, sent evidence to Senate leaders Monday showing the Republican governor violated state laws requiring the cheapest travel possible.Thomas said Sanford's pricier flights on two trips cost $13,700 more than the economy flights available.
Legislators can consider sanctions against Sanford ranging from demanding reimbursement to impeachment, said Thomas, a Republican from Fountain Inn.
“It could be perceived, if it's significant enough and a case can be made of it, to constitute a case for possible impeachment,” Thomas said.
A possible case for impeachment? Why doesn't someone in S.C. government grow a pair and force this lame duck out of office? What has Mark Sanford really been doing to make the Palmetto State a better place?
He didn't want stimulus money and if any state needs it, our southern friends do. Have you driven on a South Carolina road lately?
Maybe this is where part of the money to fix S.C. went:
Last month the AP reported Sanford, who once criticized state officials for costly travel, charged the state over $37,600 for first-class and business-class flights overseas since November 2005.Thomas, chairman of the Constitutional and Administrative Subcommittee of Senate Finance, conducted his own probe, focusing on state trips Sanford took to China in 2007 and London in 2006.
Sanford's $12,172 charge for travel to China included business-class accommodations on United Airlines. He also flew in first class on U.S. Airways to London in 2006 for $7,065, state records show.
Thomas said there is no documentation showing Sanford or anyone else reimbursed the state for the more expensive flights. Other state employees traveled in the less expensive economy class on those flights, he said.
Sanford charged the state $8,687 for a trip to Brazil last year that included a leg in the more expensive business class, records show. He has since acknowledged visiting his mistress in Argentina during that trip, a trade mission planned by the state's Commerce Department, and reimbursed the state $3,300 for part of the trip.
Hey, hey, ho, ho, it is time for Mark Sanford to go!
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