Is that if you are a Republican in office you can expect the press to blow up the most innocuous activities into scandals.

That and Reagan’s 11th commandment is dead buried, had it’s head chopped off and a stake shoved through its heart.

What if there had been an emergency in the state?

I understand this is about the media getting back at him for challenging Obama, and that the Governor gets vacation time.

But if the Governor is going to be incommunicado and out of the state, is there any law that requires him to transfer power to someone else?

“When confronted by a pestering media, things went downhill.”

Yes, his opponents took advantage of the situation, but that’s a given in politics. It doesn’t change the fact that the whole thing was handled badly by his staff. Their answers made him look questionable.

“It is refreshing that Mark Sanford is secure enough in himself and the people of South Carolina that he does not view himself as an indispensable man.”

On one hand, yes. I’d rather not hear from politicians unless absolutely necessary, and I’m tired of the constant media barrage from the White House. But Sanford will cut short his career if he keeps making ill-advised choices. It’s fine for him to take a trip, but he should have either taken one or two of his sons with him over his Father’s Day trip, or he should have called it a working vacation from day one, rather than imply that he’s leaving his staff to handle his elective duties.

The lesson to be learned in this dust-up is that perception does matter — if he wants to keep winning elections.

Obama can golf… jet to NY… vacation in Hawaii, and have a cocktail party every Wednesday…

But let a Republican take a break and the press goes ballistic. The bias goes beyond what words can describe.

The reaction of the GOP is shameful.

This reminds me of the time PA Gov. Ed Rendell failed to deal with a state of emergency on two interstate highways because he was at home watching the Penn State basketball game on TV.

Story here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07048/762899-85.stm

I’d wager that Gov. Sanford has more presence of mind about his job while out on the trail than Ed Rendell has about PA in his living room.

He has battled the corrupt state legislature for years, trying to instill some sort of fiscal sanity.

South Carolina has structured its state government so the legislature has most of the power, unfortunately. The Governor is a weak office relative to most states, and all judges owe their seats to legislators. Such is a prescription for corruption, and that’s what we get. Republicans, Democrats . . . it matters little in the legislature, where everyone who plays ball will get some goodies.

If Sanford, having just lost what will probably be his last major battle with the thieves, wants to take some time away from it all after the end of the legislative session, why shouldn’t he? And why should the media expect to know where he is?

“What if there’s an emergency?” Then I suppose he would come back, don’t you?

could take off for months and the only people who’d notice would be the lobbyists and reporters. Behind every one of the elected and appointed officials are career employees who actually know where the light switches and restrooms are and what the switches and levers of the government do. The very hardest think you could do would be to stop a large government from running; it would just plod along doing what it does indefinitely. This is a good thing in that it makes nobody indispensible and a bad thing in that it makes it very, very difficult to get a government to change its direction on anything.

>>His political enemies — Republicans at that — ginned up the media story.

Anyone who has visited Hot Air in the past 24 hours has seen me essentially repeating this stance against AllahPundit. And I wish I had had more support over there for this view which has been so clearly echoed here by Erick.

The story started with Jake Knotts, a longtime Sanford rival. And that should have been the end of it. “Who said it? Knotts? Oh, end of story.” If you’ve followed Lexington, SC politics at any time, you know this guy and his beef with Sanford (including the failed gubernatorial bid in 2006). So when sites like Hot Air and AoS run with this story, not only is it “carrying water for the Democrats”, it’s just downright BAD JOURNALISM. It would have taken anyone just a few moments to look at who started the accusations and realized it was a non-story. So my beef with AllahPundit is (besides the constant bashing of good conservatives) this was just another example of piss-poor journalism on Hot Air’s part.Wait until the entire story comes in before passing judgement.

Well done here by Red State on the other hand.

It seems bizarre that he’d go on walkabout on father’s day weekend without bringing his kids.
Obviously it’s a family/personal matter, but it just seems weird.

our health care system about to be taken over by the same folks who gave us Medicare, Medicaid, and Amtrak, and our way of life teetering on the brink of cap and trade lunacy, that the Wall Street Journal decided that *this* headline deserved above the fold placement:

“State of Chaos as Governor Vanishes”

Sheesh! Overreact much?

Maybe it was a screwup by Sanford’s staff, the way this was handled was really poor.

The fact that his wife was quoted as not knowing where he was, and didn’t check in on Father’s Day, casts him in a poor light. If both his office and family/wife knew where he was the whole time, they either lied to the media or really didn’t know where he was.

When asked about his whereabouts, why couldn’t they have simply said, “We know exactly where he is, he is reachable, but we’re not going to disclose his whereabouts.” The story would have died instantly.

A Governor does have significant duties, like off the top of my head being in charge of the National Guard. If you’re going to be out of reach, at the very least the Lt. Governor should be made aware. I think dropping off the face of the Earth is a luxury you give up when you are elected to such a high office.

I was really hoping Sanford would run for President, I feel he’s probably the best Governor in the U.S. That being said, I don’t think he’s ready for Prime Time after seeing how he handles the media. If he can’t handle the local South Carolina press, he’ll get destroyed by the national media during a Presidential campaign. You don’t give your opponents an opening like this, and Sanford had to know he had a lot of people gunning for him.

WSJ just broke this as an important headline- no kidding.

I am on the edge of my seat and can’t think of anything more important. But they should clean up their reporting and let me know what he ate for breakfast. Gee, whatever happened to useful, in-depth journalism? Shame, really.

So, he just decided to go to Argentina. He’s out of touch AND out of the country? This is a bit more than “hiking the Appalachian Trail;” he definitely should have turned things over to the Lt. Governor.

Stick a fork in him, he’s done. I’m not sure he’ll be able to ever run for office in South Carolina ever again, much less on a National Stage.

Flying off to Argentina without telling your family and never checking in, even on Father’s Day?

Not alerting the Lt. Governor when your leaving the country, and cutting off all communication?

Having your staff tell the media your hiking in the mountains?

This is behavior of a reckless individual. We don’t know all the facts, but clearly there’s a lot of lying going on about where he was and what he was doing, and there was clearly a cover up.

I understand being upset at media bias, but we can’t look like fools defending people who have clearly made mistakes. We end up undermining our own cause.

is that it makes sense to think carefully before rushing to attack *or* defend someone.

Before making any more confident pronouncements, we might want to ask ourselves: what *was* Mark doing in Buenos Aires, why did it require secrecy, and how likely is it that he’s going to be able to preserve that secrecy another 24 hours?

Also, why didn’t the governor’s lovely wife do a better job of covering for him? Just a thought.

Below are the “facts” so arrogantly stated by EE. Every one is dead wrong. Any chance EE will recant, apologize or otherwise admit to his hackery? No way. On to the “facts”:

First, we need to be clear on the facts — not the media speculation:

* Sanford did tell his staff and family where he was going.
* Because he was traveling without a security detail, it was in his best interests that no one knew he was gone.
* His political enemies — Republicans at that — ginned up the media story.
* When confronted by a pestering media, things went downhill.
* Again though, at all times there was no doubt that Sanford’s staff and family knew where he was.

This will most likely be my only post in this thread to make a good point:

Not micromanging and being in front of TV camera is a good thing.

Speeking on an inactive(not makeing alot of bills) goverment, it would make thing a lot better if they did.

What a total jerk and idiot.

Elected Republicans seem to be the gift that keeps on giving - to the Democrats.

We will manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet.

Jack Savage,

Don’t you have to be verging on victorious for this expression to apply? Note: the Republicans have lost for the last two election cycles, no polling shows any sign of this getting any better soon, people trust insurance companies more than the GOP, and, as unpopular as Republicans are amongst whites, they perform even worse amongst every non-white group in the electorate:

http://bit.ly/jgrMo
http://bit.ly/fKm9d

So which victory do you perceive yourself, your party, and your ideological movement to be within bite range of?

if you are a Republican in office you can expect the press to blow up the most innocuous activities into scandals.

Or not.