Beltway Bread-Breaking For SC Governor

S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford will be breaking bread with a top Republican king maker in McLean, Va., tonight, The Politico is reporting.

Sanford will sup with Fred Malek, one of John McCain’s national finance co-chairman, in a private dinner that could have far-reaching implications in the 2012 presidential race.

Also invited to dine at the GOP donor-in-chief’s table was Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, although she was unable to attend due to ice-jam flooding in her home state.

Bummer.

Anyway, from the story:

The idea of the dinner at (Malek’s) Crest Lane home is to help party donors shopping for a 2012 candidate. Among the 30 or so guests will be Robert Diamond, the CEO of Barclays Capital; Paul Singer, founder of the hedge fund Elliott Associates; and former Illinois senator Peter Fitzgerald, who is now chairman of Chain Bridge Bank.

The donors are members of the Executive Roundtable of the Republican Governors’ Association, a group which holds dinners and other events around the country to introduce governors to the party’s biggest donors. “This is all about leading our party back and demonstrating what it means to be a Republican,” said a person familiar with plans for the dinner.

Ummm … okay.

Perhaps “leading our party back” is what this dinner is about now, but our guess is it was originally about a bunch of rich white guys checking out Sarah Palin’s legs.

Now that Palin is sending her husband in her place, though, it’s thoroughly “yawn.”

Of course, it will be interesting to get a report back on Sanford’s interaction with these big money types.

Back in 2002, he told a GOP kingmaker in South Carolina “thanks but no thanks” because he didn’t like the terms of the fund transfer pitched to him.

Stay tuned …