I love flying. Remember that time in the back of a King Air you asked if the drapes matched the curtains? I didn’t know what you meant. Honestly, I still don’t. You laughed, then went to the back to brush your teeth. All I could hear was you gagging. Sounded familiar.

Lovingly,
Adriana

Follow the love story at http://www.DearGovernorSanford.com

Ummm, if he is well-rested when he meets “dignitaries and captains of industry,” how would they know or care what kind of flight he gets.

Do you think the Chinese officials he met asked to see his ticket first?

And let’s not kid ourselves that he has been meeting many captains of industry, also. But really, why should they give a f—?

Perfect recent example- the silliness that ensued when the hypocrites in Congress (home of the high-dollar Pelosi G5 express to the left coast) railed on the CEO’s of the big-3 automakers for flying corporate aircraft to DC for their inquisition. Sooooo, second time around? The former CEO of GM, who generally earned around $15 mil annually (although at the end the obvious problem with his stock options left him at around $3 mil) had to waste three or four days driving a freaking GM car to DC and back.

Even at $3 mil, the shareholders were paying Wagoner around $11,500 per day. At the real comp rate, it’s more like $57k per day. His performance as CEO is a separate issue, but his pay being what is was means the smart money would have been to spend the $7k on Jet A fuel and get his happy ass back to Detroit and back to work ASAP.

As a personal aside, even back when I was a federal official (and a low-level one, at that) regularly flying to the mideast, my team mates and I were allowed to fly business class whenever we were flying to a mission wherein we were expected to be “in the game” on the day we arrived. Rather than schedule an extra day, our travel office usually saw fit to cough up the $$$ for the biz-class seats because it was just sound business.

It’s not the air travel that’s weird, just Sanford’s take on it.

We know the recent trip to the news conference was a waste of time and money. If he wanted to do a press conference he could have done it on youtube if he was really so cost conscious.

King Air 350 – “Palmetto 1”

GOVERNOR’S OFFICE CHARGES:

2009 2nd Quarter Flight Manifest $10,560.00
2009 1st Quarter Flight Manifest $9,350.00

2008 4th Quarter Flight Manifest $7,150.00
2008 3rd Quarter Flight Manifest $13,310.00
2008 2nd Quarter Flight Manifest $27,500.00
2008 1st Quarter Flight Manifest $15,400.00

2007 4th Quarter Flight Manifest $9,790.00
2007 3rd Quarter Flight Manifest $15,620.00
2007 2nd Quarter Flight Manifest $23,760.00
2007 1st Quarter Flight Manifest $20,240.00

2006 4th Quarter Flight Manifest $8,250.00
2006 3rd Quarter Flight Manifest $7,150.00
2006 2nd Quarter Flight Manifest $19,103.34
2006 1st Quarter Flight Manifest $33,733.30

Do the math. These are the charges that Mark Sanford has charged the State of South Carolina Taxpayers for just one airplane for the last two and a half years.

The charges do not include the cost of the other state airplanes that he has used, i.e. the smaller Cessna Planes owned by SCDNR.

Also, these charges do not include the all of the bogus commercial flights or the hundreds of flights that Sanford has taken on private aircraft many of which have never been reported. If you want to know where Mark Sanford has been the last six and a half years, well, he’s been living on an airplane.

Aditionally, we get the pleasure of paying for his legal defense fund, i.e. counsel to defend him for the misuse of state funds. We also have the pleasure of paying his lawyer to dig up dirt on previous governors and all the while, he’s still flying around the state for the sole purpose of holding press conferences. Talking about adding insult to injury.

What a freakin’ joke.

Flight Reports
http://www.scaeronautics.com/flightlogs.asp

South Carolina Aeronautics Commission
http://www.scaeronautics.com/flight.asp

*************************************

Flight Reports
http://www.scaeronautics.com/flightlogs.asp

Flight Manifests
http://www.scaeronautics.com/FlightManifests.asp

I agree with you that the Governor should fly first or business class if available, primarily for security, but also because he is the state CEO.

However, no other Governor ever campaigned on doing away with these types of “perks”. Sanford ran on the idea of selling the state fleet, flying coach, employees bunking up, all the while he is out flying top ticket, staying solo at the Ritz, using the aircraft for personal reasons etc. And while I think the law should be re-examined as it pertains to the Governor’s office for the future, the simple fact is Mark Sanford broke the law, tried to blame it on others in the past, and ran a what is now “deception” campaign against these very things. He should without a doubt resign as the voters of this state can no longer trust him.