Sanford’s “Misery Loves Company” Strategy

By fitsnews • on September 3, 2009
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airplane movie

Scandal-plagued S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford is hoping that misery loves company, at least as far as airplanes are concerned.

The man who stands accused of a host of air travel violations sent a letter Tuesday to the state’s top three research universities seeking detailed information about their flying habits – and gave them a one-week deadline to comply.

Good.  This is information that should be made public, and our notoriously wasteful higher educrats should be held accountable for their stewardship of our travel resources.  After all, FITS has been a front-line media critic of higher ed boondoggling at Clemson University, MUSC and the University of South Carolina, and for us to oppose  this investigation would be hypocritical.

Having said that, as much as our state’s expensive, inefficient and ineffective higher ed bureaucracy deserves to be nailed to the wall – Gov. Sanford is the absolute last person who should be wielding the hammer.

“Given some of the media’s allegations (against Sanford), I am trying to get a better understanding of how different state organizations use airplanes in South Carolina,” wrote Sanford’s chief legal counsel, Swati Patel, in the letter.

Hmmmm … let’s plug that line into our handy-dandy “bureaucratic translator,” shall we?  What the lovely Ms. Patel really meant was …

“Given the fact that my boss is about to get his hypocritical, over-tanned ass thrown out of office, I need to use your agency’s travel abuses as a diversionary tactic.”

Yeah …

From a broader perspective, here’s our fundamental problem with Sanford’s “blame everybody else” approach to dealing with the accusations against him: He wasn’t supposed to be like “everybody else.”

He was supposed to be different.  Better.

Seriously, people.  No matter how his travel abuses stack up when compared to former gubernatorial administrations, current state agencies or his various antagonists in the General Assembly, none of these defensive jabs justifies the fact that Sanford – who anointed himself a crusader against all of these taxpayer-funded wastes – is himself a sinner.

An unrepentant one, at that.

And when you hold out yourself to be without sin, you better damn well hope you never get caught with your pants down.

So while we welcome an investigation into higher ed travel abuses (of which we have no doubt there are plenty), we cannot ignore the fact that the person doing the investigating has absolutely zero credibility to accuse anyone of anything.

In fact, the rank hypocrisy and political pettiness that Sanford confers upon this otherwise important inquiry is the latest in a long line of reasons why we believe he should resign his office.

Make no mistake, every state agency should disclose its travel expenses – in fact, this should be part of a long-overdue online checkbook that taxpayers can access whenever they want.

Sadly, though, Mark Sanford has lost the ability to effectively advocate for that reform – as well as a whole host of other reforms.

fitsfinger

Comments

By Candi on September 3rd, 2009 at 10:30 am

Sad when media only chooses to publish the negative side. Again he is being criticized for reimbursing himself a ticket he won for himself, but chose to use it for business. This is just not right – anyone else who does that would be commended for the generosity, but of course MS can’t do anything right at the moment. Nobody looks that in this case, the overall expenditure for the state is less than if the state would have had to purchase a ticket. Like Hannity said, Journalism is DEAD.

By Jeffy01 on September 3rd, 2009 at 10:34 am

Cindi says its not his fault. He is just a misunderstood, hypocritical, over tanned, over sexed, christian reformer.
Why is Swati still there playing along?

By CNSYD on September 3rd, 2009 at 10:42 am

FITS you just don’t get it. When you are one of the chosen what is sin for the ordinary rabble like us is not sin for the chosen. Once chosen you can’t be unchosen so no matter what you do it is OK. If we keep applying all these manmade rules to a chosen one we are hindering God’s will. Didn’t Sanford tell you that yesterday? The gospel according to Doug Coe makes all this perfectly clear. If you don’t believe me ask Cubby.

By Karla M. McGowan on September 3rd, 2009 at 10:51 am

Sanford is outing others. They will have to get rid of him now.

By CNSYD on September 3rd, 2009 at 10:57 am

Candi, I fail to understand your position. IF he had used the personal ticket and did NOT ask for reimbursement then commendation is in order. But by asking for reimbursement he has destroyed all semblance of magnanimity.

By bluetiger on September 3rd, 2009 at 11:06 am

Guess all of this good – We know that Jim Barker and his circle of hoolighans at Clemson are saying thanks every day for Sanford and his antics – that have completely kept the attention and headlines out of stheri sordid little “affairs”.

By Jeffy01 on September 3rd, 2009 at 11:07 am

Great point CNSYD…and he broke the law. Sorry Candi for calling you Cindi. I apologize.
Generosity? Really. I think its more felony than genrosity. If you dont belive me, call someone who works at the US Atty Office or the IRS.

By CNSYD on September 3rd, 2009 at 11:14 am

bluetiger, I live in the Clemson area and hear virtually zero about “affairs”. You would think it would make the barber shop or lunch talk circuit. The only discontent about Barker seems to be over the Top 20 quest. Other than that the only angst seems to be directed at the Athletic Director. Please enlighten me.

By tamu88 on September 3rd, 2009 at 11:16 am

Airplane!! great scene from a great movie!!

By candi on September 3rd, 2009 at 11:25 am

It’s not a felony to reimburse yourself from a company trip if you use your own ticket. I have done that for my company – I used my miles to travel for business and got refunded for the full market price. I just wanted to point out that he only reimbursed himself for half the price.

By Upstate Rotarian on September 3rd, 2009 at 11:35 am

Dear Mark:
Our Rotary Club in Greenville is looking to book speakers for next year. Preferably, someone who is ethical, open and transparent. Are you available to talk to us on the topic of “Ethical Reimbursement Rules for Public Officials Traveling on Taxpayer Money.”
We also need someone to speak on the topic of “When Do White Lies Become Problematic?”
Since you have said you won’t resign, please give us some dates that you are availble in 2010. Best of luck with your Ethics Commission
investigation.

By Jeffy01 on September 3rd, 2009 at 12:10 pm

Candi….its tax payer money, he was out of pocket zero. Your company travel policy is irrelevant in the discussion. Does your company have a policy on peronal computer time on the clock?

By Barney Fife on September 3rd, 2009 at 12:38 pm

I can’t imagine anyone really giving a rat’s butt about the Governor of our state flying business class overseas.

It is grueling flight, and he must be ready when he gets off the flight. Can you imagine sitting in the middle of two fat guys? Let’s face it the Governor shouldn’t have to go to Priceline.com for his tickets. He needs to be comfortable just like any other CEO and get some rest.

I am not defending his relationship outside his marriage, but this travel stuff is just grasping at straws. Totally ridiculous!

By shiya on September 3rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Except, Barney, the AP notes that in only ONE instance did he have a meeting scheduled when he stepped off the plane. In other cases, he had anywhere from half-to-one day to recover. care to guess what he must have done during his free time? hint: blow off steam?

By Cicero on September 3rd, 2009 at 1:21 pm

I don’t understand FITS’ point. You’re saying the governor is a hypocrite so he should step down. That’s a legitimate position. It leaves it to Sanford to make the decision. The concern I have with the way the debate is going is that many people assume that, if he doesn’t step down, he should be impeached. REgardless of whether one thinks he should stay in office, the step to impeach should only be taken on ver specific constitutional grounds. If minor travel violations that every top official is likely guilty of becomes the standard for impeachment, then essentially any official can be impeached for any reason. Politics will take another step toward pointless perpetual warfare.

By Oh boy on September 3rd, 2009 at 1:50 pm

Make sure these people at the Universities were taking trips internationally that just happened (I mean conicidence of coincidences) to correspond to the city where there mistresses lived at the time. Also, make sure they staked their entire reputation on being frugal, small government, no government waste officials before caring what their travel is worth even spitting at. Wheter Sanford’s travel itself is an impeachable offense (likely not) his hypocrite status grows each time he points out “hey everyone else was doing it” whereas he has said for the past 12 years or so – “Look at me, I am doing it right, everyone else doing it doesn’t make it right.”

Big deal, Sanford found his “sole” mate in living on government graft and abusing his travel budget expense account, while empowering his own feeling of entitlement at the same time as he made government employees room at trailer parks and double at the same time while he flew to China and to see his mistress first class. Big whoop, he just full of shit, what’s new under the sun now?

By CNSYD on September 3rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm

Barney and Cicero, Whether a Governor flies coach or first class or whether they deserve to is not the point. The point is what do the rules say. If he violated the rules then he has to be accountable and the “everybody else does it” excuse is not valid. What appears to be happening is that when stones are overturned many small infractions appear that show a pattern of behavior. That pattern is wilfull breaking of rules, no matter how minor. If EVERYTHING has been above board in ALL that he has done, then why did he reimburse the state for the Argentina trip?

By aprice2 on September 3rd, 2009 at 2:05 pm

Cicero – These aren’t “minor” travel violations. He spent taxpayers dollars to fly to a football game for his son, a dental appointment in Sullivan’s Island, and a hair cut in Columbia.

As for impeachment…you bet your bippie he should be impeached (which doesn’t mean he will resign). Mark Sanford willfully, surrepticiously, and deceitfully abandoned his post as governor of the State of South Carolina for six days.

By clemson insider on September 3rd, 2009 at 3:20 pm

Sanford is very right on this one.The spotlight needs to shined especially on Clemson and President Barker’s use of the university’s plane. In the year ending 2008,alone, Barker received compensation totaling over $150,000.00 for sitting on the Board of Directors of the Shaw Corporation where the Clemson Trustees used connections to get him a seat in 2004 so he could, in the words of trustee Bill Hendrix,”get some executive training.” The S.C.Ethics Commission may allow state employees to “moonlight,” but the Commission has ruled specifically that state employees cannot use state equipment in the pursuit of their outside employment.Breaking news from the Clemson campus may reveal as early as next week that Barker has used the university plane to travel to Shaw board meetings since 2004,and has not reimbursed the State Treasury for his personal use of the plane.

By CNSYD on September 3rd, 2009 at 4:35 pm

clemson insider, it is the norm for research university presidents to have seats on corporate boards. It helps get grants for research from private companies. Use of a university plane may or may not be OK. First you have to determine who actually owns the plane that was used. Most Div 1 schools have a plane(s) owned by their athletic department and not bought with state funds. Sometimes plane(s) are owned by the university’s foundation. IRT Hendrix’s comment. He is a pompous ass who married into his first “executive” position so he is one to talk about “training”.

By bluetiger on September 4th, 2009 at 8:22 am

CNSYD– Honestly,, no rumors on Barker, himself, and affairs about the only redeeming thing that can be said for him. He spends his time covering up thoses type transgressions of his direct and slightly lower staff. Then, allowing the lower level employees get harassed, persecuted, become victims of underhanded retalliaton and and facing a continuing campaign to chase them off from their chosen way of livelihood.

Just a group of dirty old men, with the strong protection of those above who don’t really give a damn.

VP’s, Associate VP gone wild – in their playgrounds at Clemson.

other than that, Give’m a fit tigers – need a big season. The Athletic Department, despite some questionable leadership, seems to be our last stronghold of decency amoung the Staff.

By Todd on September 4th, 2009 at 10:59 am

BlueTiger: Jim Barker is not the only one happy Sanford is eating up the MSM spotlight. Glenn Mcconnell is happy he is off the hook on the Hunley imbrolgio for the year, Jean Toal is happy nobody is snooping around her court administration offices right now, Henry McMaster is happy no one has any time to really investigate his campaign and failure to investigate anything not politically expedient, Pastides is happy no one has time to look at Innovista and the list goes on……

By patricia on September 4th, 2009 at 11:22 am

I could care less about Sanford’s affair or his travel. GET TO WORK AND GET SC JOBS. We underlings cannot achieve a “zen-like” mindset such as Sanford’s without a freakin JOB !

By Notafan on September 4th, 2009 at 4:03 pm

Hi FITS,

Ever thought of putting a “reply to” function on the individual comments? That way I could really rip into people like Candi and Barney Fife, who are inexplicably defending the indefensible Sanford. Just a thought.

It’s great that this website exists. You are helping to shine a light on the disgusting underbelly of this state. It’s like picking up a rock that’s been sitting in the same place for 200 years…

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