SC Lawmakers To Return In October
South Carolina lawmakers will return to Columbia for an “emergency” legislative session later this month to address one of the many recent disasters of their own making, sources close to House Speaker Bobby Harrell are telling The (Columbia) State newspaper.
The special session – for which lawmakers will reportedly not be paid – will take place on October 27 and should not (we repeat, should not) last longer than a day.
After all, according to the Speaker’s Office, all lawmakers really need to do is change a specific employment index so that the state can draw down additional federal “stimulus” funds to cover jobless benefits – a move that will enable 7,000 out-of-work South Carolinians to continue receiving unemployment checks.
Sounds easy enough, right?
What could possibly go wrong, right?
Unknown at this point is whether lawmakers will use the session to take up impeachment proceedings against S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, who has landed himself between the proverbial “rock and a hard place” with his June jaunt to Buenos Aires, Argentina to visit his Latin lover, Maria Belen Chapur.
Sanford’s trip exposed a rash of ethical lapses on the part of his administration, many of which are currently under investigation by the State Ethics Commission.
Some lawmakers want to wait until the Ethics Commission finishes its report, others want to move forward with impeachment now.
While Sanford’s fate during the special session remains uncertain for now, lawmakers are clearly furious with the state’s Employment Security Commission – which has run up a $500 million (and counting) debt with the federal government over the past few months.
Is their ire well-founded? We’ll have a more specific report on that soon …
Comments
By rebel on October 19th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Sounds like a good day for tea party.
By repoman on October 19th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
All of this political lawyer crapp stinks to high heaven impeach the lying sob and get on with it he’s a crook and should be freakin removed by now
By ohara on October 19th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
What could go wrong? Just don’t let anyone else in the GOP near a microphone, or publish a letter of response to ANY paper in this country. Then you might cover “what could possibly go wrong.”
“SC GOPers: DeMint Like A Jew “Watching Our Nation’s Pennies”
http://www.palmettoscoop.com/2009/10/19/jews-gentiles-and-jim-demint/
This state is back in the headlines again, for all the wrong reasons. I am beginning to wonder if they all forgot to take their meds this year, or if it it a simple case of SC having the lowest collective intelligence in the continental US.
By Ynot on October 20th, 2009 at 6:01 am
Why not impeach Sanfraud too?
That shouldn’t take but a day either. So they spend two days doing the work on their nickel.
Looks like the G.A. approves of Sanfraud’s strikes against the state.
By Cooter Brown on October 20th, 2009 at 6:29 am
But wee wuz doin’ so gud without dem! How’s ’bout dey stay gone– like gone foreva! Dat’s th’ onlie way t’ ensure no mo laws iz passed t’ fringe on my GOD giben LIBERTIES! Now, if’n dey wants t’ come in an’ start repealin’ laws, why, I cook ‘em breakfast ebery mornin’ an’ serenade ‘em ebery nite!
By Ron on October 20th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Amen, Cooter!!!
By Nathan Earle on October 20th, 2009 at 11:42 am
I hear that on their first day in office all legislators are given a dictionary from which words such as “repeal,” “lessen,” “diminish,” “shrink,” “undo,” “limit,” “curtail,” and “abolish” have been removed. Oh yeah, “remove” is one of the words too.
Apparently “impeach” isn’t in there either.