Sanford saga is just sad to watch

Lt. Governor Andre Bauer is catching a lot of heat from some pundits and bloggers for doing one of the few right things so far in the Sanford saga. Lt. Governor Bauer was correct to offer foregoing the 2010 campaign if Governor Sanford stepped down for the good of the state. Sanford’s response to such in his letter to the Lt. Governor and in his press conference is just sad to see. Sanford’s eccentricities have caught up with him. Sanford’s feelings of being against the world of South Carolina politics makes it seem as if his reason could be slipping. The Governor’s assertions as to his own investigation about plane travel just reinforced Bauer’s assertion that the next few months are going to be about Sanford and not about South Carolina.

When the Governor of South Carolina groans on about the press after him and how he is being “railroaded” and one adds to it his bizarre interview with the AP a few weeks ago, those who care about this state and its governor wonder about our governor’s state of mind. It is so sad it is hard to watch and it is hard to write about. No one who loves South Carolina wants the Governor’s trials and tribulations talked about on CNN or in Vogue Magazine or to see the sitting Governor of South Carolina look so small and defensive. Any decent South Carolinian is saddened to see his state in the middle of such a drama. Any decent human being is saddened by what Governor Sanford and Mrs. Sanford are doing to one another and themselves on such a public stage.

There is some comfort in knowing that it has been worse. Coleman Blease was Governor of South Carolina from 1911-1915. Blease was not only a strong racist, but his reason and scruples were both questionable. Blease thought Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola soft drinks were evil, and even mentioned such in his Inaugural Address. Blease pardoned over 1500 people, some just for the heck of it, which led to the pardon powers being taken away from the Governor. Further, when Richard Manning was elected to succeed Blease as Governor, Blease was so upset that he resigned five days before the end of his term so he would not have to hand the office over to Manning. When it came to the press, Blease not only complained about them, he wanted reporters who published his speeches jailed. Sanford and his supporters can take comfort in the fact that after several years outside of politics Blease got elected somehow to a term in the United States Senate. (Of course Mrs. Blease was not giving interviews to the hip magazines of the day.)

Though Sanford is a very different Governor than Blease, it is clear that he shares with Blease the huge personal ego that led Blease to act in a way that divided his own party and weakened the office of Governor. Such is indeed ironic. Mark Sanford, the man who was elected on a platform to increase the power of the Governor of South Carolina, might, as a result of his dogmatic stance to cling to office, weaken the office as no Governor has since Coleman Blease. It is just sad for South Carolina to watch.