More from the Sanford Silly Season

Mark Sanford is making state and national headlines again. This time for having his car pulled for speeding on Interstate 385. Further, news is now that the SLED agent driving will be issued a speeding ticket.

Frankly, and to the surprise of some, VUI disagrees with that decision. The SLED agent was driving the Governor of South Carolina, in a car that, from the video, had flashing police lights in the rear. If the Governor is in the back and says "step on it," and you work for him as a SLED agent, how do you go about telling the Governor "no."

Further, this is just more of what VUI dubs now as the Sanford Silly Season in politics. VUI wrote back in the summer that if Mark Sanford did not resign for his dereliction of duty, all sorts of things would pop up and dog him; things that diminish the office of Governor.

Well, those things have popped up. The Governor's first class air travel is under investigation. Frankly, the Governor of South Carolina should fly first class, or at least business class. The idea that the representative of the state of South Carolina to the world should be riding with the baggage is just plain silly.

And, it is just as silly that a SLED agent be ticketed for speeding while driving the Governor. Spare VUI the populist stuff about what regular people get charged with and the like. I have been stopped and got a warning because I was courteous and had a clean driving record. If a trained SLED agent driving the Governor gets the same treatment, I do not have a problem with that at all.

The difference is when I got pulled and warned, I was a private citizen with no media calling for my scalp. The media is right to call for Sanford's resignation, but not because of his speeding car or airplane tickets. The media and Sanford critics are grasping at anything to attack the man with, and clouding the issue. The issue is his dereliction of duty.

Ever since Governors, or United States Senators such as Thurmond and Hollings for that matter, could travel in automobiles, they have been sped from place to place by trained SLED drivers. Chances are if any other Governor other than Mark Sanford had been pulled, we would have never known about it.

But, Governor Sanford, in his weakened state, is a different political creature than his predecessors. By choosing to stay in office after his dereliction of duty back in June, Governor Sanford invited unprecedented and even silly scrutiny. Self righteous media members, bloggers and politicians are going to hee and haw over every little detail Sanford does until the office of Governor is as powerful as the office of dog catcher in Aynor.

The Sanford Silly Season in politics is now full blown. Sanford will not suffer from it. But, a hard working SLED agent will via a traffic ticket and the next Governor of South Carolina will via the weakened institution of the office of Governor the Sanford Silly Season leaves.

Mark Sanford can end all of this. Resigning will stop the political bleeding, so to speak, and keep any more public servants from being caught up in the Sanford Silly Season. The longer Mark Sanford stays in office, the sillier the news about the Governor's office will get. Watch for things like his food bill to come up next. Wait and see. The irony is those around Sanford and Sanford himself, seem to think that resigning damages the institution of the office of Governor. They are oblivious to what is in store if Sanford stays.

Of course, since we at VUI have some friends in the Highway Patrol, well, the guy was just doing his job, too. Take it away, Junior Brown: