The Sanford who stole Christmas

Julie Smoak could hardly believe it when she arrived at the State House on Sunday night, expecting to hear the sounds of Christmas.
What she found were several hundred disappointed people milling around the Christmas tree on the State House lawn.
But though the ceremonies were canceled, the tree lighting went on just the same.
Left to fire up the lights on the official state Christmas tree around dusk was a lone state government worker — instead of Gov. Mark Sanford and his young sons.
“We certainly wish we had been able to go forward today, but with the weather forecast we were hearing, it had to be called off,” Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said.
The heavy rain never fell as forecast, so the decision not to have the service bewildered Smoak and others who didn’t get the word until they arrived. Some said it would have been a good night for the event: cloudy and cool with only a slight breeze. – [Sic] The State.

I was rather disappointed to hear that our dear Governor cancelled the Christmas Tree lighting event held annually at the State House which is always a boom to bolster political support.

Disappointed but not surprised.

Considering the lack of interest this governor has with much of anything to do that would bolster support for his administration or support for this state in general. What do I mean? Well lets look at the Governors social calendar. He has successfully managed to skip, I mean miss every Boys’ & Girls’ State event throughout his entire tenure – and one would think they’d want to get the support of the youth who are politically motivated and active. He has also missed out on the Governor’s Rural Summit while in office so many times that they actually changed the name from Governor’s Rural Summit to South Carolina Rural Summit. And let’s not get started on Cronyism and his astute ability to alienate supporters and his own political party. Top this all off of course with the recent “scandal” over the Competitive Grants. Let’s take a closer look. The Governor in March decried the Grants program:

“We remain very concerned about things like the House’s budget proviso regarding awarding millions of dollars in grants through an unaccountable and not at all transparent process,” Sanford’s statement said. “The House proposal is the exact opposite of what we’ve been pushing for in terms of restructuring, and it creates a real danger of turning this grants process into a legislative favor factory where certain members of the General Assembly would be able to hold sway over tens of millions of dollars and use them for political purposes.”

And yet here we have the Governor doing (more than) just that, taking $101,000 from the Grants Program and laundering it through a Governor’s Association Meeting right into the hands of his own pet PAC. Please note the word laundering. A bit more extreme than the Pot/Kettle Comment. And though Sanford is “apologizing,” has the State seen any of that $101,000? Nope. Are any plans made for Sanford to personally repay the State the amount of “his Donation” or for his pet PAC to give up the money? Not really. The Governor has asked that the money be re-channeled back into control of the State, but there’s not much being done to enforce that transfer. Hmmm…. Looks like Governor Sanford stole a bit more than Christmas.

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