Reading The Pictures: Bury Us Not On Sanford's Lone Prairie
Equally recognized for his theatrics, his blind fiscal conservatism and his presidential ambitions, last week Governor Mark Sanford galloped onto the national stage by threatening to reject $2.8 billion in federal stimulus dollars for S. Carolina even though his state's unemployment rate is third highest in the country.
Last February, Jim Morrill at Standard.Net offered this background on the Gov when Sanford was being talked up as McCain's running mate:
Many Republican legislators remember with disgust the time in 2004 when Sanford carried two pigs -- "Pork" and "Barrel" -- to the legislature. With pig droppings falling onto his suit and shoes, he criticized lawmakers for passing a budget with too much of what he considered frivolous spending.
"Anybody who was here when that happened, they're still incensed about it," said state Rep. Carl Gullick, a York County Republican. "The governor is popular with some members of the legislature. He's very unpopular with others."
In 2005, Time magazine called Sanford one of the three worst-performing governors in the country. That same year, he rode a horse and buggy to the General Assembly to complain about its failure to adopt his government restructuring plan. And time and again, he's vetoed legislative budget bills, only to have lawmakers from his own party vote to override them.
It is interesting Sanford's point behind this demonstration -- staged in front of the S. Carolina statehouse almost four years ago -- was to symbolize obstructionism. Today, with the economy (especially South Carolina's) deep in the ditch, leaders like Sanford, in his self-serving ideological primitivism and his prairie-style resistance, risk setting the country back a couple of hundred years.
For more visual politics, visit BAGnewsNotes.com (and BAGnewsNotes @Twitter).
(image: 3/2/2005 - South Carolina Governor's Office. caption: Governor Sanford brings horse and buggy to SC Statehouse)
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I have lived in SC now for five years, and I am still aghast at its backward ways. A lot of these angry white folks are obstructionist down to their core. Many of them are dirt poor, dumb as hell, and as happy as can be.
The state places very little value on education.
You can see see why an ignorant obstructionist like Sanford would be popular... Luckily, the legislature (Republican controlled) is able to keep this buffoonish nitwit on a short leash...
If he is re-elected in open, fair election, doesn't the state deserve him?
hello
Governor Sanford if delusional. He has built his career on a Sullivan's Island patrician's lineage, because of a very broken, lame state Democratic party, and very favorable democraphic from whence a blind white hog could find a chance in politics.
A whiff of Sanford is a moment in the stench of the old south. This dude is a loser, devoid of any useful, original thought. All this garbage about refusing stimulus money for South Carolina is only about his posturing for party creds, about himself, while the number of South Carolinians steadily grows due much to his ineptness.
Take it to the bank. Governor Sanford is a loser, just South Carolina's Sarah Palin without glasses. May that which reigns supreme peel all the bark off this boll weevil for all to see at the very moment he wold least enjoy it.
It's no wonder SC is in the state they are in, with someone like Sanford running it, their is no other place but the toilet. But these uneducated people keep electing fools like this. I f he doesn't want to take all the money, don't allow him to take any. Maybe these people in SC will come to their senses.
South Carolina, like most states if the old Confederacy, receives a lot more in federal money than they pay in taxes. This is because of federal policy implemented about 50 years ago to lift up the South's economic conditions. Northern states receive less in federal revenue back so southern states can get more. In other words, South Carolina is a big welfare mama. Let's get them off the dole now and see what their Gov has to say.
I just looked this guy up. He was re-elected in 2006. Are you effing kidding me. I'm sorry but it looks like the people of South Carolina want this guy to represent them.
In that case I say fine, no stimulus money for you and don't give them a cent more than their federal tax contributions. This will mean more money for the rest of us. I'm getting really tired of sending my tax dollars to states who clearly don't want them, my state uses less federal tax dollars than it contributes so we subsidize states like SC. There are plenty of States who need the money and will use it to benefit their citizens they can have it - enough with this cr@p. SC voters need to get their acts together - if this guy doesn't represent you it's time for some action. Start with peaceful demonstrations outside the governors mansion given an official unemployment rate at around 9.5% there should be plenty of people with the time to do it.
"Today, with the economy (especially South Carolina's) deep in the ditch, leaders like Sanford, in his self-serving ideological primitivism and his prairie-style resistance, risk setting the country back a couple of hundred years."
The Confederacy is ALIVE AND WELL, and just as stupid and backward as it was in the 1860s.
OK, I'll ask....WHE
http://upl
As a South Carolinian, I hope that if Sanford does turn down the money (given his history, he is capable of it) that the General Assembly overrides him.
That's their plan. They turn down the money, the legislature overrides and at election time they can take credit for the improvements. They can play both sides of it. Primitive, but it will work - especially in the south.
Re your last sentence: Isn't that what they want? State of the art weapons with a medieval social structure?
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