Is Mark Sanford about to leave? Stay tuned.
| Atlanta
Is this it for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford?
Despite attempts to recover his reputation with 鈥渢he folks of South Carolina鈥� in recent days, the embattled Mr. Sanford is facing an increasingly difficult political path forward to complete the last 16 months of his term-limited tenure.
Sanford has called a 3:30 p.m. press conference to discuss 鈥渞ecent political developments鈥� 鈥� including a call for his resignation from 61 House Republicans and an expected party resolution demanding that he resign from the South Carolina state GOP.
Opposition to Sanford remaining in office has grown steadily since Sanford disappeared from view and contact for five days in June. He told aides he was walking the Appalachian Trail, but he had actually flown to Buenos Aires to spend several tear-filled days with a mistress he later called his 鈥渟oul mate.鈥�
It's clear that the governor鈥檚 extramarital affair, added to his strange disappearance, is at the root of the resignation calls, especially now that the affair has all but consumed the business of the state for two months running.
But the state鈥檚 Ethics Committee is also looking into potential misuse of state aircraft by Sanford. The governor has welcomed that investigation and has urged that it be open to the public. He also has consistently pointed out that the current campaign against him is more about entrenched South Carolina politics than his own actions.
鈥淭he moral wrong was mine and the consequences past, present, and future are mine, but there鈥檚 a very different story that has led to headlines over two months and that鈥檚 been about a lot of things being driven by politics,鈥� Sanford told WVOC radio on Tuesday. He added: 鈥淭here鈥檚 been eight governors impeached in the history of the nation, all involving fairly heinous things. There鈥檚 certainly a world of difference in what happened in those instances鈥� compared to his own situation.
But in the last week, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and House Speaker Bobby Harrell, both fellow Republicans, issued public letters to Sanford, calling for his resignation for the good of the public trust 鈥� and the ability of Columbia to move past a scandal that increasingly stands in the way of the state's business.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got a state that is not moving absolutely at all forward, so there is no effectiveness whatsoever,鈥� Lieutenant Governor Bauer , a news website, on Thursday. 鈥淒o we think [Sanford] can go back in January and actually make something happen legislatively? Of course not, it鈥檚 going to be a fiasco that not only we have to witness, but that the world will witness. It would be better than any reality TV show in America.鈥�
Most critically perhaps, as South Carolina waits again for the governor to speak, is that the letter from 61 House members calling for his resignation has turned the mathematical probability of Sanford surviving an impeachment battle in January from unlikely to nearly impossible.
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