Sanford uses Jedi mind trick to get out of speeding ticket
, where are you when we need you?
First, South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer decided to buy a Smart ForTwo mini-car 鈥� top speed: 70 miles per hour 鈥� after getting stopped twice for driving over 100 m.p.h. on South Carolina roadways. (Presumably, he won't be driving it like .)
Now comes news that the state agent in charge of driving Gov. Mark Sanford, apparently thinking he鈥檇 taken an exit straight onto Darlington Raceway, was stopped this week for going 20 miles over the speed limit on I-385 near Columbia.
But it gets worse for Governor Sanford (if that's possible). After Mr. Bauer was stopped, Sanford made the point of criticizing him for using his influence to get a favor from a cop.
Sanford said he and his cabinet 鈥渂elieve very strongly that preferential treatment should never be a factor when enforcing the law,鈥� according to the South Carolina politics site, .
Which makes what happened this week on I-385 a bit of an embarrassment.
This is how the stop went down, according to a press release from state public safety director Mark Keel:
Police Lance Cpl. R. S. Salter stopped a Crown Victoria with tinted windows, and "an individual, who exited the Crown Victoria and approached Salter, identified himself as a State Law Enforcement Division agent. When asked why he was speeding, the agent said he was transporting the Governor.
鈥�Trooper Salter approached the Crown Victoria and found the Governor to be a passenger in the vehicle.
鈥淭rooper Salter then returned to his vehicle without issuing the SLED agent a speeding citation."
One detail the official version left out: The trooper did shake Sanford鈥檚 hand.
Charleston City Paper, for one, likened Sanford鈥檚 roadside influence to suggestion to a pair of storm troopers in the first Star Wars movie: 鈥淭hese are not the droids you鈥檙e looking for. Move along.鈥�
Of course, : 鈥淭hese are not the grounds for impeachment you鈥檙e looking for. Move along.鈥�
South Carolina State Police have retroactively decided to issue a speeding ticket to Sanford鈥檚 driver, but in many ways, the political damage has been done.
鈥淓veryone instinctively gets that the speeding incident is not a big deal, especially on that stretch of road, but it鈥檚 the exposure to another charge of hypocrisy that hurts,鈥� says Will Folks, Sanford鈥檚 former press secretary.
The speeding incident comes as the governor is fighting an ethics investigation and possible impeachment hearings following a secret rendezvous with an Argentine mistress this summer.
Sanford isn鈥檛 likely to get a break from the press on the incident. After a heated press conference a couple of months ago over the Argentine affair, the governor infuriated the Columbia press corps by issuing a press release for an event in Greenville, S.C.
He sent the press release one hour and 40 minutes before the event began.
Greenville, of course, is a two hour鈥檚 drive from Columbia 鈥� at least, if you're driving the speed limit.
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