Congressman Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) Has a Primary Today, and It's No Walk on the Appalachian Trail

Donald J. Trump endorsed Mark Sanford's Republican opponent today, with only three hours left for voting in the primary: “Mark Sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to MAGA,” Trump tweeted. “He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina. I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love. She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!”

Arrington has criticized Sanford primarily for criticizing Trump.

Curiouser and curiouser, because Arrington herownself has a history of dissing Trump: "In a March 2016 Facebook post, she praised Mitt Romney on the night that he delivered a rebuke of then-Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, whom Romney called 'a phony, a fraud' and someone who was 'playing the members of the American public for suckers.' 'LOVE MITT ROMNEY!!!!!' Arrington wrote that night. When challenged by someone about the posting, Arrington doubled-down, writing that she 'really has a problem with the moral and ethical issue of someone being president who has done nothing more than ... make fun of people'."

It appears that Arrington has had a change of heart. It also appears (again) that Trump doesn't read.

Whoever wins this Republican primary will have this guy -- Joe Cunningham -- as the likely Democratic opponent. We like Joe's chances, whether it's against Mark Sanford or finger-in-the-wind Katie Arrington.

Take a Look at Democrat Joe Cunningham in South Carolina

One of the best introductory campaign videos I've seen in months! Joe Cunningham is running in the 1st South Carolina Congressional District against Mark Sanford (yes, that Mark Sanford of "Appalachian Trail" fame). Joe Cunningham is very much in the 2018 Blue Wave frame of reference, a quality Democratic candidate who has every opportunity to flip that district.

McCrory Got a Big Sloppy Wet Kiss from a Crooked Mortgage Lender

This lead paragraph sums it up:

CHARLOTTE — Soon after taking office, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina accepted six-figure stock payouts from an online mortgage broker accused by regulators of deceiving its customers....

Don't you just love the smell of sweetheart deals in the morning?

But this is the "money graph":

In the months after receiving his $171,071 payout of stock from Tree.com, McCrory appointed the state's banking director and a majority of the banking commissioners who regulate mortgage brokers.

And this:

Some of Tree.com's payments to McCrory and Sanford weren't publicly disclosed until May 2014, when the company filed its 2013 year-end proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

McCrory is now dodging the press. Soon we'll be hearing about how he's out stepping on toes all over the place.

Pathway to Notoriety?

We've tried our best to pay no attention, since "hiking the Appalachian Trail," to what goes on politically in South Carolina, which is to say the extra-marital scandal du jour, which is why we've refrained from picking through the rumpled linen of leading Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley and the outing of her illicit love affair with a conservative blogger (so bloggers do get out of their pajamas occasionally, albeit only to climb into bed with fresh meat). That the spilling of those beans was done by the fornicating blogger himself almost got us going, especially as he was also formerly the public spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, of that Appalachian Trail hike fame, and who could resist the convergence?

Well, we did.

Until now.

Over at Balloon Juice, blogger DougJ ruefully reflected on the uptick in blog traffic such a public scandal was sure to provoke:

Do we really live in a world where bloggers can allege having had affairs with politicians and suddenly become national celebrities? Is this something we at Balloon Juice should consider as a traffic maximization strategy? And who would be a good politician to claim I've had an affair with?

Among the 194 suggestions from readers was this one:

... Rep. Virginia Foxx ... produce a string of emails in which you refer to her as "Representative Foxxxy," or how she was "a Foxx in the Rooster house" or something.

Ok, now I need a shower.

We Rebuke Thee, O Sinner!

Impeach him for the highly public tickling of the fat potato-finger of lust? Not so much.

Instead, "the special [S.C.] House impeachment panel approved an official rebuke of Sanford for bringing 'ridicule, dishonor, disgrace and shame' on South Carolina, its citizens and the governor's office."

A sternly worded scolding.

Not that anyone will ever notice the glaring inconsistency, that the censure route was not judged to be nearly severe enough for that ole randy goat Bill Clinton. It's just hard to cut your own livestock from the herd, right guys?

The Benefits of Worshiping a Particular God

Because, apparently, He justifies the actions of ... certain people.

Mark Sanford, the fornicating Guv of South Carolina, for example, sez God's on his side. And now we understand the whiteness behind the "white lie."

Rachel Maddow has had a segment lately spilling the only beans you need to know in this age of hypocritical self-righteousness: "It's okay if a Republican does it."

Bleat, Goes the Guv

South Carolina's Guv and Chief Hypocrite just can't stop spinning. He distributed an essay to the state's Sunday papers yesterday 'splaining how God was working through his life in a special way, that all that sneakin' 'round was just what God wanted him to do so that he could be exposed (crucified) for the greater glory of the Lard.

Don't know what the Guv was inhaling when he lived in that "Christian" Frat House on C Street in D.C., where other recent strutting Republican adulterers also bunked, but apparently it leads to blessed self-congratulation.

At least the other recently exposed hypocrites like Sen. John Ensign have chosen to remain (relatively) silent. Sanford can't stop yapping about how God has graced him with absolution. Would that God would grace the rest of us with a little gubernatorial silence.

The Chosen People

Here's an example of using your Christian status among The Saved as a trump card to save you from punishment, i.e. in this case, loss of job:

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), on Friday:

I have been doing a lot of soul-searching on that front. What I find interesting is the story of David, and the way in which he fell mightily, he fell in very very significant ways. But then picked up the pieces and built from there.

Zachery Roth helpfully reminds us of the plot of David&Bathsheba:

As King of Israel and Judea, David saw Bathsheba in the bath (he was walking on the roof at the time, goes the story) and immediately had to have her. After getting her pregnant, he tried to conceal it by ordering her husband Uriah to return from war and sleep with Bathsheba, so that the baby would be thought of as Uriah's.

But Uriah preferred to remain at war. So David gave an order that Uriah should be abandoned in battle, ensuring his death. Then he married Bathsheba.

And he didn't even have to give up his kingship.


According to reporters who were present when Sanford compared himself to King David, the governor's cabinet exhibited "looks of nervousness and incredulity," so that immediately afterward, the Guv's office issued a written statement:

I remain committed to rebuilding the trust that has been committed to me over the next 18 months, and it is my hope that I am able to follow the example set by David in the Bible -- who after his fall from grace humbly refocused on the work at hand. By doing so, I will ultimately better serve in every area of my life, and I am committed to doing so.

Will someone please send this child to camp?

Odd Man, Out

So South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's staff was just plain lying for him when they announced yesterday that he was on a hike.

Instead, he was in Buenos Aires without telling his wife and four kids.

"I wanted to do something exotic," Sanford told The State newspaper.

ADDENDUM
The "something exotic" that Sanford was doing turns out to be an Argentinian woman.

When Situational Ethics Happen to the Morally Superior

Hyper-conservative Carolina Politics advises S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford to just take the Obama stimulus money already. Because, better the money gets spent in South Carolina than in some less savory state.

By Gawd, they do believe in evolution in the Palmetto Bug State!

Hypocrite of the Day

Republican Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina says he just hates the socialism and all, but he'll take the Obama stimulus money, because being against the plan "doesn't preclude taking the money."

Insert your own joke here.

Time for Foxx to Put Up or Shut Up

Late yesterday afternoon Dan Besse posted this wholly reasonable suggestion on BlueNC:

Every elected representative who rails against the stimulus as fundamentally a bad idea should be expected to file an opt-out bill on behalf of his or her district. Under the opt-out, no infrastructure funds, no education funds, no broadband money, etc., from the stimulus-funded programs would be used in his/her district.

With Rep. Virginia Foxx taking every opportunity to fog-horn her utter disgust with President Obama and his economic stimulus, it's time for her to have the courage of her convictions and actually do what Dan suggests ... DEMAND that the 5th Dist. is waaay too American, too patriotic, too Godly to accept any of the president's ill-gotten funds.

To sit silently by ... why, Foxx might as well have voted for the stimulus.

All she has to do is follow the lead of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who yesterday said he intends to sniff every single dollar of the $4 billion that his state was due to receive, to make sure the wrong people hadn't handled it. That is the right thing to do, if you're a conservative extremist who believes in casting out demons and federal dollars with equal fervor.

We expect Gov. Mark Sanford of South Em-Effing Carolina to do likewise, to gather the hem of his cloak up tightly 'gainst his thighs, to wave off the Obama stimulus, and to pray to God to save his state from all such intrusions of Northern Aggression.

Madam Foxx should be so brave, or at least as intellectually consistent as her incessant carping.

GOP Consensus? 'Take Down the Big Tent'

The Republican Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, oft-mentioned these days as a potential new leader of the disgraced GOP, opines about the future of his party at Politico.com and not only agrees with other leaders who are calling for MORE conservatism but also ups the ante slightly by dissing El Presidente's "compassionate conservatism" as mere window-dressing that didn't fool anybody and by actually calling for a purge of moderate or "fake conservative" elements in the party. He doesn't name names, naturally, but we wonder who he's talking about. Could it be Sen. John McCain who needs ousting? Maybe the two Maine senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, whose "moderation" famously led them to vote against the conviction of Pres. Bill Clinton in his impeachment.

If it would be of any help to Gov. Sanford and his fellow travelers, we would be glad to begin work on a short list of prominent Republicans who look suspiciously non-doctrinaire, "persons of interest" whose very presence in the GOP is simply (probably) holding everybody back.

We'll also be glad to hold the governor's coat while he leads the ritual stoning.