For Gov. Sanford:
Republicans in the South Carolina state Senate are laying the groundwork to accept the stimulus funds Gov. Mark Sanford is likely to reject.
Sanford, a Republican, announced Wednesday that he’d accept $700 million in stimulus funds only if President Barack Obama granted him a waiver to use it toward state debts and liabilities. If the president refuses, which is likely, the governor said he’d reject the money.
That didn’t sit well with Republican state Sen. Hugh K. Leatherman, Sr., the Senate finance chairman, who introduced a resolution in the Senate Thursday to request the money if the governor refuses it.
“Being chairman of the finance committee, I too have concerns about annualization,” Leatherman said, referring to Sanford’s concerns that the stimulus money could create financial hurdles in the future. “But I am not willing to deprive our people of maybe creating a good job for them,” Leatherman said.
Again, the purely cynical play for Democrats is to just keep giving Sanford a microphone.
mr. whipple
Sanford keeps saying he won’t take the money because he’s all about fiscal discipline. If that’s the case, why doesn’t the press hound him for his state currently being in the red?
I can’t believe this is a popular move for him within his state, excepting perhaps the hardcore.
DougJ
You know, candidly, this is no joke for the state. I’ve got friends in Columbia, SC. I would hate to see the state get screwed by this lunatic.
dmsilev
Why does the Governor of South Carolina hate the people of South Carolina? Asked seriously without snark; as DougJ points out above, this sort of grandstanding could have real, real world consequences.
Trying to answer my own question, a guess would be that he’s counting on being overruled by his legislature. That way, he gets to posture and preen for the possible benefit of the GOP primary electorate, but doesn’t have to worry about being held accountable for the disaster that would ensue if his grandstanding worked. An alternate theory is that he’s just plain stupid.
-dms
Laura W
Meanwhile, up here in NC, we seem to be eagerly awaiting the money.
I got this email last night from the woman who, along with her great hubby, ran the local Obama office. She submitted her question via the web and forwarded the response she received from the County back to the group of volunteers. She has not yet received a response from the City:
Ms. K…,
The Transylvania County Board of Commissioners is actively pursuing
stimulus funds for our community. We are working with the North
Carolina Association of County Commissioners and the Land of Sky
Regional Council to make applications for stimulus funding. The County
has already submitted a pre- application for the replacement of the
Septic Pretreatment Plant ($420,000). We have sent a list of "Shovel
Ready Projects" to Congressman Shuler, Senator John Snow, Representative
David Guice, the USDA, the North Carolina Association of County
Commissioners, and the Land of Sky Regional Council. We met this week
with staff from Land of Sky Regional Council to help determine which
programs are available to meet the shovel ready projects that we have
identified. We have contacted the local school system and have
identified projects that both are pursuing. We have gone through the
necessary paper work to register our County in order to be eligible to
receive stimulus funding. We worked with the NCDOT and in June two
projects will be let in June ( guard rails for NC 215 and shoulder
widening and safety improvements on the four lane from the intersection
at Pisgah Forest to approximately Blue Ridge Community College. Both
projects were included in the first phase of stimulus funding to the
NCDOT.
Respectfully,
Artie Wilson, Transylvania County Manager
El Cid
Glenn Beck weeps on TV for how much he loves his country, as demonstrated by legions of right wingers submitting photos they took of their own faces for the "9/12 project."
Blue Neponset
This is actually the best possible solution for Sanford. He gets the money in his state without taking responsibility for it. It is wingnut wetdream.
JL
South Carolina’s unemployment rate is over 10% and without the stimulus money the state will be forced to layoff another 7500 teachers.
In GA, the governor wants to refuse funds intended for the unemployed. The GA legislature is trying to pass a law protecting the rights of the embryo but there is some concern about who is responsible for the abandoned embryos. In GA the government is more concerned about embryos than citizens.
mr. whipple
Via a diary at Kos, Gov. Sanford is in the midst of hard times…he has to sell his 3.5M mansion:
http://www.indigojournal.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=563
amorphous
@El Cid: He actually believes his own bullshit, doesn’t he. He has gone off the deep end, and he will incite some violence somewhere, if he hasn’t already yet.
Media Matters always makes me sad. They could compete with deadpuppies.com for most depressing website.
Laura W
Ha. The dawg and I are going to Sullivan’s on Monday. I’m gonna find that house and snap a photo of the dawg in front of it for next Friday night’s open thread.
JL
@Laura W: Any chance that the dog has an Obama shirt that he can pose in?
eemom
Harold Myerson, one of the few remaining columnists that stands between the op-ed page of the Washington Post and dog toilet paper, has a perfect phrase for the likes of Sanford: "Dickensian grotesques."
Flappy McScrotum
Septic Pretreatment Plant, guard rails, shoulder widening, and safety improvements. Only an American-Hating Commie Terrorist would want wasteful pork like this.
/wingnut mode
JL
@El Cid: Glenn Beck appears to be unstable.
Wilson Heath
Was it Douhat who was pumping Sanford on NPR this morning? (Turned it on before making coffee.) Both came off as complete asshats. Speculation that Sanford has some brilliant path involving staying in a fiscal hole and lacking a safety net as unemployment explodes that nevertheless will lead to a shining future for the state. "Grand New Party" my ass.
El Cid
I’m still laughing today about Shepard Smith making fun of Glenn Beck on air.
mellowjohn
@JL:
appears to be?
Laura W
@JL: What a great idea, JL! I have a light blue moveon shirt I got early on for a donation. It’s like 8 sizes too tight for me. Probably be too small for the 50lb dawg, too. Might fit your petite Moxie nicely!
I shall take it with some buttons. I have about 65 different campaign buttons, too.
Stoic
The Dems in Congress should give the Republican Govs what they want: the ability to refuse the funds without their legislatures bypassing them.
Just Some Fuckhead
Yo yo, dig it.
Keith
We’re going through the same shit in Texas with Gov. Rick "Cap’n Hairdo" Perry. The asshole has the gall to announce he’s rejecting half a billion in unemployment money…at a small hardware store in the middle of the wealthiest part of the city (River Oaks) as if he’s saving this mom n pop from the horrors of unemployment insurance.
D-Chance.
Ditto for Rick Perry, the John Edwards "purty boy" equivalent of the GOP. He wants to reject $555 million, but please send down those troops to guard against the evil brown druggie hoard invading the state.
Feh. Take the $555 mil, use it to train the unemployed to stand guard, and kill two birds with one freaking stone…
A Mom Anon
@JL:
I think the governor of GA already approved or was bypassed regarding unemployment benefits. When my hubby first filed,he got $330 a week,now he gets $355. That extra 25 gets direct deposited separately from the 330,why I have no clue.
The citizens of SC need to show up at the gov’s mansion every evening around dinner time just to ask him what he’s having for dinner and let him know what they can afford to have.
I’m sick of these people playing games with people’s lives. Like Jon Stewart said,it’s all a game to them,they’ve never struggled and it just doesn’t matter to them.
amorphous
@Keith: …while he resides in a $10k/month rental during the Gov’s Mansion rennovations. But that’s the kind of political capital you get when you win another term with a whopping 39% plurality.
Comrade Jake
"It’s almost like these people take pride in being ignorant."
Zifnab25
@amorphous: I was never a big fan of Kay Bailey, but I’d take her over that plastic-haired premadonna any day.
JL
@A Mom Anon:
What a great idea!
gex
In a way, I hope that one or two of these states do turn down the money. I’d love to get an actual, real world case study on Hooverism versus Keynesian responses to a severe financial downturn. At the same time in the federal system. People (on the right) refuse to admit to the lessons learned in the Great Depression. Let’s get some more data points but isolate the riskier approach in states that insist on pretending we don’t know what we already know.
On the other hand, I’d rather not do the study. I think too many innocent people will suffer while those who grandstand about ideology will not be inconvenienced.
smiley
Check out the CNN clip in this post of Benen’s.
crustaceanette
Thank god we have some sane people in the legislature, even if they are repubes. Sanford gives not a shit for the people of his state and everything about running for prez. He is both stupid and cruel and I want to see his ass go down in flames in the process. A worthless excuse for a governor and even more worthless excuse for a human being. Lump his ass in with Bobby Jindal. Not sure why the peeps of Louisiana haven’t stormed the capitol with pitchforks yet.
WyldPirate
Stoic @19::
Damn good idea. If things keep tanking, it might be a good way to change party affiliation of all the redneck goobers I’m surround by in eastern North Carolina that vote agalnst their economic interest .
crustaceanette
Please don’t wish that states’ peeps don’t get the funds – I am unemployed and the way things are right now, things are not going to get better anytime soon so I need my little unemployment check, small as it is. And I’m not one of those people who didn’t care until it affected me personally, but it has.
Besides that, in time, people like Sanford and Jindal will be thoroughly ripped for their cruel & cycnical tactics (ok, it’s already sort of happened to Jindal, but Sanford is dumb as a rock, wait till he starts campaigning)
PeakVT
Why does the Governor of South Carolina hate the people of South Carolina?
Because he wants to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012. The base eats up hating poor people, so kicking them while they’re down ought to go even farther.
jcricket
@crustaceanette: This is the problem. I don’t want to hurt people like you. But I want the Republicans punished for their fiscal insanity. Hopefully the voters will figure out who supports them, and who’s playing games with their lives through grand-standing like Sanford.
But sadly, I’m sure some will gladly ignore the fact that their continued employment (or unemployment benefits) were rejected by their leaders when it comes to voting next time around.
If any of these yahoos runs for president in 2012 I can’t help but imagine their vote against the stimulus money or stand against taking it will come back to haunt them.
gex
@jcricket: I don’t really enjoy the cycle.
In good times: liberal policies are bad and unAmerican, DO.NOT.WANT.
In bad times: liberal policies are bad and unAmerican.GIMME!
Mike in NC
Today’s paper has an article stating that 52 mayors from across SC – Democrats and Republicans – have written to the state legislature and to Sanford, demanding that the state accept the money.
The unemployment rate in SC is now the second highest in the nation. Obviously driving it to become #1 will be the centerpiece of Sanford’s brilliant 2012 presidential campaign.
crustaceanette
jcricket: exactly what I was sayin’ – Sanford is diggin his own grave – who knows where repubes will be in 2012 – they may want to disown him by then – he is every bit as stupid as Palin, if not more
gnomedad
@El Cid:
That guy at the end was as full of win as Shep Smith. What’s going on at Fox? Have DNC commandoes seized the control room?
Laura W
@crustaceanette: Are you reasonably close to Charleston by chance?
Did you have to find new homes for your kitties?
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
I disagree, gnomedad. He was part of the schtick designed to demonstrate that there are no good Americans in Hollywood. HAR HAR!
Ejoiner
That’s where I’m from? Are we friends?
On a serious note – yeah, screw Sanford. Give it a couple of weeks so sink in and then you’ll see some real anger. I’ve lived here for 20 years and its the same thing over and over again – we lead in all the worst categories and the Republicans keep screaming about their leadership of the state. What a joke.
crustaceanette
Laura W, I’m in the Upstate but am from the Columbia area like Ejoiner. (I lived briefly in Charleston). The Upstate is about as red as it gets but it’s pretty bad all around the state. I was feeling desperate when I talked about my kitties, but I’m not ready to take such extreme measures yet. It all depends on what happens in the next several months and whether I can get steady employment. Ideally, with health insurance bennies — I’m cutting my salary expectations in half now, hoping that will help. But I know it’s really bad so I’m not giving myself false hope for the immediate future.
I appreciate you asking about that :) Oh, and Charleston is about 4 hours from here, such a beautiful place
JL: that’s a great idea, I believe AMomAnon suggested something similar for her Georgia gov
wasabi gasp
Jonestownsian Conservatism
grandpajohn
Of course they are even our republican controlled legislature know that Sanford is a fucking lunatic with political aspirations. As I have repeatedly stated we will take the money, the rest of them are not stupid like sanford.
In SC for all his posturing the governor is little more than a figurehead. The legislature wields the power and within their political games they are not about to yield any of it to a idiot governor whose vetoes of bills they routinely over ride. the last 7 years have been a slapstick comedy of battles between the 2 branches and Sanford lost most of them.
Ash Can
Like I said when I first heard about these grandstanding asshole governors, I can’t imagine that they aren’t setting themselves up for a world of hurt. I disagree that Sanford can benefit from his theatrics because it gives him a way to have things both ways. I can’t imagine that so few people are hurting financially in his state right now that he enjoys sufficient support for his conservative "bravery" to get away with it politically. And I’m sure that, since the Republicans in the state legislature are making plans to bypass him and accept and implement the stimulus money as intended, at least a few of them will be looking to take Sanford’s job at the next opportunity. Furthermore, if in fact Sanford is going for broke for the presidency in 2012 and doesn’t care if he’s burning his bridge to his state if it gets him the backing of the nationwide GOP base, where does that leave him? He’ll be going into the presidential race with far less name recognition than any of the current party leaders, such as they are, unless he continues to do crazy headline-grabbing shit in SC (which could have the added result of getting him booted from office early if the sane legislators decide they’ve had enough). The recognition he does have will amount to, "This is the highly principled conservative who stuck to his guns in the face of an onslaught from Sozzialist Washington DC, and he’s detested by all of his fellow S-Carolinians as a result. What a guy, huh?" And the base he’ll be playing for, unless Obama does something like quit in disgust next year and leave Harry Reid in charge, will amount to a whopping one-fifth of the electorate. Heckuva job, Sanny.
I don’t see how Sanford comes out a winner here without everyone in his state developing amnesia and completely forgetting what a horse’s ass he is.
nogo posttal
The Gov and others playing this game are obviously Monty P fans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkQhK8O9Jik&feature=dir
Evolved Deep Southerner
I work at a large university in South Carolina and commute from Georgia, so I keep up with stimulus-related political posturing in both states. I’ve concluded that Mark Sanford is the only thing keeping Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue from taking the title of #1 Dumbass Governor Of A Former Confederate State.
My institution has already seen a first wave of budgetary carpet bombing this year – furloughs for everyone, a moratorium of dual employment (which personally cost me a third of my income), a hiring freeze, a facilities freeze, early-retirement incentives, and an almost-certain "reduction in force" on deck for next year, which everyone expects to be worse than this one.
I expect to keep my job (pausing to knock on wood here) so I realize I’m more fortunate than many. If you lose five days’ pay to furlough – even if you lose a big chunk of income on top of that when they decide that they can no longer afford to offer the classes you taught as a dual employee – that’s bad. But when you lose your job outright, you lose your ass. And a lot of people in South Carolina have lost their ass. One of only four states to have double-digit unemployment, and of those four second only to Michigan.
Ideology aside, what did voters expect from a man who made his fortune through "payday loan" offices? He governs the same way he ran his businesses, all the way down to the core philosophy.
Ella in NM
Having lived in Charleston, South Carolina in the 80′ s while my husband was in the Submarine Service, what I remember is that there are a WHOLE LOTTA poor people there, including TONS of African Americans. How does that state keep on electing extremists like Sanford? Is it just the white racist vote combined with an incumbant stranglehold on the election system?, Or does the Democratic party need to focus on organizing in that state?
The other thing I don’t get is that at some point, these states HAVE to accept most or funding because it’s attached to/contingent on existing streams of Federal money that they would have to turn down also. I really can’t see Booby Jingles being able to afford that in Louisianna, where they must still be administering the Katrina monies, for instance. At some point the Obama administration can just play hardball and freeze ALL federal money going into a state if they fail to accept all the stimulus funds. We’d see about ONE HOUR’S worth of the "but we got’s principles" show.
These guys literally need to be tarred and feathered by their constituents.
Cpl. Cam
I’m sure his constituants will reward him for recognizing that they are salt-of-the-earth types who would rather pull themselves up by their own bootstraps than accept a government handout. Pffffft.
The Scarlet Pimpernel
I can’t imagine that so few people are hurting financially in his state right now that he enjoys sufficient support for his conservative "bravery" to get away with it politically.
The thing to remember about our dear asshat governor is that he cannot run again. This is the second term for him and that is the limit in SC. (Can you believe that the idiots in the state actually voted for him twice?) And as to the people of this state being immune to the recession, the funny part of this is that a huge percentage of the Lowcountry of SC are retirees from Up North (or …from AWAY, for the locals) who ALWAYS vote Repugnant. Now that their retirements may disappear with the depression crash of the stock market it will be interesting to see the effect on voting patterns.
kimmm
i currently liive in greenville, sc and would greatly appreciate the funds from the stimulant. i dont understand why the govenor doesent want the funds for the people to be able to get better jobs. for some reason he seems he dosent want to help the citizens of south carolina. this is wrong real wrong. the gov. is a racist and this something it has taken alot of ppl to see and i dont think he will get re-elected next term. as you can tell the jobless ppl in s.c. is growing and it seems he wants it to stay that way, only because he can keep ppl under his finger. we need that money and he shouldnt be able to keep us from getting it. someone should go over his head and provde the citizens of s.c. the chance to get back on their feet.
Evolved Deep Southerner
Kimmm, I live right near you and I know what you’re talking about. Slowly – and it’s taken just way too long because of this awful, backward culture that we just cannot seem to slough off and move past – but slowly the working class of South Carolina is waking up to the fact that this man has contempt for the people he serves [sic.]
But just to clarify – and I’m real happy to point this out – there’s no question about him "getting re-elected next term" because our backward-ass electorate has seated him twice. He can’t run again.