Andre Bauer’s press conference today was pretty much as advertised. I dropped by to check it out on my way to the job fair today at the State Museum.
Above is some sketchy video from my Blackberry. (And just to show how good I am to y’all, here is much higher-quality video at thestate.com.) You can see me shooting it, my arm obscuring my face, in the photo below by Tim Dominick of The State. You may be able to tell that the turnout on the part of media types was somewhat sparser than for the now-infamous Sanford press conference that started all this rolling.
No, excuse me: What started it rolling was Gina Smith catching the gov at the Atlanta airport getting off the plane from Argentina. Had that not happened, there would have been no confession, and we’d probably still be in the dark. Gina was at today’s press confab, and I was able to congratulate her for the S.C. Scoop of the Century. I’ve had some pretty good stories in my lengthy career, and put one over on the competition a few times in my reporting days. But rare is the reporter who can say that something this broke purely because she was on the spot in the right place at the right time. Sure, the credit goes to teamwork — someone else got the tip that the governor had been seen in Argentina, and the folks at The State determined that there was a chance he’d be on this flight — but the glory goes to Gina.
Anyway, the Andre thing told us pretty much what we knew. In essence:
- He called on the governor to resign, becoming the first statewide elected official to do so.
- He promised that if the governor quits and makes Andre governor before Andre announces his own candidacy for governor in October, Andre will not run in 2010.
- He made it pretty clear that if it takes longer than that — such as if we have to wait for the Legislature to be in session to impeach Sanford — the deal is off.
So, if ANYBODY has any influence over Mark Sanford (something which I doubt, unless his “soulmate” chooses to weigh in; this guy is singularly immune to what other people think), now would be a really good time to try to get him to quit.
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Mark Sanford is not the usual political animal, so the animals down at the State House and their barking dogs in the press don’t know how to handle him.
They are all calculating what is in it for themselves, and they aren’t that smart.
What type of warped “deal” is that? Why would he run for governor if he’s willing to accept a one year term in lieu of wanting to take the seat to move the state forward in the long run?
Bauer is showing that his maturity has not progressed since he attempted to surpass warp speed a few years ago. Sanfraud’s betrayal of his family and consituents has opened the state to continued ridicule.
You had better worry about the deal you haven’t seen, such as putting Gresham Barrett in the Governor’s office and Andre’ Bauer into Congress.
Near as I can tell, Gresham Barrett as gov would merely be Not Good, as in yet another wasted opportunity. Having either Sanford or Bauer as governor is Actively Bad. So the Andre deal is a win-win, if Sanford can be persuaded to cooperate with the state’s best interest for once.
So which little career status quo politician do you want for governor?