Back on the day we’ll not soon forget.
Mark Sanford has now told the National Review — apparently his ability to charm SC media has worn thin — that he is running for his old seat in the 1st Congressional District, and he’s doing it in order to save the country from budget deficits.
There’s a bunch of other stuff in the interview should you like to peruse it. Me, I just wanted to check it for his verbal DNA, and make sure it really was Mark Sanford they spoke to.
At first, I worried, because he didn’t say “at the end of the day” or “soil conditions” a single time. But there is one “I would say” (which he used to say so often that I wanted to shout, “Well then why don’t you just say it?”).
And he says “look under the hood” no fewer than four times, which was reassuring. I am not making this up:
You have to, in essence, look under the hood. There’s a larger philosophical question. In life we’re all going to make mistakes, we’re all going to come up short. The key is, how do you get back up and how do you learn from those mistakes? . . . But I think that the bigger issue is, don’t judge any one person by their best day, don’t judge them by their worst day. Look at the totality, the whole of their life, and make judgments accordingly…
You’ve got to look under the hood. There’s that sensational headline, to look and say, “Wow, big ethics charge.” Beyond the headline, what does that mean? You say, “Hm. There were 37 counts the ethics committee brought, and did you know half of those are for taking a business-class ticket?” You look under the hood and you say, “Wow.”…
It’s important in this instance to look under the hood and say, “Wait a minute, they keep talking about default, and that’s just not true.” You can prioritize spending. When I was in Congress, I remember a GAO report that said that Treasury has the capacity. There’s no statutory requirement for them to default. They could prioritize their spending, and they’re doing things in the short run, to shuffle things around, all based on prioritization…
Yep, that’s Mark Sanford.
Oh, by the way, someone else is getting set to announce he’s running, too:
MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR RELEASE ON JANUARY 15, 2013SOUTH CAROLINA SENATOR LARRY GROOMS WILL ANNOUNCE RUN FOR SOUTH CAROLINA’S FIRST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
WHO
South Carolina State Senator Larry GroomsWHAT
Grooms will announce his bid for South Carolina’s First Congressional District.WHEN
Thursday, January 17, 2013
3:00p.m.WHERE
Scout Boats
2531 Hwy 78 West
Summerville, SC 29483
Next to Summerville Auto Auction
Maybe one of y’all would like to cover that for us. I’m not going to be down that way.
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He’s doing it for………………. the salary.
So what is “Tumpy” running for? Because he has nothing other than his dad’s name to fall back on?
Something you have to understand about Mark Sanford… Most of us would look at the 2011 debt ceiling crisis that caused the nation to lose its credit rating, the post-election “fiscal cliff” madness, and the coming debt ceiling (again) contretemps, and not want to go within a light year of Congress.
But Mark Sanford digs this stuff.
There’s nothing that he wants to accomplish through government. He just likes to argue against the spending. He looks at what the Republicans are getting to do in Congress right now — stuff that would make me want to bang my head against a wall, hard — and can’t stand the idea of missing out on all the fun. He’s like that.
How much has Obama cut in the last year? Or is he too busy demanding to go further in debt? There was something on FitsNews a few days ago where someone did a study and said if the national debt ceiling continues at it’s current rate, by the year 2020 this country will be paying $1 trillion per year just in interest. For many, that’s going to come out of the pockets of your children and grandchildren.
Sanford’s popularity didn’t just plummet when he hiked the Appalachian Trail. His popularity was already sinking fast because of his ideological dogmatism, for example when he attempted to turn down federal money desperately needed by citizens left unemployed by the recession. He couldn’t work with anyone, including those in his own party. He may be counting on people having such short memories that all of this is lost to history, but I don’t think so. Enough is enough.
Sanford has never taken his eye off the presidency. He needs a national stage (Fox news gig won’t do) in order to stand before the Tea fringe and declare that IF YOU LOOK UNDER THE HOOD his political philosophy remains pure and unsoiled. True, he skirted his marriage vows (thank you, that is a great pun) and treated his governorship responsibilities abysmally, but look under the hood and you will see he vetoed the entired state budget. He knows what it means to cut spending.
And, if you think about it, Mark loves being on the taxpayers’ teat. Means he does not have to dig in his pockets for housing, etc. Ah, the futon and the pleasures of (that right wing hang out for Jim Demint and others paid for by the lobbyists) K street (?) beckons.
The only problem for Mark Sanford is that when you look under the hood you see that the engine block is cracked, and what was presented as a V16 super-turbo racing engine is truly a little 4-cyclinder (wack) job.
Wasn’t he one of those guys who pledged a limited run, and if so, isn’t his 15 minutes up?
You see, at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself…..
…have you looked under the hood?
So now you have a problem with people returning to their old job?
Touché
I hope he gets elected and brings the piglets with him to the house floor. Also, do you think that Maria Conchita Alonso or Rita Moreno or America Ferrero or whatever his soon to be wife’s name will move to DC with him?
Just when you thought South Carolina politics couldn’t get any more bizarre. I suspect he won’t get very far. I suspect it will be incredibly difficult for him to raise money. I just wonder how his fiancee feels about this?
South Carolina: You can’t make this up.
He will run on others people money. Nothing really to risk here for him. Will boost his national image though and that’s his ultimate goal anyways.
Sanford and Co are going to be OK. He makes an entertaining talking head on TV.
Won’t John Stewart be happy to hear of this!
For someone that doesn’t like government, Mark sure has worked hard to make a career out of working for the government.
I see that his term limit promise also didn’t mean anything either- like his marriage vows.
and the saddest part is – I once voted for the man. Still regret that.
Hey, I supported him very publicly and enthusiastically — in 2002. But I should have known better. There were signs. It’s just that I’d never really come across anyone quite like him before, so I didn’t recognize the signs for what they were. They didn’t fit any known pattern.
Speaking of his status as a career politician, which he most certainly is…
Back when he started his run for governor, in 2001 I suppose, I asked him what he’d been up to since he had left Congress a year or two earlier.
“Nothin’,” he said. Oh, he’d been hanging with the kids and changing diapers, he said, but he’d done nothing toward earning a living or anything outside the home. Just living on the money they had.
I don’t have his bio memorized, but to the best of my knowledge there was only a very brief period in the late 80s to early 90s, between the time he was a driver for Democrat Phil Lader in his run for governor in 1986 and his own run for Congress in 1994, when he worked in the private sector.
To the best of my knowledge, that was it.
OK, it was slightly more than I recall, according to Wikipedia:
Basically, his career actually working in the private sector was pretty much before I knew of him. And he hadn’t been out of college all that many years when I first knew of him.
As Wikipedia sees it, his career in the private sector all fits under “early life.” Which is how I see it, too.
But wasn’t he one of those voluntary term limits guys of the early 90s?
Term limits don’t typically mean never returning to politics. They mean leaving the position after X terms. I have no problem with a politician leaving office and returning again for another term limited stint. I wish ALL politicians were forced to do that.
And in Sanford’s defense, he served the three terms he said he would serve, and then quit.
I don’t believe in such promises, but he did keep it.
I don’t believe Mark said he’s run for 3 terms, resign- and then run again.
I think he said he’s run for 3 terms, and quit and go back to the real world. I think that should include some real world work – instead of going back to “the real world” and then planning on running again.