Having been busy today polishing my new material (fortunately, my thumbnail had already been polished for me), I just now picked up on the thing that has S.C. blogs buzzing today.
So no, this one was NOT a scoop for me.
So I refer you to the piece at thestate.com written by John O’Connor and Clif LeBlanc:
The whereabouts of Gov. Mark Sanford have been unknown to state officials since Thursday, and some state leaders are questioning who is in charge of the executive office.
Neither the governor’s office nor the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for governors, has been able to reach Sanford after he left the mansion in a black SLED Suburban SUV, said Sen. Jake Knotts and three others familiar with the situation but who declined to be identified.
Sanford’s last known whereabouts were near Atlanta, where a mobile telephone tower picked up a signal from his phone, authorities said.
First lady Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press today her husband has been gone for several days and she doesn’t know where he is.
The governor’s personal and state phones have been turned off and he has not responded to phone and text message since Thursday, a source said.
Jenny Sanford said she was not concerned….
I don’t even know what to add to that…
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He’s giving you what you and your buddies in the Legislature want – a ghost governor. One who just fills the seat while the Legislature does whatever it wants.
I hope he doesn’t come back. I hope he says “Call me when you need me – but only when you’re ready to do what I say”.
He tried his best. He was defeated by the career politicians who are responsible for everything (economy, education, environment) in this state.
Instead of “Who is John Galt?” our rallying cry will be “Where is Mark Sanford?”
Relax, this will all be explained in his next WSJ editorial, working title “Why We Sacrificed Father’s Day Weekend for Our Children’s Future.”
Folks, in my decades of covering governors, I’ve never run into anything odder than this. OK; maybe a little odder: I was there in Nashville in 1978 when the feds got the Legislature and the Supreme Court to swear in Lamar Alexander several days early because of what Ray Blanton was up to, or about to be up to. Long story — but suffice it to say, I’ve seen stuff like THAT, but this, in its own quiet way, is right up there as a novel experience …
Here’s hoping the governor’s OK, and that this is all cleared up momentarily.
Ironically, I just today signed up to “follow” the governor on Twitter. And on that day, he vanishes (or at least, I learn about it)…
The comments on The State online are interesting. One commentator points out that new GM vehicles have Onstar. Another says that everyone knows (!) the kids are in Hilton Head all the time [and not Sullivan’s Island?] –but at any rate they are not in his office!
Jenny does a lot of yoga, so her equanimity is not surprising, I guess. Whatever gets her through the day!
The governor was apparently in Atlanta at some point. He didn’t realize the Braves were in Boston this weekend. It’s either that or he was attending the Miley Cyrus concert on Saturday. That fits the pattern as Eric Cantor skipped the Obama press conference a few weeks ago to attend a Brittney Spears concert.
On a serious note, this is a very big deal both on a personal and professional level. He missed Father’s Day and his wife didn’t know where he was? He was also unavailable for contact in case of emergency!? Jake Knotts was dead on about this point.
This completely destroys any chance he had in the GOP presidential primary for ’12. He’s history.
OK, now it’s being reported that the governor has been located and is OK — but, in yet another strange twist, this is being attributed to the lieutenant governor’s office, of all people…
“I was recently made aware that Governor Sanford has frequently been eluding SLED agents and disappearing at odd times,” Knotts said.
Ack.
He looks much older, but apparently our governor is an amorous 16-year-old, sneaking out for secret sloppy kisses with his one true love: himself.
He’s either in a secret bunker with Dick Cheney or in Wasilla stratergerizing with AK Gov. Sarah Palin plotting their moves for 2012.
Unfortunately, Cheney is no longer in his bunker. Palin may be in Wasila …collecting housing supplements for staying in her own house.
Old-timers like me may remember that Earl Long did the same thing when he was governor of Louisiana. He turned up in a motel room with stripper Blaze Starr. Sounds like deja vu all over again.
I gotta say I don’t think this is anywhere NEAR the same level as Ray Blanton selling pardons to felons to pad his retirement account.
Brad, is there a problem with the website? The only threads showing up are this one and an incomplete one preceeding it.
Jake Knotts hamming it up in the New York Daily News:
“If he don’t like the security that SLED gives him in South Carolina, he’s going to absolutely hate the Secret Service if he runs for President. They’ll go in the bathroom with him!”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/06/22/2009-06-22_awol_gov_sanford_has_south_carolina_in_tizzy.html
The Lt Governor’s Office on Aging, no less.
What the heck is going on here? A buffed thumbnail, a disappeared governor, a codger-spokesperson who is channeling Al Haig….
My first thought about Atlanta was the airport.
More and more of Brad Warthen’s man crush on Gov. Sanford. You’d think the guy would be more concerned with finding a job than finding the governor.
Be careful what you wish for?
Speaking of “man crush”, Bill C….remember how you told Brad “goodbye and good riddance” on his old blog…
…and then followed him over here to continue stalking him? Now THAT’S obsessive.
FYI, this is a national curiosity now. I watched a segment on Hardball tonight where Chris Matthews led off a segment by talking about Sanford, and he and his two guests all used the word “weird” throughout the conversation. Hard to get a leg up on the presidency if you’re seen as the weirdo. Tom Tancredo was the weirdo. So was Ron Paul. Sarah Palin? Bobby Jindal? Rick Perry? Weird, weird, weird.
Sanford.
Weirdo.
2012.
Now that is a challenging image. Chris Matthews referring to someone else as “weird”. Was his leg tingling?
Lord! It’s a miracle! Man up and vanished like a fart in the wind! Nothin’ left but some damn rocks on the windowsill and that cupcake on the wall! Let’s ask her! Maybe she knows! What say there, Fuzzy- Britches? Feel like talking? Guess not. Why should you be different?
Where is that from Birch?
One of just about everyone’s faves
Ah, I’m one of about 12 people in America to have never seen it.
And on a personal note, I feel like I’ve been chained to this computer every night for months studying and studying. But with this devil safely behind me, maybe it’s time for me to vanish for a while too. At least if only to get some fresh air.
Brad, thanks for providing a place on the web to often learn something interesting (about the happenings of our state) while taking a break from learning things mostly uninteresting.
Pat, that’s an interesting analysis about Atlanta – beats a Miley Cyrus concert. I don’t think we’ll evern know the truth.
jfx, great point about Bill C and his venom. Brad interviews a pertinent source about the GOVERNOR DISAPPEARING and Bill starts frothing at the mouth.
This is a big deal. Sanford has not shot in the GOP primary. Too bad, I was looking forward to him dragging the primary field off the cliff to the far right.
Randy, I know who is the current administration; but apparently, you didn’t get my joke.
Actually, I think this is just another publicity stunt. Governot Sanford just wants to prove how irrelevant the Governor is to South Carolina. He should have saved this stunt for next year. After all, for his publicity stunt this year, he sued South Carolina in Federal Court. One year, he vetoed the entire budget; another was bringing piglets into the General Assembly and another was bringing a horse and buggy to the State House.
“jfx says:
June 22, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Speaking of “man crush”, Bill C….remember how you told Brad “goodbye and good riddance” on his old blog…”
No, please refresh my memory with a link.
If I did say it, it was because I was glad that Brad got his butt canned by The State.
Randy E – “pertinent source”??? Are you speaking of Jake Knotts? If so, you are more clueless than I originally thought. I’m a conservative Republican, but would vote for any ultra-left wing Democrat before I would place a vote for Jakie “I ate too much” Knotts.
Bill C., ANY state senator is pertinent, especially one in the governor’s party – regardless of your personal bias.
Bill C.: “I was glad that Brad got his butt canned by The State.”
Ugh. I disagree with you, and Lee, and Doug, on most everything. But would I be “glad” if you got laid off? Hmm. No, probably wouldn’t wish that on anyone. What nasty worm crawled inside you and died, Bill C.?
I am more concerned about all that Porkulus money vanishing.
Randy – I’ll have to disagree, Knotts is a pox on the Republican Party. I’m not the only one who feels this way.
jfx – No nasty worm, just glad to see Brad face the consequences of what he’s been dishing out. He’s been after Sanford relentlessly for at least two years to the point where it was clearly an obsession and tiring to subscribers.
I wish the media would put this much effort into trying to locate Hussein Obama’s birth certificate.
Bill – it wasn’t Brad’s “Single White Female” Sanford complex that did him in at The State.
It was the “we’ll save our jobs by doing less of the same thing” mentality of the newspaper business. When the newspaper business became the “advertising wrapped around a little news” business, the die was cast. Just wait til the auto, real estate, and job listings complete the transition to the web.
If Brad put as much time into finding a job as he did trying to find the governor he’d probably have dozens of job offers by now. But that would probably mean having to leave SC where people wouldn’t’ care what Mark Sanford is doing, which to Brad would be like a heroin addict quitting cold turkey, and Brad isn’t about to do that.