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Posted on Friday 18 September 2009

SC gov used European charters
Associated Press
By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and JIM DAVENPORT
September 17, 2009

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, already facing scrutiny for expensive taxpayer-funded flights, relied on charter jet services costing more than $63,000 when traveling in Europe on two state business trips, an Associated Press investigation has found. Sanford, his commerce secretary and two other state officials charged taxpayers more than $43,000 for use of a seven-passenger executive jet for several days of travel from France to Germany and Estonia during a June 2007 trip, state records show.

Also, taxpayers paid more than $20,000 so the governor and three state officials could fly a seven-passenger charter jet earlier this year when traveling from Poland to the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland, according to the records. Commercial flights readily available for those trips would have saved the state $41,223, according to the average of current ticket prices listed on a Web booking site. But state officials said the governor and others couldn’t fly commercial because their meetings in various locales were scheduled too close together…
On the one hand, nobody would’ve looked so closely at Sanford’s travel expenses had he not pulled off his Argentina caper, so it smacks of a kangaroo court as Sanford claims. On the other hand, these are some very large numbers to be spending for plane tickets. Sanford presents himself as a staunch Christian and a fiscal conservative, yet in his private dealings, neither claim seems to hold much water.

There is, however, a point to the Mark Sanford story. The more we learn, the worse he looks. Recall that Mark Sanford is an author of the book, The Trust Committed to Me, and was to pen a second, Within Our Means. While in Congress, he made a great show of sleeping in his office – the paradigm of frugality. As governor, he famously marched into the statehouse carrying pigs to protest "pork." He wanted to refuse the Federal Stimulus money, and vetoed many State budget items [over-ridden 99% of the time].

But his thriftiness is focused. He wanted to trim back and/or shut down public college education, give people school vouchers to send their kids to private schools, balked at signing domestic violence legislation. Like many of his Republican colleagues, his small government, frugality meme seems to be a thinly disguised smokescreen for what might be called the "Reverse Robin Hood" mentality – rob from the poor and give to the rich. South Carolina ranks near the bottom in income, education, employment – yet Sanford’s thriftiness is aimed at trimming the "pork" to the people most in need.
 
So what we’re learning about Mark Sanford is what we should have learned about Ronald Reagan and the George Bushes – all this business about small government, fiscal responsibility, and christian family values is mostly about maintaining the place and resources of the white and the wealthy. Sanford’s espousal of  The Trust Committed to Me and living Within Our Means is a facade. I’m beginning to think that the Conservative Party line is always a facade. And, as for Sanford, so long. Sometimes the kangaroos are right…

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