SC Governor reappears...after going to Argentina?
 

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was in South America during a dayslong unexplained absence, not hiking the Appalachian Trail as his staff told the public when state leaders raised questions about his whereabouts, the governor told a newspaper.

The State reported that Sanford arrived Wednesday morning at Atlanta's Hartsville-Jackson International Airport on a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Sanford's spokesman Joel Sawyer declined to comment Wednesday morning to The Associated Press

The Republican told the South Carolina newspaper he decided at the last minute to go to the South American country. The governor says he had considered hiking on the Appalachian Trail but wanted to do something "exotic."

Sanford said he was alone on the trip. He declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he drove along the coastline.

Sanford was last seen at work Thursday. On Monday, a state legislator raised questions about where he was after hearing reports from security officials that the governor could not be contacted and his whereabouts were unknown. The governor's wife, Jenny Sanford, told The Associated Press she had not seen him since Thursday but was not concerned because he'd told her he wanted to get away and do some writing.

Late Monday, Sanford's staff said he had been hiking the Appalachian Trail. They said Tuesday that he had called in and planned to cut his trip short and return to work Wednesday because of all the attention his absence was getting.

The governor's spokesman, Joel Sawyer, said Sanford wanted to get away to clear his head after the legislative session, during which he lost a key battle. Jenny Sanford said Tuesday, "Leave us to our privacy."

When The State asked Sanford at the airport why his staff said he was on the Appalachian Trail, Sanford replied, "I don't know."


link


"Leave us to our privacy."?

A state that has one of the highest unemployment numbers and a governor who has critics who don't see him turning the economics around...disappears....lies about where he is going?

Yes he turned down stimulus money as is his right and there were enough South Carolinians who disagreed with that choice...but he disappeared on duty.

"Leave us to our privacy...."

I'm sorry, I don't think that's gonna happen.

Of course what has to be running on the minds of many...what the hell was going on in ARGENTINA that he lied about his whereabouts and who footed the bill?

If he EVER runs for president...an ad should run stating, "If the phone rings at 3am, do you know where your president will be to answer it?"

Apparently, even his wife didn't know where is was. She said he missed spending Father's Day with their four sons because he "wanted some space to get away from the kids."

And apparently, before he left on this trip, the South Carolina General Assembly, which is controlled by Republicans, overrode 10 of his vetoes.

Here is the story in the Columbia newspaper.

Anyone from South Carolina who can fill us in more?

Right....when you are responsible for about 4mil. people...you can't just "get up and get away." and not tell ANYONE.

This is just such a bizarre story - no one knew where he was, and they can't even come up with a coherent story between him, his staff and his family. The fact that his wife is making those comments to the press I think just adds to the weirdness of the situation.

I don't know that it would be such a big deal if he had come forward with it originally - it was at the end of the legislative session, and government leaders make trips all the time.

Good work to his chief of staff though in getting him back in the country - can you imagine the awkwardness of that conversation?

Actually, you really can.

He didn't have any responsibilities (other than the obvious "standing responsibilities") with the end of the legislative session, and he is entitled to vacation time. The government still functioned in his absence, and while there would have been some awkwardness should an executive decision be needed, the dustup would have been much more related to a poorly-phrased Constitution in SC than anything - besides this, the reasonable chance of this happening is almost zero, and even an emergency or disaster would have allowed the Lt.G or etc. to make the necessary decisions.

Honestly, I don't have any problem with what he actually did (leaving/being furtive), although the public relations portion and the aftermath have been handled extremely poorly - apparently, he does similar trips every year after the legislative session, because he's a high-stress/high-accountability type (he moved his family into the pool house to save the state money, etc.). If this is what he needs to do to be effective, so be it.

It's weird, and I feel like there's more to the story, but on a bare-bones level I don't really care about the trip itself. Now, if he was fondling underage hookers in Buenos Aires, obviously that's a different story - until we have word on the hookers, though, I'll go with "meh" I guess.

LOL....

Let me put it that way...yes...gov't officials deserve to go on trips and vacations and such...but the CALLOUSNESS of it all is the problem.

Lying about where you are going and then not really leaving someone in his stead or at least informing his Louie that he he was leaving.

It doesn't help either that he has a history of having ditched his security detail before.

The way he did this whole thing was like, "Imma lie and tell Mom I was at John's house around the corner, when I was really at Joe's house on the other side of town....and pray I don't get caught in a lie!"

He is a grown ass 50 year old man...why lie about where he went?

No, I don't think you can.

Entitled to a vacation? Sure.

Without telling anyone where you are, much less that you have left the country? Totally irresponsible for a Chief Executive. (Not to mention politically idiotic.)

I'm curious -- how do you know he didn't have any responsibilities with the session over? I know in my state, the governor has plenty of responsibilities whether the legislature is in session or not. That doesn't mean that the governor can't take some personal time or vacation. But it does mean that (1) she makes sure that things are in order as far as possible before she leaves, and (2) she makes sure that people know where she is and how to contact her immediately.

I'll put forward a distinction that makes sense, at least in my mind - I think it's fine for him to go off on a vacation, as long as his aides (at least his top aides) know where he is and how to contact him. So, if something were to go wrong, they could reach him. In my mind, it doesn't matter if the public knows exactly where he's going.

My issue with this story is that apparently his aides had no idea where he had gone. One question though - did I miss it, or how did his chief of staff get in touch with him?

ETA: The family aspect is a bit bothersome on a personal level (who leaves for another country without telling their wife and kids?), but doesn't matter with respect to his job performance.

I think you just hit the nail on the head...

That is the problem...NOBODY (including his staff and fams) knew exactly where he was.

Exactly -- this I'd agree with. The problem is that even his aides didn't know where he was. Neither did the number 2 guy, the Lt. Governor, nor his security personnel.

As best I can tell, he told his staffers he might hike on the Appalachian Trail, which is where the told the press he was. He didn't tell them that he changed his mind and decided to go to Argentina. And it seems that after he made a phone call from Atlanta, he turned his phone off for four days or so, so when his aides tried to call him to tell him that things were blowing up, they couldn't reach him. He left on Thursday and called to check in on Tuesday.

But it does get to the politically idiotic aspect of it.

FYI: He's giving a press conference at 2:00 today.

ETA: This editorial from The State gives some context (including about the governor's duties, or lack thereof): Mr. Sanford’s great adventure

True - it's just a PR nightmare, and I would hate to be his press people right now. This is one of those bizarre stories that tends to follow a person, and won't be forgotten very easily (unless he has some REALLY good explanation).

I live in Columbia, and what you all know is what we know. I didn't even know he was "missing" until I saw it on MSNBC last weekend.

I think that this is something that will easily be remembered, especially if Gov. Sanford plans on running for the presidency as it has been suggested.

I'm not a fan of Governor Sanford, especially after the stimulas debacle, but I think that his leaving without telling anyone (especially his family) was irresponsible. I think that he did mean well, but it just didn't go over as well as he expected it to.

This may be a personal bias coming through (as noted by my weak attempt to hedge, with "other than 'standing responsibilities'..."), but I just don't see the day-to-day role of governor of most states (barring CA, which is a disaster right now and anything could happen minute-to-minute) as something that requires constant contact, barring disaster. What exactly are his Saturday responsibilities? I'll admit that I'm assuming they're overwhelmingly ceremonial. It may be my disdain for most state executive branches shining though here - I'm completely open to that possibility - but I can imagine comparatively few things that would require immediate contact with the governor. In short: I don't see the effective difference between him being on the AT (and out of contact) and being in Argentina.

Now, with that said, it's clearly irresponsible, and it seems like obvious political suicide - and, as I noted before, it's kind of suspicious behavior to say the least. It feels more creepy than anything, the more I think about it. I just don't really care to the extent of the insinuations that the executive branch of the state of South Carolina was somehow compromised by this bit of creepiness.

Then how did he lie about where he was going?

Maybe he was just taking a page from the Dave Chappelle playbook, but Argentina is his Africa?

I think it's weird, but I, and I realize I've got nothing to base this on, feel that some member of his household or staff knew how to get in touch with him, even if they are claiming otherwise. If you give out that the Gov. is in Argentina or hiking the Appalachian Trail there's likely to be coverage of that, and maybe what the guy really wanted to most was just to be completely out of the official loop for a few days.

Now the good people of South Caroline as welcome to judge him harshly for that, but it's hard to figure out why anyone else should really care.