Rally to call for Sanford resignation

A rally has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. today at the Statehouse to call for Gov. Mark Sanford's resignation.

Charleston businessman and S.C. New Democrats head Phil Noble is among those who plan to speak.

Noble said Sanford's recent conduct "is embarrassing the people of the state that he's supposed to be leading. Democracy is based on some basic level of trust and respect between the people and their elected officials, period. If you destroy that, however you destroy it, you ought to resign."

The rally in Columbia is being organized by a group that formed four months ago, long before Sanford's Argentina trip, during the debate over South Carolina's share of federal stimulus dollars.

The group, members of the Facebook Internet site, numbers about 5,600, but it's unclear how many of them will show up today.

Republican National Committee member Glenn McCall said Wednesday he doesn't need to hold a rally because legislators have voiced their opinions. McCall said he called for a rally in an effort to force Sanford to step down after he returned from a mysterious disappearance, in which neither his staff nor law enforcement knew his whereabouts, to reveal he was in Argentina with his mistress. Sanford later called the Argentine woman his "soul mate."

McCall's rally had been an off-again, on-again thing. He'd hoped to pressure legislators to come forward and call for Sanford to resign. After the majority of the Senate's Republicans did that, the rally was put on hold, but it was back on by the end of last week.

Monday's vote by the state GOP executive committee to censure Sanford instead of calling for his resignation led to McCall's decision. He said his main goal was that people see their legislators speaking out "in any way."

"I had my say. Others have had theirs," McCall said.

But a rally will go on.

The "resign or impeach citizen's rally" is being pushed through the social networking site Facebook.

Democratic activist Marilyn Hemingway of Seneca is leading organization efforts, however Hemingway's calls for Sanford to go predate the revelation of an affair.

She created the "Impeach Mark Sanford" site as Sanford fought the Republican-led Legislature over requesting $700 million in federal stimulus money set aside for South Carolina's public schools and law enforcement. The governor staunchly refused, unless legislators used an equal amount of state money to pay down debt, though the Obama administration twice rejected that idea.

Sanford eventually made the request last month under orders from the state Supreme Court.

Hemingway has added the governor's six-day disappearance to her site's list of reasons for Sanford to go.

Though a party activist, Hemingway said it's a nonpartisan rally.

"I hope the citizens of South Carolina will look beyond the party politics of this and come out and express that we expect elected officials to uphold the oath of office to defend the state constitution and serve the people," she said.

Some have questioned whether the rally is tied to the Democratic National Committee and efforts to push President Barack Obama's health care plans.

According to a link on the Facebook page promoting the rally, representatives of Obama's Organizing for America will be there to gather signatures of people supporting Obama's health care efforts.

"This is not an Organizing for America or a DNC rally," said Joanne Peters, a Democratic National Committee spokeswoman.