In defense of a governor besieged by rising ranks of petty hypocrisy

It's a nasty, disagreeable, thankless and lonely job. But someone has to do it. Those howling after Gov. Mark Sanford's scalp, and they are legion, need to be reminded that ours is a legislative state. The governor's job here is pretty much what John Nance Garner famously called his vice presidency in FDR's first two administrations: "Not worth a bucket of warm spit." (Actually, the word Garner used wasn't "spit." The press cleaned him up a bit, a circumstance that seems positively quaint today.)

Sanford can carry pigs into legislative chambers as a protest against pork-barrel spending, but his vetoes of spending bills are very rarely sustained, not even with overwhelming Republican majorities in the Statehouse. If this doesn't remind you a bit of the difficulties President Obama is having with his party's large majorities on Capitol Hill, it should. And the President of the United States, as opposed to the Governor of South Carolina, has real power at his disposal.

Before "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" became background music at every groveling Sanford press conference and speech, we had a governor who did his best to stand up to a Legislature that ranks right up there, or rather down there, with those in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and California. And yes, many good and decent people serve and have served in our Legislature. It's just the organization that doesn't perform very well.

You cannot blame Mark Sanford for South Carolina's sky-high unemployment, dearth of job-creating industry, abysmal public schools, or drastic revenue shortfalls brought about by a severe national recession. Come to think of it, you can't even blame him, as many today undoubtedly would, for the failure of USC and Clemson to field better than mediocre football teams, despite the best coaching and playing talent money can buy.

The brutal fact is that South Carolina, dominated by its Legislature, is not and never has been a poster child for strong and responsible government. This is partly systemic. The checks and balances one usually looks for in a democratic constitution are not much in evidence here. The Legislature lords it over both the executive and judicial branches. We are the only state in the nation with a Budget and Control Board that exercises executive powers ordinarily held not by the legislature but by the governor. Judges and justices are elected by our legislature, and those seeking a career in the judiciary must first join the good-old-boy network in the Statehouse, in effect making our courts retirement homes for legislators grown weary of the legislative grind.

No wonder the wheels of justice turn so excruciatingly slow in South Carolina. You can't blame it all on overwork and underpay.

We are a moral people and many who stand to benefit from Sanford's fall, smelling blood, are grown suddenly holier than thou over his Argentine affair.

But the hypocrisy, the hypocrisy! I wonder how many of those urging his resignation or impeachment could stand up to the same scrutiny he is subjected to?

No one, except possibly Jenny, can forgive his "midlife crisis," but everyone must know this particular failing is all too common in the world we live in and, egregiously, within the political class. Think Bill Clinton, a young and vulnerable intern and a little blue dress. Think the late and much-lamented Ted Kennedy, a lonely bridge at Chappaquiddick, a young girl cowardly left to drown.

What makes Mark Sanford's transgressions so hard for many to dismiss is the saintly and conservative image he carefully fashioned for himself both as congressman and governor. He slept on a cot in his office at the Capitol, to demonstrate his determination to save the public money. It most likely did no such thing, and being independently wealthy he could well have afforded to rent a suitable apartment in a safe part of town (assuming there are any safe parts left in the nation's capital).

There were those pigs and all those vetoes he knew full well would never be sustained. And before Maria, his constant playing of the family card. In many ways, he set himself up for his own fall.

All the hoopla over use of the state plane and upgrades on commercial flights is ridiculous and penny ante. The Legislature wastes more money in a single day than the governor could in an entire term. And many South Carolinians probably feel that their governor, when traveling on state business, should not have to fly in steerage.

Should he resign? Should he be impeached because of a business-class ticket or two? Be careful what you wish for.

I told you this would be a dirty and disagreeable job. I confess I have a personal peeve against the governor. She Who Must Be Obeyed no longer will let me make, on my own, business trips to Buenos Aires.

R.L. Schreadley is a former Post and Courier executive editor.