Happy Appalachian Trails to you!

On Friday, Fox News confirmed that they had hired former Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) as a paid contributor. The move that could make things slightly awkward at the network. During their coverage of the affair that tarnished Sanford's political future, Fox News hosts and contributors labeled their new coworker (among other things) a "serial liar," a "laughingstock," and an "early brain donor."

During the June 24, 2009, broadcast of On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, Van Susteren bristled at her guest referring to Sanford as having "misled" people, clarifying that "it's lying. I mean, misled is a nice word, but the guy lied. He lied to his constituents. He lied to his staff. He lied to his wife, not on just one occasion. It's multiple - I mean, he's a serial liar." (And now he can lie to Fox viewers.)

This is going to be fun to cover. Maybe the only thing I'm looking forward to when I tune in to Fox when you don't have to. Fox will not be able to bring up Lewinsky, Spitzer, Edwards, etc...because? They just hired themselves a serial lying, early brain donoring, laughing stock....

On Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume wasn't sure if Sanford would be able "to ride this out." The "problem" for Sanford, according to his new coworker, was that "he's a laughingstock."

[Sanford's weird press conference]

Mark "Lover Boy" Sanford of South Carolina once called the stimulus "fiscal child abuse. Now he's flying to D.C. to beg for it.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) waged a high-profile war against the economic stimulus package last spring, claiming that accepting the $700 million for which his state was eligible would lead to “a thing called slavery.” Even as his state’s unemployment rate climbed above the national average, Sanford maintained his partisan and politically motivated refusal to take the funds.

But yesterday, Sanford flew to Washington to demand $300 million in stimulus money for education, the State newspaper reports:

Sanford, who spent much of last year fighting parts of the Obama administration’s stimulus plan, now wants S.C. to have a piece of $4 billion in “Race to the Top” education money. [...]

Sanford met with [Secretary of Education Arne] Duncan to learn more about a charter school program Duncan started in Chicago, said Ben Fox, the governor’s spokesman. Sanford also took the trip to urge Duncan to support more charter school grants, Fox said. [...]

Sanford’s trip — which did not appear on his official calendar — is especially hypocritical because the majority of stimulus money destined for South Carolina was to fund education and save thousands of teachers’ jobs. Yet, in March, Sanford told Fox News host Glenn Beck that taking the money would be akin to “fiscal child abuse.”

This is typical conservative behavior. Attack a Democratic initiative relentlessly -- and then after you get your fifteen minutes of fame, change your mind because you know the media will never hold you accountable. Sanford actually had an extra 15 minutes of fame, thanks to his love of long hikes in the Appalachians Brazil.

DOWNLOADS: (777)

PLAYS: (2877)

Embed

The first Republican, Abraham Lincoln, famously proclaimed, "My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side." Sadly, as Sarah Palin and RNC Chairman Michael Steele revealed again this week, Honest Abe's successors believe the GOP truly is God's Own Party. As it turns out, Palin and Steele joined George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee, Michele Bachmann, Mark Sanford and others on the long and growing list of Republican leaders who claim they have been chosen by God.

On 60 Minutes Sunday, McCain-Palin campaign chief Steve Schmitt disclosed to Anderson Cooper that the Quitta from Wasilla viewed her selection as John McCain's running mate as part of God's plan:

COOPER: After Senator McCain asked her to be his vice president, how did she respond?

SCHMITT: She was very calm, nonplussed. I said, "You don't seem nervous at all about this," and she said, "No, it's God's plan."

(For more on Palin's belief in the "natural progression" of a grand divine plan for her, continue reading below.)

Echoing Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's announcement in September that "God has placed me in this powerful position," Michael Steele claimed he, too, was tapped by the Almighty in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Under siege by fellow Republicans for his endless series of gaffes and shameless self-promotion, Steele announced:

"I'm not defined by this job. When this job is over I will go back to doing something else. But God, I really believe, has placed me here for a reason because who else and why else would you do this unless there's something inside of you that says right now you need to be here to do this?"

Of course, Steele is far from alone among God's chosen Republicans, as George W. Bush and his amen corner long ago made clear.

Continue reading »

If you love audio content and podcasts as much as I do, don't miss "In Bed with Susie Bright." In my opinion, her podcast on the Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford sex scandals (free excerpt at the link) should win best podcast of the year, if there is such a thing. (Her blog on sex, culture, and politics, etc. is great too, but like the podcasts, not necessarily work safe.)

Open thread below...

Politicians of both parties routinely paraphrase Abraham Lincoln's mantra that "my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side." But in fighting his own civil war to hold onto office, disgraced South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has turned Lincoln's maxim on its head. Proclaiming in an opinion piece Sunday that He will make him "a better and more effective leader," Sanford in essence declared God is on his side.

Sanford's misappropriation of the Almighty was featured prominently is his latest apology to Palmetto State residents. Among the lowlights:

"It is true that I did wrong and failed at the largest of levels, but equally true is the fact that God can make good of our respective wrongs in life. In this vein, while none of us has the chance to attend our own funeral, in many ways I feel like I was at my own in the past weeks, and surprisingly I am thankful for the perspective it has afforded...

It's in the spirit of making good from bad that I am committing to you and the larger family of South Carolinians to use this experience to both trust God in his larger work of changing me, and from my end, to work to becoming a better and more effective leader."

By "changing me," Mark Sanford does not mean steering clear of the C Street residence in Washington, an apparent den of iniquity which produced fellow Republican adulterers John Ensign and Chip Pickering. Instead, he seems to suggest God apparently will provide the playbook for Sanford's political survival.

Continue reading »

David Gregory sure learned his Villager lessons well. Want a big Scoop? Just sell out the integrity of your platform (In this case Meet the Press) that the American people depend on for access.

BarbinMD at KOS explains:

When the stories about South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's love of hiking and the ensuing revelations about line crossing and soul mates were first revealed, I think it's safe to say that most people never saw it coming. But what hasn't been a surprise is the resulting confirmation of how many in the media are willing to sell their journalistic souls for political access.

And leading that list has to be David Gregory, who went out of his way to continue the proud tradition of Meet the Press kissing the ass of shamed elected officials.

From his emails to Sanford's office, where he begs for an interview:

Left you a message. Wanted you to hear directly from me that I want to have the Gov on Sunday on Meet The Press. I think it's exactly the right forum to answer the questions about his trip as well as giving him a platform to discuss the economy/stimulus and the future of the party. You know he will get a fair shake from me and coming on MTP puts all of this to rest.

... So coming on Meet The Press allows you to frame the conversation how you really want to...and then move on. You can see (sic) you have done your interview and then move on. Consider it.

In the middle of the breaking scandal, Gregory not only offered to let Sanford guide the story, he was willing to give him a platform to change the subject. And then Gregory would "move on."

Move along now little doggie. No story here, that's it..just a couple of kids in love...run along. Nothing here to see. I can only echo what Vernie Gay said about the new Meet The Press:

But he also seems more intent on covering the waterfront than digging for news, or in pushing the talking heads off their talking points. Recent interviews with Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) felt like a waterfront that went on for miles - an endless vista of chatter and spin.

BOTTOM LINE "Meet the Press" is now the de facto safe show on Sunday morning - "safe," that is, for those being interviewed.

Gregory has been handed perhaps the most important program in television journalism. It's time to start acting like the king who rules wisely yet ruthlessly. Otherwise, his legacy will match that of Garrick Utley or Bill Monroe - moderators who were highly respected but not highly feared. In this job, it's vital to be both.

These Mark Sanford emails proves Vernie's point perfectly.

And you thought Mark Sanford was the only one "in love." I'm waiting for John Ensign to give an interview with the AP, just like Sanford.

The husband of John Ensign's mistress spoke publicly for the first time today, claiming that the Nevada Senator continued to pursue his wife, Cynthia Hampton, even after powerful political colleagues tried to stop him.

Doug Hampton said that Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn and others urged Ensign "to end the affair and help the Hamptons pay off their home and move to Colorado. But Ensign was so infatuated that he continued, Hampton said, reports the Las Vegas Sun.

He also claimed that Ensign paid Hampton's wife more than $25,000 in severance, which could be a possible felony violation of campaign finance law.

Hampton added that Coburn confronted Ensign and urged him to provide millions of dollars in assistance to the Hamptons to pay off their mortgage, in addition to getting Ensign to write a remorseful letter to Cynthia Hampton.

In the letter, Ensign expresses his shame: "I was completely self-centered and only thinking of myself. I used you for my own pleasure not letting thoughts of you, Dough, Brandon or Brittany come into my mind."

But that attitude changed quickly, says Hampton, who claims that Ensign later repudiated the letter and told him "I'm in love with your wife."

Now Ensign's attorney admits that the senator paid out $96,000 in hush money to the Hamptons. Ow.

South Carolina residents have been riveted by the unstable behavior of their Governor Mark Sanford, but they have other things to be very nervous about and they should be.

Terrified residents canceled Fourth of July plans and holed up in their homes Friday as investigators hunted a serial killer believed to have shot four people to death.

--

Plenty of evidence links the killings, though officials have not yet determined how the victims are connected or if they knew whoever shot them, said Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton.

"Yes, we have a serial killer," he said at a news conference in this rural community 50 miles south of Charlotte, N.C.

So far, all investigators have to go on is a sketch of a suspect and a description of a possible getaway vehicle, though police would not say who provided that information.

The latest victims were found in their family's small furniture and appliance shop near downtown Gaffney around closing time Thursday. Stephen Tyler, 45, was killed, and his 15-year-old daughter was shot and seriously injured. Tyler's wife, his older daughter and an employee found them in Tyler Home Center, County Coroner Dennis Fowler said.

A day earlier and about seven miles away, family members found the bodies of 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, bound and shot in Linder's home. Blanton would not say if Tyler and his daughter were also bound. The killing spree began last Saturday about 10 miles from Tyler Home Center, where peach farmer Kline Cash, 63, was found shot in his living room. Blanton said the killer may have first spoken with Cash's wife about buying hay. She left and came home a few hours later to find her husband's body. Investigators said it appears he was robbed, but they have not determined if anything was taken in the other killings.

The John Douglas book called Mind Hunter, is a pretty fascinating look (it gets interesting about 80 pages in) at how the FBI developed the profiling methods we see used today. Robert Ressler coined the term "Serial Killer," and also wrote a book about his experiences: Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI. He interviewed many of these killers in jail to better understand their behavior. He was interviewed by Thomas Harris, who then wrote two of the greatest novels on the subject, Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. Both were made into excellent movies, (Who can forget Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter or SOTL's?) but South Carolina hopes that's not the case here. Let's hope he's caught quickly.

David Broder in the Washington (Republican Propaganda) Post:

The saga of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and his Argentine romance has been such ripe fodder for the gossip mills that the essential governmental question has almost been forgotten.

Whether Sanford can resolve the mess he has made of his personal life is of little concern to anyone but the people involved.

But when he disappeared for five days, telling no one in his administration or even his security detail where he had gone, he did something totally irresponsible. Had any kind of emergency occurred, South Carolina would have been leaderless.

At the moment Sanford abandoned his duties in secret pursuit of private pleasure, he in effect tendered his resignation.

The Legislature should insist he follow through on it.

Now while I agree with the sentiment that Sanford abandoned his job to follow his little brain, er...heart to Argentina, I'm struck by the difference in Broder's tone from his coverage of Bill Clinton's infidelities:

One of the most revealing statements Broder -- or, perhaps, any political journalist -- has ever made came in 1998. In November 1998, after nearly a year of public opinion polls showing, basically, that people liked Bill Clinton and wanted the Lewinsky investigation to just go away, and of the Washington journalist/pundit crowd vehemently disagreeing, the Post published an article by Sally Quinn attempting to explain the disconnect (which lives on to this day).

Quinn famously quoted Broder explaining why the "Washington Establishment" -- which under anybody's definition includes both Broder and Quinn -- was so angry at Clinton: "He came in here and he trashed the place ... and it's not his place."

Broder's implication -- that Washington was his place, not the president's -- is arrogant enough. But Broder's other comment speaks volumes: "The judgment is harsher in Washington. We don't like being lied to."

What a difference ten years can make. Of course, it has nothing to do with Sanford being a Republican, does it, Dean Broder?

The plot thickens...

RIO DE JANEIRO — A television anchor who's the only journalist known to have spoken with South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's Argentine lover since news of their affair broke last week said the couple received an e-mail threat from the person who hacked into her Hotmail account.

Eduardo Feinmann, who worked with Maria Belen Chapur when she was a translator for Argentina's C5N news channel, said in a telephone interview from Buenos Aires that a member of Chapur's family told him of the threat on Saturday.He said the family member told him that the e-mail from the unidentified person warned both Sanford and Chapur that "you don't know who you are messing with." He said he didn't know how either of them responded.

Sanford's wife has said she's known about the affair for many months, so if true, this would certainly explain a lot:

Chapur said in an e-mail to Feinmann, which the anchorman read on the air Sunday night, that her Hotmail account was hacked into around Nov. 24. She became aware of the intrusion shortly thereafter and by Dec. 8 had succeeded in having the account closed. Read on...