It came after a long and divisive debate, but the Republican Party of South Carolina has voted to censure Gov. Mark Sanford. The group held a teleconference on Monday evening to consider whether to censure Sanford, call for him to resign, or issue an expression of support for the governor. I’m told the conversation stretched to three hours when the participants were unable to win a majority for any position. In the end, after three votes, the results were 22 votes for censure, ten votes for resignation, and nine votes in support of Sanford.
Meanwhile, I have a new column up on Sanford’s problems:
GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. – At the Fourth of July parade here, one float after another was a joke about Gov. Mark Sanford. There was a man in a wig and a sequined dress wailing, “I’m looking for my soul mate!” A sign on his truck asked, “Wanna dance?” A sport utility vehicle rolled by, decorated with a map of Sanford’s world — 169 miles from here to Columbia, the state capital, and 4,935 miles to Buenos Aires. Another float urged people to visit SoulMate.gov, which, it turns out, is an amusing joke but not a real Web site.
Meanwhile, a few miles up Highway 17, Katon Dawson, until recently head of the South Carolina Republican Party, was conducting an informal poll about Sanford in the checkout line of the Piggly Wiggly. “The feeling was overwhelming that he should resign,” Dawson says. “People say he’s lost his effectiveness, and they’re just getting tired of it.”
Read the whole thing here.
