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.”
A more scientific survey, taken July 1 for a Charleston television station, showed that 69 percent of respondents believe Sanford should quit. So far, they’re not getting their way; the governor is steadfastly refusing to give up office. “He has successfully dug in,” Dawson says. “He doesn’t have to resign, and impeachment is very difficult in South Carolina.”
Difficult, but certainly not impossible, and a lot of lawmakers are now openly weighing the possibility of removing Sanford from office. Which means that here in South Carolina, people are either joking about their governor or plotting to oust him — or both.
At the moment, Sanford is hanging on by the slim thread of his wife Jenny’s approval. If she said he should go, that would probably be it.
The Palmetto Family Council, the state’s largest social conservative organization, has not made any clear-cut statement of support for Sanford, but it has started an online petition campaign called “Stand With Jenny.” Oran Smith, head of the council, says the group has not called for Sanford to step down, but adds that if Sanford’s actions show he values remaining in office more than rebuilding his marriage, then “we’re going to have to consider what our next step is.” If that sounds like a threat, it is.
Smith cites Sanford’s disastrous interview with the Associated Press — the one in which the governor called his Argentine paramour his “soul mate” and said he was trying to fall back in love with his wife — as the single act that has nearly killed Sanford’s chances to recover. “I think the day before that interview, he was on track to be safe,” Smith says. “It looked like he had weathered the storm.” Then came the “soul mate” interview, which Smith calls a “huge mistake” and “two steps backward.”
I asked both Smith and Dawson who is more popular among South Carolina Republicans right now, Sanford or Sarah Palin. Both men laughed. The answer was pretty obvious; Palin wins hands down. “I think Sanford has completely dropped off the scale,” Smith says. “He’s down below ‘Undecided’ and ‘Don’t Know.’ ”
Palin, on the other hand, remains “a huge draw,” according to Dawson. He tried to lure her to South Carolina for the GOP’s big annual fundraiser last May, but couldn’t; there was just too much travel involved for the Alaska-bound governor. “It would have been a tremendous fundraiser for us,” Dawson says. When Palin is formally out of office, at the end of this month, scheduling will be easier; South Carolina Republicans will probably get to see her some time in the not-too-distant future.
So in this key GOP primary state, Republicans find themselves tiring of a governor who has every reason to leave the office but who hangs on for dear life, while admiring a governor who has every reason to continue in office but who is inexplicably letting go.
For all the jokes on the Fourth of July floats, a lot of people here view Sanford’s situation as deeply sad. “It’s a tragedy in many ways,” Smith says. “If there is anybody who could have cut government in Washington down to size, it was Mark Sanford.”
As for the less-tested Palin, even GOP insiders are confused. Is it over for her? Is she beginning a national campaign? “All I know is, she’s resigning,” Smith says, freely conceding he doesn’t know exactly what is going on.
He’s not alone.
Byron York, The Examiner’s chief political correspondent, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blog posts appears on ExaminerPolitics.com.
