Andre Bauer: continuing South Carolina's march to the bottom

Remember a few weeks ago when the South Carolina legislature decided against impeaching Mark Sanford?

Probably the right decision. Sanford's personal infidelity, while salacious and an example of the hypocrisy of right wing politicians who get elected while preaching about 'family values,' was hardly an impeachable offense. His use of state resources to fund his travel may have been unacceptable but probably not all that different from what I suspect you'd find if you looked into some of his colleagues in the legislature there (or for that matter in other states.) Maybe something that should be looked into (after all, Congress has to live according to ethical rules far more stringent than many legislatures or state level office holders) but I doubt if the legislature there wanted to start down that road.

But the real reason it's a good thing they didn't impeach Sanford was that if they had it would have elevated Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer to the Governor's mansion in Columbia.

Bauer, who is in fact running for Governor this year let the mask slip when he said that people receiving Government assistance are like stray animals because they 'breed' and 'don't know any better.'.

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals," Bauer told an audience in the town of Fountain Inn, according to the Greenville News. "You know why? Because they breed."

"You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply," Bauer continued. "They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

Keep in mind that South Carolina is a state with a 12% unemployment rate. So if someone lost their job, apparently the man who would be their next Governor thinks no more of them than the the animals housed at the dog pound. What will he propose as an alternative, given the failure of the current Governor and legislature to produce jobs in his state? Spay/neutering poor people, or forced euthanasia?

Yes, the mask slips off of conservatives sometimes. I never thought I'd say it, but I hope Mark Sanford stays in office for the rest of his term.

Sarah Palin: I QUIT.

A GOP Presidential contender for 2012 hadn't melted down yet this week, so I figure since it's Friday, there's still time. And sure enough--

I'm reading that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, apparently upset about a Vanity Fair article out this week that quoted anonymous former McCain staffers who said that she was difficult to work with, has decided to quit.

No, not in the sense of 'won't run for re-election.' More in the sense of 'I quit.' Now.

In a stunning move, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain's 2008 vice presidential running mate, announced today that she'll resign later in the month and won't seek a second term next year.

Palin, a possible 2012 GOP presidential candidate, didn't answer any questions today and remains mum about her future intentions.

McCain, an Arizona Republican, made Palin a household name nearly a year ago when he picked her to join his ticket. On the national scene, Palin is one of those political figures who inspires passion in supporters and detractors alike. This week, Vanity Fair published a lengthy critical piece on Palin that allowed anonymous former McCain-Palin campaign officials to bash her.

Which, in my opinion, only proves that those who were concerned that she was too flaky and erratic to be President are right. Far from 'balancing' the ticket, the McCain-Palin ticket was erratic and inconsistent paired with erratic and inconsistent.

According to University of Virginia Political Science guru Larry Sabato, "Bizarro World: Sarah Palin just committed national political suicide by resigning as Governor of Alaska."

He's right about that. And every week another potential 2012 Republican Presidential candidate commits Hari-kiri.

Two weeks ago, it was John Ensign, who was in Iowa testing Presidential waters even as his fate was being sealed. One week ago it was South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. Now it is Palin.

This benefits President Obama in two ways. First of course, potential 2012 foes are dropping like flies, but second this is now the third weekend when the GOP would prefer to talk about their opposition to health care, climate change legislation or Sonia Sotomayor but they will be competing in getting their message out with the weekly Republican meltdown story. In fact, the only Republican who is probably counting this as good luck is Mark Sanford.

At this rate, President Obama will have an easy time with re-election in 2012 because there won't be any Republicans left who haven't hit the self-destruct button.

Could Sanford affair be a cover for a more sinister rendevous?

It didn't take long for people to begin questioning whether South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was telling the truth when he told his staff he was going hiking for a few days on the Appalachian trail (including father's day when he didn't even bother to call home.) The obvious question to ask was whether he was having an affair.

If he was using the hiking story as a cover for an affair, and thinking that no one would ask why as a state governor and (at least until this week) likely 2012 Presidential candidate he was completely out of touch for almost a week then the guy is too stupid to be President. Even Eliot Spitzer was smart enough to fit in a trip to Washington at night and be back in the office the next morning (though that still wasn't smart enough.)

Unless of course that the truth is even more sinister than that, and the affair itself is a cover.

Why go all the way to Buenos Aires for an affair? If he wanted to have one he could surely have found someplace closer. But alone and unknown in a foreign capital he could meet foreign agents a lot easier. Governors get regular Homeland Security briefings and other intelligence data and it goes without saying that some of the information is stuff we don't share with a lot of foreign governments or organizations, especially those who may be hostile to the U.S.

Maybe he is smarter than we think, and having an affair would explain perfectly why he would go to Buenos Aires without telling anyone just in case his first cover story got blown, without divulging the real reason. In fact, for that matter, the woman could just be a 'throw in' if someone was wanting to use a state governor and possible President to get something 'done' within the U.S. (better keep an eye on his bank account.)

And even if he was meeting a woman, how do we know she wasn't a Chinese, Iranian or al-Qaeda agent? Possibly even without his knowlege, she may have been pumping him for information even as he was pumping something else.

This question needs to be definitively answered: Who is EVERYBODY he met down there, and who do they work for.