Target Acquired

Saw today where the Democratic National Committee has released an ad attacking SC Governor Mark Sanford for opposing the distribution of “stimulus dollars” for his state. Not knowing the details, but firmly believing that if you’re taking flak, you must be over the target, I checked to see what the Governor was up to.

Seems he did say at one point he didn’t want the money. All of the Republicans in Congress voted against it, but I haven’t heard too many of them say they didn’t want any of it.

Now it seems that Sanford’s position has changed. He recently sent a letter to President Obama asking permission to use a quarter of the money allocated to SC for paying down the state’s debt rather than funding the programs the Feds are mandating.

One interesting point in the Governor’s letter was the observation that if the debt load wasn’t addressed, the state would be in a critical situation in 24 months. In and of itself, this isn’t anything special, but Sanford took pains to point out that his term was up in 20 months, and that while he certainly could leave it for his successor to deal with, he’d rather not.

Sanford has irritated the RINOs that constitute the majority of SC’s House since he was elected. One famous incident was his veto of a budget. He itemized each expenditure that he felt was wasteful spending, which (IIRC) took him several days.

It took the House less than an hour to override his veto and pass the budget.

The next day, Sanford showed up with two pigs under his arms and let them loose in the (newly-renovated) chambers. That’s just fun political theater. I picture wacky music playing – like “Yakkety Sax” – while fat politicians fall over each other trying to catch the pigs.

I’m figuring that Sanford is positioning himself for a run at the Oval Office in 2012, and the DNC is acting to tear him down before he can get any momentum going.

Saw this prediction:

“The Democrats will attempt to make South Carolina a national example of GOP corruption and incompetence – just like they did to Ohio. Expect the media to run stories about racist conservatives flying the Confederate flag, corrupt GOP lawmakers, and South Carolina’s 9% jobless rate. The Liberals will say Republicans use wedge issues like school prayer and gay marriage to con rural whites to vote against their economic self-interests. Expect these talking points to hit the news channels next year.”

Not that it takes the Amazing Kreskin to make fairly accurate guesses about how the Left will respond to challenges, but it will be interesting to see how much of this comes to pass.