SC gov's press conference about why he was missing

[Danno 1,228]

Unbelievable. A Governor actually worse than Blagojevich.. I'm picturing this guy lying in bed saying "no, no I really have to go....ah, screw it", like some college kids on a weekend get away to Tiajuana. "I'll just call in sick tomorrow".

Worse than Blago??? Don't make me laugh.

The great sin of the SC gov was he failed to notify others when he was not in office.

Blago on the other hand..... was guilty of showing up.

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

so the dude likes to tango.

Daniel

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Unbelievable. A Governor actually worse than Blagojevich.. I'm picturing this guy lying in bed saying "no, no I really have to go....ah, screw it", like some college kids on a weekend get away to Tiajuana. "I'll just call in sick tomorrow".

Worse than Blago??? Don't make me laugh.

The great sin of the SC gov was he failed to notify others when he was not in office.

Blago on the other hand..... was guilty of showing up.

True. Hard to compare, really.

[nowhereman 1]

I'm waiting for the headline "politician supports family values & didn't cheat on his wife". Knowing the blatant hypocrisy in politics today I'm not holding my breath.

[caybee 21]

There's no excuse for the infidelity, but that's between him and his wife as far as I'm concerned. I do have an issue with him standing in that press conference and essentially preaching a sermon about God's laws and how they are for our own good, trying to toss some theology our way while he's apologizing first to his mistress, then to the state, THEN to his wife and kids. He also said he was in the process of trying to reconcile with his wife, but he wouldn't even be back from Argentina now if he hadn't found out people were looking for him, so it sounds like one more politician apologizing because he got caught.

But even that's beside the point. The bad part is he went AWOL from his job with apparently no word to those who should have been informed about how to reach him and when to expect him back. They didn't even need to know exactly where he was, but they DID need to know how to reach him so that if there'd been an emergency, they would have known whether or not the lieutenant governor should step in and what other measures should be taken. It makes sense that his wife didn't know where he was because they were separated and she'd asked him not to contact her.

There's also the matter of him using SLED vehicles, plural, for this last trip (one was found at each airport, which means a state employee must have helped him move at least one of them). And his business trip to Argentina in June of '08 was funded by the taxpayers. The mushy e-mails are from July '08, so the relationship could have turned physical in June '08 when he was already in Argentina for legitimate reasons (the e-mails have that new relationship, struck-by-lightening tone). But he said he'd made three previous trips to Argentina before this last one, and if he used taxpayer money to facilitate his affair while refusing stimulus money meant for schools and law enforcement unless it was used to pay down the state's debt, I do have a problem with that.

I think voters in South Carolina might overlook and even forgive the infidelity, but so many were already frustrated with the way he's handled the job recently, and he'd just been rebuffed by both the supreme court and the legislature, so I don't think voters will tolerate him going AWOL on their dime.

[Peikko 1,575]

There's no excuse for the infidelity, but that's between him and his wife as far as I'm concerned. I do have an issue with him standing in that press conference and essentially preaching a sermon about God's laws and how they are for our own good, trying to toss some theology our way while he's apologizing first to his mistress, then to the state, THEN to his wife and kids. He also said he was in the process of trying to reconcile with his wife, but he wouldn't even be back from Argentina now if he hadn't found out people were looking for him, so it sounds like one more politician apologizing because he got caught.

But even that's beside the point. The bad part is he went AWOL from his job with apparently no word to those who should have been informed about how to reach him and when to expect him back. They didn't even need to know exactly where he was, but they DID need to know how to reach him so that if there'd been an emergency, they would have known whether or not the lieutenant governor should step in and what other measures should be taken. It makes sense that his wife didn't know where he was because they were separated and she'd asked him not to contact her.

There's also the matter of him using SLED vehicles, plural, for this last trip (one was found at each airport, which means a state employee must have helped him move at least one of them). And his business trip to Argentina in June of '08 was funded by the taxpayers. The mushy e-mails are from July '08, so the relationship could have turned physical in June '08 when he was already in Argentina for legitimate reasons (the e-mails have that new relationship, struck-by-lightening tone). But he said he'd made three previous trips to Argentina before this last one, and if he used taxpayer money to facilitate his affair while refusing stimulus money meant for schools and law enforcement unless it was used to pay down the state's debt, I do have a problem with that.

I think voters in South Carolina might overlook and even forgive the infidelity, but so many were already frustrated with the way he's handled the job recently, and he'd just been rebuffed by both the supreme court and the legislature, so I don't think voters will tolerate him going AWOL on their dime.

Cleo approves this message.

It's absolutely true that the infidelity itself says nothing about his ability to perform his duties as an elected politician. If however he used taxpayer money and his staff to engage in the affair that is fraud. If on top of that he neglected his duties by not keeping his staff informed, or used his staff to cover his absence from office, that is also a form of fraud and does suggest an inability to perform his elected duties.

I personally don't give a stuff about the 'church goer' hypocrisy blah blah blah, that's between him and his maker, should such a thing even exist.

Edited June 25, 2009 by Madame Cleo