Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler and Senate Republican Sens. Hugh Leatherman, Thomas Alexander, Paul Campbell, Jake Knotts, Larry Martin and Billy O’Dell issued a statement late Tuesday night asking for Gov. Mark Sanford to resign in the wake of his rapidly expanding sex scandal.

Crisis requires people in leadership positions to act decisively, with as much dispassionate wisdom and judgment as possible.Governor Sanford has imposed a crisis upon our state. As members of the Senate, we have a duty to the people of South Carolina to do what is in their best interests.

We therefore have concluded that Governor Mark Sanford must resign his office. He has lost the trust of the people and the legislature to lead our state through historically difficult times.

South Carolina has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Tens of thousands of South Carolinians cannot find jobs.

Necessary budget cuts have weakened public education and other vital services.

We must have strong leadership from a Governor who is focused and trusted.

Governor Sanford is neither.

We did not reach this conclusion in haste and we did not base it on his personal failings, but events since his news conference have forced us to act.

The recent revelation that he used taxpayer money to visit Argentina demonstrates that our state crisis will not recede while he is in office.

His own Commerce Department acknowledges the Governor requested additional economic development meetings in Argentina while on a legitimate trade mission to South America.

The Governor, through his spokesmen, deceived the media and public about where he was and what he was doing for several days.

He abandoned his office and the people who elected him with a premeditated cover-up, launching a constitutional crisis that was dangerous and reckless.

These disclosures indicate a pattern of abuse of office. Most disturbing is our belief that the Governor only admitted to these transgressions after he was caught.

The Governor’s family crisis is private and tragic. But the crisis the Governor imposed by his abuse of office is the people’s business and must come to an end.

We can only put this crisis behind us if he does the honorable thing and resign immediately.

The bottom line is that the Governor’s private matters should remain private, but his deception and negligence make it impossible for us to trust him, and for him to govern in the future.

Not only does this statement have the backing of the GOP leader (who pulls double duty as Medical Affairs Committee chairman), but four other committee chairmen (Leatherman – Finance, Alexander – General, Knotts – Invitation, Martin – Rules). Earlier in the day, fellow GOP Sens. Larry Grooms and Kevin Bryant also said Sanford should resign.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler joined the group of Republican senators on Tuesday requesting that Gov. Mark Sanford remove himself from office, with the latest self-immolation the Governor has committed in the press.

According to a story hitting the wire just after 9 p.m., “South Carolina’s Senate Republican Party leader is calling on Gov. Mark Sanford to resign. Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler of Gaffney said Tuesday’s revelations from the governor about his own affair raise doubts about Sanford’s ability to lead the state.”

Shortly after Peeler’s statement went out, Sen. Hugh Leatherman, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, also said the Governor should pack it up and go home to Sullivan’s Island (or wherever home is these days). According to a tweet from Senate Republican Caucus director Wesley Donehue, Sens. Paul Campbell, Billy O’Dell and Thomas Alexander are joining the chorus for Sanford to step down, as well.

Earlier in the day, Sanford allies Sens. Larry Grooms, Kevin Bryant and Larry Martin each said the Governor should resign in order for the state to move forward and not have the Governor’s mistakes in his personal life cause more of a problem for the people’s business.

Rep. Eric Bedingfield, another legislator close to Sanford, tweeted Tuesday night that he will officially call for the Governor to resign on Wednesday.

Action hasn’t been static on the other side of the aisle, either. Joining his Democratic colleague in the Senate, Sen. Vince Sheheen, Rep. Anton Gunn said on Facebook, “Mark Sanford clearly is not rational anymore. Time for him to go. This is a repetitive pattern of behavior from many of our statewide leaders.”

If you think Columbia has civic issues when it comes to major projects, South Carolina’s capital city can’t hold a candle to the mess that has been going on in Birmingham for roughly the past 30 years concerning what is derisively called the “Birmingdome.”

For years, the inept city government in the Magic City has been trying to construct a dome in downtown Birmingham to draw sports franchises and events and conventions. When Atlanta announced the construction of the Georgia Dome, backers of the project really got their panties in a wad. After all, if Atlanta has it, then Birmingham needs it!

What is so insane is that the city let the legendary Legion Field go totally to shit, to the point where an upper deck had to be removed because it was structurally unsound. And, in their infinite wisdom, Legion Field’s natural grass surface was ripped up in favor of an artificial surface recently. That, in particular, hurt the local sports scene because international soccer matches can no longer be played there because FIFA has a rule about games on fake grass. It’s even more boneheaded when considering the number of matches played at the venue during the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Now, Legion Field is so decrepit that high school football championship games, played in Birmingham since time immemorial, are now being traded off between Alabama‘s Bryant-Denny Stadium and Auburn‘s Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Birmingham-Jefferson County Convention Complex (neé Civic Center), where we saw our first sports event (UAB v. Old Dominion, basketball) and first concert (Huey Lewis and the News), is also old and in disrepair.

Birmingdome it is!

Over the past few years, both Birmingham and Jefferson County have undergone massive budget problems, with the county’s issues being so horrible that they made national news. But, that hasn’t stopped the City Council and the BJCC Board from contracting with Kansas City firm HOK for a preliminary mock-up of a potential facility (among other things), complete with (WTF?) a flat roof. The deal, struck in December 2008, calls for the city to lay out $20 million over three years.

The city has now, after receiving a draft contract, delayed releasing the funds for another two weeks. If Birmingham’s elected leaders had been smart, which they weren’t, they would have spent the money to keep up Legion Field and could have made a deal with UAB for a new arena. As it stands, UAB built its own place for basketball 20 years ago (Bartow Arena) and the city is, as always, up the creek.

Local blog Alablawg says what the Wolfe family long agreed upon:

I think the whole dome idea is a delusional waste of money. The Tide is gone, they ain’t coming back. The Iron Bowl is gone, it ain’t coming back. The SEC championship is gone, it ain’t coming back. The NBA is not coming. Neither is the NFL. UAB football will never outdraw Hoover High School. There is just no need for a Dome.

And that post was written in February 2007. Back then, the city was looking at downgrading the dome to a 40,000-seat arena. It looks like that idea, which would have run $380 million instead of $500 million, has gone by the wayside. And, get this, the reason that the release of funds is being delayed is because of a screw-up in the city’s legal office. So, Mayor Larry Langford is going to can some attorneys. Yeah, that’s the answer.

Good luck with that.

If you are a top-level high school football player in the state of Alabama and are entering your senior year this fall, there’s a better than average chance that you’ve already committed to the University of Alabama. While Gene Chizik is trying to find his ass with both hands and a flashlight down on the Plains, Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban and his staff have basically shut the door on the rest of college football for the best in-state recruits for 2010.

On June 26, the Tide pulled in its 16th commitment of the 2010 recruiting season. That leaves only 12 spots left under the NCAA-mandated limit of 28 signees. This is at a time when a lot of schools (coughAuburncough) are still tooling around the country trying to get in recruits’ living rooms. Of the recruits on the books, half are from in-state, and five of those are four-star level or higher.

The jewel in the crown, and the state’s No. 1 prospect, is five-star defensive back DeMarcus Milliner, from Stanhope Elmore High School. Milliner runs a 4.45/40 and had offers from Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Southern Miss, Stanford and Tennessee. Last season, he had seven picks and two kickoff returns for touchdowns.

Cecil Hurt, the illustrious sports editor of The Tuscaloosa News, said that Saban is taking all the suspense out of recruiting.

If Nick Saban was a judge on ‘American Idol,’ he would probably smack Simon Cowell around for a bit, then announce the winner of the competition after the first show.

At least that’s the way it seems while watching the University of Alabama’s 2010 football recruiting (and at least a little bit of its 2011 recruiting as well) unfold in the summer of 2009. Apparently, the Crimson Tide’s head coach has lost all interest in suspense.

For the past two years, there has at least been a nominal amount of suspense surrounding the state of Alabama’s No. 1 prep prospect. Most people assumed that Julio Jones, the No. 1 prospect in 2008, and last February’s top prospect, Dre Kirkpatrick, would end up at Alabama, but nether made a public announcement until Signing Day rolled around. There were cursory attempts to link Jones with Florida State or Oklahoma, and to indicate that Kirkpatrick might like to play at Texas.

This year, it seems the only Signing Day drama for Alabama fans will be the Trent Richardson Syndrome, characterized by the worries of some fans that a long-committed top prospect will have a sudden change of heart. (Richardson, the star running back from Pensacola, ended up doing exactly what he had said he would do all along.)

Perhaps that will be the case this season, with worries about some last-minute wavering, but at the moment the only real mystery connected with UA recruiting is whether it will all be wrapped up by Christmas.

As far as the Palmetto State goes, Carolina has 12 commits (two four-star) and Clemson has seven (three four-star). As of yet, no one has their claws on South Carolina’s No. 1 prospect, running back Marcus Lattimore of Byrnes High School. And Bama’s after him, too.

Thursday night in Mobile, Ala., a man wanted porn and sex toys. He wanted them bad. So bad, in fact, that he went down to Airport Video and, as pictured above, “had his way” with the store. According to The Press-Register, the gentleman took “an inflatable doll, a bottle of lubricant and a pocket-sized sexual stimulation device called ‘Devin’s Private Pleasures.’”

The profound irony is that sex toys are illegal in Alabama, with a years-long suit to overturn the law being refused by the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2007. The 1998 law bans “any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs for anything of pecuniary value.” Therefore, a man was committing a crime by stealing from a store that was, by the books, committing a crime. Though, it can be argued an inflatable doll with an outrageous circular mouth opening and other such things can simply be placed on the sofa for observing. Also, the law more specifically bans vibrators, while other toys can slip in, one way or another.

“The surveillance shows he went right to what he wanted,” the store manager said.

Gov. Mark Sanford, if he had a sense of history, would be looking back to 1974. It was then, as the Watergate scandal was reaching its zenith, that a number of members of Congress and allies of President Richard Nixon asked him to step down from office, or it was only going to get worse. As the scandal involving Sanford’s disappearance and affair with his Argentinean mistress deepens, a number of Republican Senators typically friendly to the Governor are asking him to step aside.

Today, Sen. Kevin Bryant, one of Sanford’s close associates in the upper body, put up a statement on his Web site asking the Governor to resign, saying that Sanford can no longer be the lead man, or be successful, in pushing his agenda.

At this time, we must separate political support from friendship. Mark has been the front man, or our quarterback for reform for several years. This movement is not about personal loyalties; it is about the conservative issues we believe in. That’s what separate reformers from good-ole-boys. As our quarterback, Mark intentionally threw a pick to the other team. This movement of reform needs a new quarterback and its time for the Governor to step aside.

Finally, I hope this sparks a serious look at elected leadership across the board. We claim ethical values and can’t be hypocritical. I for one, take one’s personal decisions into account when I consider whom I will support in politics. How far do we need to delve into one’s personal affairs while making these decisions? I don’t know exactly. I’m not one to pry feverishly into an elected official’s closet, yet I do look at the facts that are public knowledge. In a free society every voter has the privilege to consider whatever he/she thinks is important.

Also, Sen. Larry Grooms, a candidate for governor and frequent Sanford vote (with the exception of reform of the State Ports Authority), put out the idea that the Governor is “incapable of leading” following the scandal, and that the idea of Sanford working is way through this by staying in office is impossible.

“He indicated he believed that his only chance for redemption was to stay in office,” Grooms said to CNN. “To me that doesn’t serve any purpose well. That doesn’t serve the people. It’s not about him; it’s about governing the people of the state.”

Adding to the chorus is Sen. Larry Martin, who when we told him that the Governor was targeting him for defeat in the 2008 primaries and showed him documents confirming it, still wouldn’t believe it and remained friendly with Sanford. Now, Martin is signing on to a letter from a number of senators calling for the Governor’s resignation.

“We just need to take the spotlight off his personal issues and what he may or may not have done and move forward as a state. The only way to do it is for him to step down,” Martin said to The Post & Courier.

Of course, it’s not all Republicans making public statements about Sanford needing to vacate his office. Sen. Vince Sheheen, the Camden Democrat and candidate for governor, also released a statement saying the Governor should step aside.

At the moment when we most need South Carolina to be a serious contender for new jobs and business development, we are a laughingstock. Leading the state through this economic crisis will require the full energy and attention of a vigorous governor and administration and the full confidence of our people. The Governor continuing in office has made this impossible. The loss of confidence in his ability to lead is the most important factor that must be considered in deciding if the Governor should remain in office.

The governor’s office is a place for leadership, not a forum for self-healing. And that is why, with much regret over the circumstances that have brought us to this point, I believe Governor Sanford should take the only action that will allow South Carolina to move forward. He should resign his office.

Not to be outdone, Charleston attorney (and Aaron Eckhart clone) Mullins McLeod, who is challenging Sheheen for the Democratic nomination, released a statement but didn’t come down one way or another on the issue.

“Let’s not forget that the most important crisis we have right now remains our 12 percent jobless rate,” McLeod said. “The sad and disturbing Mark Sanford crisis is another order entirely. Our politicians in Columbia are busy tearing themselves apart with this scandal, focusing on their own political ambitions, while too many South Carolinians are losing their jobs. The hard working families of this state deserve better than this circus.”

It took yet another foolish move by our Casanova-in-Chief, but Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster has finally asked SLED to conduct an investigation of Gov. Mark Sanford‘s travel activity. The request comes on the heels of Sanford admitting that he has seen Argentine mistress Maria Belén Chapur five times over the past year, including “two romantic, multi-night stays” in New York.

In a statement released today, McMaster said, “In light of the governor’s disclosure of additional travel today, I have requested that SLED conduct a preliminary review of all Governor Sanford’s travel records to determine if any laws have been broken or any state funds misused.”

Last week, Sen. Jake Knotts held a press conference at the State House asking for a SLED investigation, calling the Governor, “out of control.” However, McMaster, not wanting to give a possible leg up to Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer in the 2010 gubernatorial primary race in the event that an investigation caused Sanford to resign, said everything possible relating that no investigation would take place.

“The governor has been very, very vocal on transparency,” Knotts said on Friday. “But it seems to be … when it’s someone else instead of him.”

Sanford, responding to the inquiry, said that he is “pleased” that SLED is taking a look into his travels and reiterated no state funds were spent on the latest meetings with Chapur to which he has admitted.

“There’s been a lot of speculation and innuendo on whether or not public moneys were used to advance my admitted unfaithfulness,” Sanford said in a statement. “To be very clear: no public money was ever used in connection with this.”

Of course, we had trouble believing what came out of the Governor’s Office before, so we’ll wait to see what the investigation turns up.

In the latest break to happen in the story about Gov. Mark Sanford and his affair with Argentinean mistress Maria Belén Chapur, Sanford said today that Chapur wasn’t the only time he crossed the line with a woman other than his wife. He also confessed to more details about his relationship with the 43-year-old international businesswoman.

According to an interview with the Associated Press, Sanford said that he didn’t have sex with any other women beside his wife and his mistress during the time that he’s been married, but said he “crossed lines.” What he means by that is anyone’s guess, though it does start bringing to mind the debate held during the Lewinsky scandal about what constitutes sex. Really — what could it have been? Racy emails? Fantasizing about an orgy involving Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman? The possibilities are endless.

Then, the dreaded Marco. Sanford drops the ill-timed and badly-considered remark that Chapur is his “soulmate,” but that he is working to repair his marriage to his wife, Jenny. Yes, Governor, I’m sure that your wife is very pleased that a story that is being sent around the nation courtesy of a wire service has you saying that your “other woman” is your soulmate, not the woman that has been married to you for years and given birth to your four sons.

Just goes to show, you give a man enough rope, and he’ll have that noose ready in no time.

UPDATE: Remember this?

Did you miss Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer on Fox News’ “Huckabee” over the weekend? Yeah, we did, too. Somehow, there was always something more important than watching a show hosted by a guy whose high-water mark was the Iowa caucuses. Hell — why didn’t CNN give U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin a show after his glorious 1992 victory? The questions still remain.

Anyway, enjoy.

Part One

Part Two

Gov. Mark Sanford‘s man-cations on the coast have become a joke around here, and a few weeks before he decided he would rather spend Father’s Day with his mistress than his family, he and a goodly amount of other white males gathered down by the coast for a Cato Institute-style hootenanny.

We came thisclose from crashing the party — we found a way in back in early May — but those plans had to be scrapped before they could be put into operation (rather like our plan to get into a Quinn family wedding). Below, you will find a rather funny YouTube video pimping “Coosaw Encampment 2009,” which despite Sanford’s anti-gay positions, is, well, pretty gay. The only thing that would have upped the ante is if The Killers were replaced with the Scissor Sisters.