Sanford’s Nixon moment

The path to the resignation of President Richard Nixon has an indelible place in pop culture as a loose template of how an elected official steps down after gradual and sustained scandal. One of the key moments was when a group of Nixon allies in the Congress went to him and said the votes were there for impeachment, and he should step down.

For good and ill, Gov. Mark Sanford is no Richard Nixon. For one, Nixon was more wily and cutthroat about pure politics than Sanford could ever hope to be, from his botched relations with the General Assembly to his half-assed (yet fully-funded) attempt to take out legislators on his enemies list. So, it came to pass on Tuesday that two legislators friendly to the Governor, Rep. Nathan Ballentine and Rep. Gary Simrill, went to him to lay out the situation in the House ahead of the House Republican Caucus‘ closed-door retreat in Myrtle Beach.

As it stands, the House Judiciary Committee looks to be ready to draw up and submit articles of impeachment when the General Assembly returns for the 2010 session. Rep. Jim Harrison, chairman of the committee, has said there could be the votes in the committee for impeachment, and “wouldn’t be surprised” to see such a bill. Almost two weeks ago, Rep. Boyd Brown said there was bipartisan support for impeachment, and Rep. Greg Delleney, another member of the committee, said he supported it, as well.

According to a story by CNN, Ballentine said he told Sanford that “the writing is on the wall.” The Governor’s Office, still seeming to operate in a bubble of denial and a reality of its own creation, sent out new spokesman Ben Fox to run this line, “We wouldn’t presume to guess what political detractors or foes, or for that matter the House Judiciary Committee, may or may not decide to do this next year, but we do know that there are real issues facing South Carolina tied to economic development, job creation, restructuring and spending — and we’re committed to working on these with the Legislature over the weeks and months ahead.”

From what we’ve heard, another shoe is about to drop on Sanford. We’ll be watching out for that. But, Sanford better start listening, because it’s increasingly looking like he will be out of office before January 2011. It’s just up to him as to whether he gets impeached and convicted or steps down on his own.