Gov. Mark Sanford has proven himself to be a hypocrite on transparency, as well as most other things, wanting everyone else to be scrutinized except him and his actions. It took an international sex scandal for the press to finally start FOIAing documents and for the Governor to begin handing them over. But, after all this, he’s still not giving up on that façade.
Wednesday, Sanford took time out of his schedule to speak at the Summerville Rotary Club’s meeting at Sticky Fingers, where he, like a computer locked in an infinite loop, got up in front of the people there and broke out some charts and graphs and partied like it was 2003. As we wondered when we saw this photo in The State, why is this man smiling?
When asked by the AP whether he would waive confidentiality in a State Ethics Commission investigation, Sanford said that he didn’t know, and that his people were looking at it. Really? Shouldn’t Mr. Transparent’s immediate reaction be, “Yes. Hell, yes. Bring the cameras while you’re at it.” Then he said that the AP “mischaracterized” his travel, because obviously when one looks for the truth on matters, you look at our illustrious governor.
But none of that stacks up to the money quote, from The Post & Courier:
“We have no problem with transparency whatsoever, which is what this administration has consistently been about,” he said Wednesday. “I think we have an incredibly great story to tell as far as watching out for taxpayers on airplanes. In so many ways, we tried to go the extra mile.”
Yeah. Extra SkyMiles.
