GOP watch: Sanford's days numbered?
Posted: Thursday, July 02, 2009 9:09 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Republicans
"Gov. Mark Sanford’s long and emotional interview with The Associated Press Tuesday appears to have been the final straw for South Carolina’s Republican establishment, much of which is now actively seeking his resignation… Fourteen GOP state senators -- more than half the Senate Republican caucus -- have already called for Sanford’s resignation, joining a list that, as of Wednesday afternoon, included 11 Republican members of the state House and six of the state's biggest newspapers. And three leading South Carolina Republican officeholders, including the state’s two U.S. senators, called Sanford today for what sources close to the lawmakers described as frank conversations about the governor’s ability to carry out his job."
The Washington Post's Cillizza: "Sanford's interview with the AP amounted to a political kamikaze mission that seems to suggest that the operative question now is not if he will resign but when he will resign."
The New York Daily News: "He's still crying for you, Argentina!"
Politico looks at what it calls the "plagued" GOP class of '94. "As it turns out, the pressures and demands of political life have inflicted devastating damage not only on the Ensign and Sanford families, but on the families of many of the 71 other freshmen who formed the vanguard of the Republican Revolution. In the 14 years since that star-crossed class arrived in Washington espousing an agenda that placed family values at its core, no less than a dozen of its members have been caught up in affairs, sex scandals or in messy separations and divorces from their spouses that, in more than a few instances, led to their political downfalls."
The Washington Post's Balz and Bacon: "The Palin controversy highlights personal enmities and strategic disagreements among Republicans. The victory by Democrat Al Franken over Republican Norm Coleman for a U.S. Senate seat representing Minnesota, though long anticipated, drives home the degree to which Republicans are now a true minority party. Together, the controversies are another double blow to the weakened party… Palin's performance as McCain's vice presidential running mate created a wide gulf in public opinion between those who found her fresh and appealing and those who found her shallow and unready. That she divided Democrats from Republicans was not the surprise. But as the campaign went on, and even more since, she has become a source of division within the Republican Party, at least among GOP strategists, insiders and talking heads."
"Ethics complaints against Gov. Sarah Palin and top members of her administration have cost the state personnel board nearly $300,000 over the past year, almost two-thirds of which appear to be from the Troopergate investigation of the governor," the Alaska Daily News reports, adding, "Palin herself reportedly has incurred over $600,000 in personal legal bills defending against complaints, although she won't provide a breakdown of the expenses or what cases they were for."
