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radarman wrote:

If he is simply a member of a prayer group - so what? Is there any proof that this group is really that nutty?

Miss this, did ya? http://www.maclife.com/forums/post/1665800#p1665800

Didn't Obama pass on that prayer meeting? I recall someone having a conniption fit about that.

he phoned it in

Bat wrote:

Before ceasing his near-daily press-conferences, he 'fessed up to also being improper with other women not his wife these last 20 years- tho not crossing some fine final line, also to seeing his current flame not twice, but perhaps five times this last year.

I'm sure it probably involved saddlebacking in some manner...

Why didn't he just STAY in Argentina?

New stuff.

AP: Sanford didn't disclose dozens of flights
S.C. governor says friends provided private planes for personal use

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford took dozens of undisclosed flights on private planes since taking office in 2003 despite a state law requiring him to report who paid for the travel, an Associated Press investigation has found.

The AP discovered 35 flights Sanford took on private planes that he did not list on state ethics forms or campaign reports. The flights are noted on Sanford's official calendars, obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information request.

State law requires elected officials to disclose gifts received in a day worth $25 or more and "anything of value" over the course of a year worth at least $200 "if there is reason to believe the donor would not give the thing of value" but for the public official's position.

Sanford, under scrutiny since announcing an affair with an Argentine mistress, didn't report the flights because the trips were paid for by longtime friends or political groups, spokesman Ben Fox said. "That was our standard operating procedure," he said.

However, state ethics officials said Sanford should report all use of private planes, even if friends pick up the tab, just as any other public official is required to do under the law.

Cathy L. Hazelwood, the state Ethics Commission's general counsel, said such flights "need to be disclosed somewhere."

"To the extent friendship is a reason not to report something is fascinating to me," she said. "There is no private Mark Sanford at this point."

Sanford used the private planes, including some owned by supporters, to fly around the state for political functions, to attend sporting events with supporters and, at times, to go on vacation with his family, the calendars show. In one 2005 trip, the family took Sanford supporter J.T. Gandolfo's Cessna to the Bahamas for "personal time" and returned on a King Air whose owner was not identified in the governor's records.

Sanford already is facing scrutiny after the AP reported his use of state aircraft for personal and political trips, and charges to taxpayers for more expensive first-class and business-class flights on state business. Attorney General Henry McMaster and legislators have called on the South Carolina Ethics Commission to investigate the state plane use. And a Republican state senator chairing a budget committee concluded from his own review that Sanford violated state law with the more expensive commercial flights.

Looks like Mr. Frugal flew plenty of 1st class on the taxpayers' dime.


ed redundancy

Last edited by Bat (2009-08-22 12:03 am)