South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was in Little Rock, Arkansas yesterday speaking to the Arkansas Republicans and stating his opinion that the losses of the Republican Party in Congress will continue. He noted that significant change is needed in the party to get itself back on track.

His statement comes as no shock nor should it, other than maybe to those in Washington D.C. who never have a clue. The political party that produced the Class of 94 has done a complete 180 from those days of success. They became greedy and power hungry. They threw away fiscal responsibility and the tenants of limited government that made them such a favorite with the people 14 years ago.

They said they were fiscal conservatives, but they lied. They said they wouldn’t involve us in nation building, but they lied. They said they believed in limited government and personal responsibility, but they lied about that too. They have a long way to go to regain the trust of the American people to the detriment of what may become of us in the meantime.

Keeping my fingers crossed on this one!

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is being mentioned as a possible Vice-Presidential running mate for John McCain. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted that McCain would choose either Sanford, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, or his current opponent Mike Huckabee as his running mate.

WSPA TV

One thing we haven’t really done yet is speculate who the VP running mate might be for each of the candidates. I thought I would strike up that subject and start with my thoughts.

I’ll start with McCain since he has recently become the front runner. I think a very likely choice for John McCain would be Mark Sanford. Sanford is probably the most fiscally restraint governor of all 50 and a McCain/Sanford ticket would send a message that Republicans are serious about fixing the run away spending problems in Washington. They are good friends and Sanford endorsed McCain in 2000. It also doesn’t hurt that Sanford is a southern governor ( proudly my governor!) and his running with McCain might help quell some of the disdain conservatives have with some of McCain’s past shenanigans in the party.

With Romney I used to think that Huckabee might be a probable choice for him being a southern governor, but at this point I don’t think there would be a salvageable relationship between the two of them. I have always viewed Mitt to be the establishment candidate, or the Bush neo-con backed candidate, so based on that I turn to Condi Rice, perhaps?

I could see Giuliani aligning with Huckabee to woo the social conservatives who are aghast at his social liberalism. A Giuliani candidacy is looking less likely at this point though. He is no longer leading in Florida and only leading in New York by three points now over McCain. I don’t think Super Tuesday is going to save him.

Fred Thompson is a hard one. He can’t pick a southerner so he has to go either west or to the north/northeast. Duncan Hunter might be a good fit for him. I had actually suggested a few months ago to a friend of mine who is affiliated with the Thompson campaign that he should consider Spencer Abraham. The Michigan economy is in a shambles. Years of left wing economics have shriveled it away to practically nothing. Combine that with Howard Dean’s boneheaded decision to strip them of their delegates I think that if the GOP worked hard in that state they could deliver it. Having a Michigan running mate wouldn’t hurt the effort.

Then, of course, there is Huckabee and on that one I have no earthly idea.

Could it be Gov. Mark Sanford?

H/T: Hot Air

UPDATE!Human Events endorses Fred. Sanford would have gone a lot further in SC but a good pickup regardless.

Spending is one of those prickly issues that the media has seemed to assign as too boring, the pundits as too complex, and the candidates as too dangerous to really delve into. While that leaves journalists time to focus on the fate of Paris Hilton, this “hear, see and speak no evil” approach to how much government we want in our lives, and how much of it we are really paying for, is extremely dangerous for every one of us who pays taxes.

For the candidates in this crowded field, the spending debate represents a real opportunity. It is a big issue that will make a difference in every American’s life in the years ahead, and it’s an area that has not been graced with leadership. Let’s face it: My party, the Republicans, have been in control, and they have blown it when it comes to government spending. The fine-print disclaimer on the demise of the Republican Congress should read: “We really didn’t want less control of your money — we just wanted to put it toward a few different causes.”

I saw this when I was in Congress, and I see it now at the state level, where state spending has increased by 22 percent nationally over the past three years — with federal spending growing at 21 percent over that same time. The people who are most aware of, and most outraged by, this are Republicans at the grass-roots level who I see and hear from every day. The candidate who can tap into their desire for leadership on this front, and lay out more than a sound-bite plan on spending, is the candidate who I think will win in South Carolina. That candidate will also win in a lot of other states that are very different from South Carolina, because common to all is a thirst for leadership that will honestly assess where we are as a country financially and where we need to go on issues bigger than most of what captures the ephemeral headlines in Washington.

The Politico

Need anyone say more?  It continues to astonish me how the GOP power that be can’t grasp this very simple concept.

After the Senate and House approved their proposed budgets, the S.C. Club for Growth released a “Lard List” of legislative pork that included museums in Lake City and Florence, as well as a pottery degree at Piedmont Technical College. Six festivals across the state that received money through the competitive grants program last year also were on the “Lard List.”

Sanford has been a critic of the budget as well, installing a “clock” outside his office to tabulate new Senate spending at $33 per second.

The Herald

Governor Sanford has been a long time critic of the State Legislature’s piggish spending habits throughout his first term as South Carolina governor, and that isn’t changing in his second term. It is important to note that his own party controls the State Legislature.  He has also continued to harp on the Legislature to cut the income tax with the excess money the state has taken in to stimulate more economic growth throughout this growing state. If only this guy would have ran for President.

Last year, money added into the state’s budget, after the state Board of Economic Advisers increased its estimate of state income in May, meant few projects were cut from the House or Senate budgets. Wednesday, the board added $240 million more for House and Senate negotiators.

Sanford has argued the state’s new income money could be used to cut income taxes, which would spur investment across the state.

Cooper said the House would push for its $81 million income tax cut, as well as the Senate’s $90 million reduction of the state grocery sales tax to 1 percent from 3 percent.

While Governor Sanford still denies he is running for President it looks like he may be running for something.

H/T: Club for Growth 

I stumbled across this article today on Real Clear Politics and I was 0verjoyed to see somebody still talking about the prospects, as slim as they are, of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford jumping into the Presidential fray for 2008. The author is spot on about his potential impact.

With the implosion of George Allen, movement conservatives no longer have a candidate in the presidential mix that looks and acts like one of them. Even though the field contains several heavy hitters, such as John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, the GOP grassroots has no one that is a natural fit.

If a small but growing number of conservatives have their way, however, a candidate that could truly excite the base might enter the fray: my old boss and current South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

On paper, a Sanford candidacy seems Quixotic. Entering the White House derby at this point would actually be late in the game, he’s little-known outside South Carolina and Washington, D.C., and his main foil the past four years has been the GOP-dominated legislature.

Well, who the hell ever heard of John Kerry before 2004? It’s never too late, especially if Larry, Curly, and Moe are the only three we’ve got at this point.

But if Republican primary voters decide that the 2008 standard-bearer needs to bring the party back to its Reagan roots, Sanford could be the dark horse to watch. The recently re-elected governor could capture conservatives’ imagination with his unrelenting adherence to core principles. Unlike most GOP governors who either pushed their state parties to the left or simply acquiesced to tax or spending increases passed by legislatures of either party, Sanford has battled profligate Republicans at every turn.

When the state House overrode all but one of his 106 spending line-item vetoes in 2004, Gov. Sanford stormed the Capitol the next morning with a piglet under each arm. Red-faced Republicans squealed, but voters loved the bold move. Realizing they couldn’t be quite as wasteful as their counterparts, the Senate sustained seven of the vetoes–but still overrode 99.

I give the piglet incident one of the boldest and gutsiest moves in American political history, and he did this to his own party. That is the kind of guy we need in the White House.

Sanford has been rankling fellow Republicans long before arriving in Columbia. As Congressman from 1995-2001, GOP leadership knew that he was beyond their control. In 1999, he and then-Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) used parliamentary procedures to save taxpayers a fortune. The farm spending bill came to the floor with an “open rule”–meaning any germane amendments could be offered. Reps. Sanford and Coburn together drafted 121 fat-trimming amendments, and after trudging through just a few dozen of them, House leadership pulled the entire bill. It was only re-introduced after $1 billion had been carved out.

Though it was exciting to work for Sanford, it wasn’t lucrative. His staff was consistently among the lowest-paid on Capitol Hill, and we were expected to pinch every penny in running the office. But a hypocrite Sanford was not; he slept on a cot in his office–all six years. Taxpayers were rewarded for his frugality. Sanford returned well over $1 million of his office budget to the Treasury during his tenure.

I am not going to paste the entire article as I think the point has been made, but you can read the rest of it here.

Mark Sanford would be the second coming of Ronald Reagan and I have no doubt that he would bring back the Reagan Democrats, Independents, and Libertarians that the Republican Party has pissed off for the last five years. I think this guy would destroy whoever the Democrats nominate because he is the honest real deal and Americans respect that.

I strongly urge any readers who want to save our party to write Governor Sanford and plead with him to run. I am moving to South Carolina this spring and as soon as I get down there I will not waste any time getting involved to try and make this man the next President of the United States.

I just stumbled across this story and was wondering if any of our South Carolina area readers could fill us in on what’s going on. I had always heard Sanford was the very best we had as far as sticking to principles. Now I think the key to this is big business owners. Not much mention of small businesses, which tend to be more free market oriented. It seems the business leaders are upset that Huckabee isn’t their schill and giving them special favors and protection like they are used to. If this really is the case then he is the ideal candidate, one who will not only stand up to liberals but to the big businesses who want us to pay for their projects with special tax exemptions, eminent domain, etc. This is just my read on the story though, if anyone has information please fill us in. Story below the fold.
(more…)