Some Guv. Sanford trips were taxpayer-paid

This continuing and brewing scandal of Sanford sounds like a new reality show: Where in the World Is Mark Sanford?” or “I’m a Republican Politician, Get Me Out of Here!”

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has taken at least three taxpayer-paid trips to Argentina, however, it’s unclear whether he met his girlfriend during any of them.

But sometime after his 2002 election as governor, Sanford traveled to Argentina on the dime of the South Carolina Department of Commerce.

Read on.

Now the question of possible impeachment of Guv Sanford?

WSJ blog:

Later on Wednesday afternoon, we chatted with Alan Tarr, the director of the Center for State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University - Camden, who talked to us about the possibility of impeachment.

According to Tarr, the South Carolina constitution gives “unusually broad” removal powers to the legislature. Not only can the legislature impeach a governor for “serious crimes or serious misconduct in office,” it can also remove a governor in a process called “address” for any “willful neglect of duty” or “other reasonable cause which shall not be sufficient ground of impeachment.”

According to Tarr, a removal by address, which only a handful of state constitutions allow for, “is essentially the same as a no-confidence vote.”

Of course, adds Cook, impeachment and removal takes us out of the realm of the law, strictly speaking. “Because the legislature makes this determination, the outcome is necessarily political.”