Loading ...
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR REPORTEDLY WORKING BEHIND SCENES TO FORCE SANFORD OUT
The news that Gov. Mark Sanford may have used taxpayer dollars to pursue an affair with a woman from Argentina offered Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer with a golden political opportunity.
Long an adversary of Sanford, Bauer — who is running for governor next year — stands to become the state’s top executive if Sanford resigns or is removed from office.
And within hours of Sanford’s admission of the affair, Bauer reportedly began planning a Machiavellian coup d’etat.
One insider told The Palmetto Scoop that publicly, Bauer will appear to be supportive of Sanford. But behind the scenes, his operatives are working with Sanford’s enemies in a coordinated campaign to drive him out of office.
It may sound simple, but if the shadow campaign grows large enough, it could deliver Bauer the governor’s mansion a lot earlier than he had hoped and make him the incumbent in next year’s election.
The first move was to have State Sen. Jake Knotts (R-Lexington), a close political ally, formally call for a State Law Enforcement Division investigation of Sanford Friday.
Knotts, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also asked that his committee hold a full-scale investigation with subpoena power.
When asked by TPS if that was an attempt to make Bauer governor, Knotts denied having a conflict of interest and said, “that has nothing to do with it, I wouldn’t care who was sitting in the lieutenant governor’s office, it would be better than the one we got now.”
All of Knotts’ efforts are also being coordinated by Wesley Donehue, an employee of the Senate Republican Caucus who previously worked for political consultant and lobbyist Warren Tompkins. All three men have a great deal to gain with Bauer’s ascent to the governor’s mansion.
Less publicly, Bauer’s out-of-state campaign consultant, Chris LaCivita, has also reportedly gotten involved. LaCivita, who was a media advisor to the infamous Swift Boat Veterans during the 2004 presidential election, has allegedly been making calls to encourage national GOP leaders to call for Sanford’s resignation.
And, in the oddest twist of all, Bauer seems to have cut some kind of deal with blogger Bill Folks.
Folks, a former Sanford spokesman, has long used his FITSNews blog to promote the governor. He has also been heavily critical of Bauer for years, even calling him, “just another good ole boy politician who has failed to use any of his political capital for anything beyond advancing his own interests.”
From a Feb. 8 FITSNews article titled “Andre Bauer: The Joke’s On Us“:
He has fought tooth and nail to preserve his little piece of our state’s failed status quo, and consistently demonstrated a personal recklessness and contempt for the taxpayers in doing so.
Frankly, the fact that someone of Bauer’s stature is being seriously considered as a Republican candidate for governor is indicative of the sorry state of the SCGOP.
In any other state, Bauer would’ve been dismissed as a joke years ago, but as is the case with so many “Republican” politicians in South Carolina, the joke is once again on us.
But when it became apparent that Sanford’s political career may be over, Folks suddenly made a 180-degree turn on both Sanford and Bauer.
On Friday, Folks wrote that Bauer was “smarter than we thought,” while the day before calling on Sanford to resign. Just two days prior to that, however, before the affair became public knowledge, Folks attacked both Bauer and Knotts for their concern in the Sanford matter.
______________
UPDATE: LaCivita has essentially denied that he is involved with any kind of coup and chalked it up to “jealousy” in a Politico article that was just published.
LaCivita, a GOP strategist advising Bauer, said that the lieutenant governor’s political rivals “are more interested in waging cheap political attacks than focusing on the people of South Carolina in a time of true crisis speaks volumes. And the fact that they are sending out ads that never aired demonstrates a pathetic level of desperation.”
This being South Carolina, though, the accusations go beyond policy to personal innuendo. In Bauer’s case, that suggestion means that the would-be bachelor governor may also draw headlines over his romantic life.
LaCivita fired back to suggest that Bauer was nothing more than a red-blooded American male.
“He’s an attractive, conservative Republican, single, straight — and he has a lots of attractive women that want to be his friend on his public Facebook and MySpace page,” said LaCivita. “What’s their complaint? I’ll tell you — they’re jealous.”
Fogle-
You neglected to mention this quote from my article encouraging the governor to resign:
“Make no mistake, Bauer is a disaster waiting to happen. In fact, my baby daughter is a few days away from being born, and she’s already more mature than Andre Bauer ever was or ever will be at any point in his life.
On top of that, Bauer has never done anything but pay lip service to the taxpayers of this state.”
In other words, you’re an idiot … but by all means continue to talk about me and link to my website.
-FITS
Bauer dumps $105,000 of state money down the Senior Shield hole and now is pissed at Sanford for “maybe” spending a few thousand on his hottie in SA. Thats rich.
As a tax payer I go for politicians spending my money on the exotic slut everytime. At least some good came from my tax dollars!
I would expect nothing less from Andre Bauer. You may have over-dramatized, but there is no doubt what Andre’s intentions are. All the more reason Sanford should stay where he is.
I would love nothing more than to see Andre and Jake Knotts go missing. Maybe they could skip off to Argentina together and enjoy the coastline.
“And, in the oddest twist of all, Bauer seems to have cut some kind of deal with blogger Bill Folks.”
Adam –
Why do you always call him “Bill” Folks?
Is it insider stuff? Do tell!
Sic Willie — I’ve never known you to make such a drastic change without a reason. Especially when it’s against Nikki Haley and Mark Sanford.
Mr sanford just may end up on the Leader page of HugePhony.Com
(Internationally famous in EU, Mid east and Voted #1 in UK!!)
What part of the term “dereliction of duty” is Sen. Graham ignorant regarding?
Before he was “Will” Folks, he was “Bill” Folks…
I’d get behind Jenny Sanford running for Governor.
Sandford was the first one to criticize Bill Clinton during his marital affair and said Clinton should resign. Now he is on the other side of the fence. We need to pray for our leaders. They make mistakes, too.
I agree I would like to to see Jenny over
Andree he is a knucklehead
Adam–isn’t Warren Tompkins connected to the Barrett for Gov campaign? So what does he have to gain from Bauer being elected governor?
I whiffed a setup from the beginning, when Sanford’s wife ‘threw him out’ and a week later wanted the cops to find him. Hell hath no fury…
I despise the NeoCons in the SCPubParty who have had it in for Sanford ever since he became friends with and supported Ron Paul while they were drooling over useless Cons like McCain and Huckabee. I trust a man who F’s more than I trust those who F with my Constitution. Go ahead. Throw Sanford out. You’ll get exactly what you deserve, SC – Scofflaw Bauer who speeds thru Columbia away from the cops, with his girlfriend’s head in his lap.
SANFORD– INSULT UPON INJURY TO SOUTH CAROLINA
TPS reports, “On Friday, Folks wrote that Bauer was “smarter than we thought,” while the day before calling on Sanford to resign…”
—
Either Bauer is smarter than Blogger Bill thought, or Mr. Bill is not quite as perceptive as he likes to believe. Perhaps both are true– QED.
Of course, Folks and his emailed rant calling TPS editor Fogle an “idiot” is probably the highest and most sincere compliment one like Folks could offer.
We are reminded of other GOP press secretaries, many of them duplicitous, mendacious shills for whomever signed their salary checks.
Only one– Scott McClellan– seems the exception, and departed in sobriety and remorse. McClellan wrote in WHAT HAPPENED that he became convinced he was the mouthpiece for inveterate liars– chief among them, George Bush.
TIME (May 28, 2008) described the epiphany– “When questions arose about whether the candidate had ever used cocaine in his past, Bush tells McClellan that he just doesn’t remember. “How can that be?” McClellan writes. “How can someone simply not remember whether or not they used an illegal substance like cocaine? It didn’t make a lot of sense. It’s the first time when I felt I was witnessing Bush convincing himself to believe something that probably was not true and that, deep down, he knew was not true. And his reason for doing so is fairly obvious: political convenience.”
Like Bush, the entire GOP herd has been a curse upon the country, and the sooner they depart in small groups, the better for South Carolina.
To paraphrase the salute offered to another, far more respected George, South Carolina is “Second in UNemployment, but first in the Rolodexes of Washington lobbies looking for an easy mark.”
If any doubt the folly of DEregulation as GOP policy, South Carolina is (barely) living proof. In Sanford, we have a former stock broker, rubbing elbows ideologically and culturally with the obscenely-overcompensated Wall Street executive tribe, whose last concern is stockholder value.
Surely, Sanford took that perspective to South Carolina, despite his protestation about “high principle”. For Sanford, the only concern for SC citizens in severe need is whether he keeps the state’s bond rating where he likes it.
Sanford becomes a modern-day Marie Antoinette– “Let them eat their Structured Investment Vehicles!” And for this, not his affair, he will be disdainfully remembered.
Barrett is running third. Bauer in the Gov’s office makes McMaster and Bauer a cat fight of biblical porportions.
Bauer is sure to be the loser, as his life is a “B” rated, teen sex movie (complete with 70’s music and big haried tarts, and the first of the metro-sexual males)
Barrett then moves in as the statesman, picks up the peices, and gets elected Gov.
It is about the only way it works for Barrett.
And Warren Tompkins hates Mark Sanford. He really, really hates him.
Bauer’s people plotting against Sanford? Well, what exactly have Sanford’s people been doing to Bauer all these years?
Not to say two wrongs make a right, but if what you say is true, could you blame them for wanting to get a little payback?
Personally, I think the state has had enough petty “gotcha” games over the years. Real leaders stand and deliver – they don’t have their underlings waging innuendo whisper campaigns, leaking emails, releasing videos, etc.
Childish and unprofessional crap like that is why people have such a low opinion of politics and politicians. Most private sector employees would fire people who act like this in pretty short order.
From Today’s New York Times: Proof Bauer and LaCivita are liars.
“Meanwhile, Mr. Bauer’s camp appears to have been orchestrating pressure for a resignation.
“André Bauer is my client; I’ve been working this since Monday,” wrote Chris LaCivita, a political consultant on Mr. Bauer’s team, in an e-mail message to another Republican political operative that was provided to The New York Times by an opponent of Mr. Bauer. “I need to get this guy (Sanford) out,” he wrote, referring to the governor.”
____________________________________
So there you have it…in their own words. Liars.
Bauer’s a joke and if he tires this stun it will kill his career. This is the kettle calling the pot black. Bauer’s is known for being a womanizer, reckless and his shady deals. I for one will not vote for him. I’ll vote for an Independent before him any day of the week.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning what Governor Sanford did, but he is better that Bauer any day of the week. I’ll be writing the representatives for my district to let them know exactly how I feel about Bauer’s behind the seen Coup.
MR. BAUER,
I SAW YOU ON MIKE HUCKABEE AND SURELY YOU WERE TRUTHFUL AND HONEST. “HE IS STILL MY GOVERNOR AND I AM PRAYING FOR HIM”
I WAS PLANNING TO VOTE FOR YOU AS OUR NEXT GOVERNOR, BUT IF YOU PLAN THIS, FORGET THE VOTE.
I HAVE TOO MANY REPUBLICAN FRIENDS WHO FEEL THE SAME WAY.
LET’S WALK THE WALK THAT YOU TALK AND TALK ON NATIONAL TV.
THIS MAY BE COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU.
BOBBIE
Gov. Sanford,, should stay and complete his term, (most top offical should come to his aid). (I don’t trust the people who wants Bauer’s to take Sanfords place right now). so hopefully he will get the right support from people who counts.
My prayers are with the Governor and his family.
So who cares what Bauer does? If he does succeed Sanford it would simply be a matter of a buffoon replacing an idiot. Hey, did you hear that the entire Sanford episode resulted from a simple misunderstanding? Sandford’s people thought he said that he was going on the Appalachian Trail. In fact, he said that he was going to get a little Argentine Tail.
[...] this the post made on RQ&A blog The Palmetto Scoop in which firm associate Adam Fogle makes the seriously bizarre claim that Senate Republican Caucus director Wesley Donehue and consultant/blogger Will Folks are both [...]
You have to be kidding “a conspiracy” you people have nothing better to do with your time. Any moron can see these blogs are being generated from Henry’s and Gresham’s people. Which both men are doing a horrible job for the people of South Carolina. Henry is a horrible attorney and an even worst politician. Gresham’s upstate meet and greets say it all. I will be voting for Andre and almost everyone I know will be as well. So suck it up all you “so called SC political bloggers”, conspiracy my ass Andre will be the next Governor! Sanford needs to do the right thing and step down, he is an embarrassment for our state, turn on any channel to confirm this observation!
The New York Times articles shows that Bauer LIED to us.
What else do we need to know about him?
Well David.. The only response I have is that I hope the people of South Carolina are smart enough to NOT elect Mr. Bauer as governor. He is smug, arrogant, condescending, and not very trust worthy and I for one have had enough of that kind of politician. I’m not overly happy with Sanford, but I will take him any day over Bauer. Bauer is too much like our current president and we don’t need any more arrogance, fiscal irresponsibility, sugar coated BS and lack of respect for the people of this country who put these guys in office. At least my vote will cancel yours out.
I support Governor Sanford, regardless. The real losers in this are The State newspaper, Andre Bauer, Jakie Knotts, and Chris LaCivita. Many great leaders have had extramarital affairs, as a matter of fact….our best. I don’t condone this but think about it, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln did…..Jimmy Carter didn’t!