HOUSE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE LOOKS INTO SANFORD’S USE OF STATE AIRCRAFT

A seven member South Carolina House judiciary panel looking held the second of at least four hearings into an impeachment resolution against disgraced Gov. Mark Sanford on Tuesday.

The hearing examined Sanford’s possible misuse of state aircraft, as described in a State Ethics Commission report released last month.

And since I’m really, really, really sick of writing about Sanford, here’s what the Spartanburg Herald-Journal had to say:

In all, the seven-member subcommittee examined nine flights — all part of the State Ethics Commission’s preliminary report charging Sanford with 37 violations of state ethics laws — during the three-hour hearing.

The subcommittee also voted to add Sanford’s 2008 trip to Argentina to the probe. That trip originally was an economic development excursion to Brazil, but Sanford had the Argentina leg added on. Earlier this year, he reimbursed the state $3,000 for the trip.

The impeachment bill was filed last month by State Rep. Greg Delleney (R-Chester). The legislation seeks to remove Sanford from office for dereliction of duty, absence without leave, deceit and cover up, and disgrace of office stemming from his five-day disappearance in June and admission of an affair with a woman in Argentina.

The subcommittee will meet again on Thursday to look into whether Sanford illegally reimbursed himself from campaign accounts and his possible illegal business class flight upgrades, persuant to the ethics report.