Governor Mark Sanford, South Carolina's governor, or so I've been told, announced he and his family leave Thursday for a two-week European vacation. While he admits that the timing isn't the greatest, his sons had saved for the trip, so he felt he owed it to them.
Yup. He owes them plenty. But I'm not sure the European trip is at the top of the list. Ditching them on Father's Day to go AWOL to Argentina might have been the first thing he could have done without, for his boys.
But it appears that Sanford has a history of, shall we say, spending time away from the office.
According to Tim Kelly at indigojournal.com:
Sanford spent virtually all of July 2007 on vacation or personal time. There's a record of just two hours in his office the entire month, and he had a single meeting with Howard Rich early in the month.
When the 2007 holidays rolled around, Sanford was on personal time from December 20-January 7.
As unlikely as it seems, Sanford worked even less in 2008. Less than a month removed from his three-week Christmas break, Sanford took a week beginning February 4 to hunt in various locations around the state and the Southeast.
During a total of 42 work days in February and March, Sanford took 19.5 days of personal time.
Sanford's July recess continued in 2008.
After his now famous South American trade mission in June of last year, Sanford was on personal time or a "family trip" for all but three work days in July.
A nice gig if you can get it. And as a citizen of South Carolina, it's been interesting to read the comments on the article in The State on this news. I think it's clear that the folks in this part of the state are outraged. They're ready to be done with this clown. And I would think the Republican party would be too. Any bets on his resignation when he returns?
Update: The SC Democratic response:
For Immediate Release
July 22, 2009
Press Contact: Keiana Page (803) 799-7798
SC Dems Chair: Sanford is Lucky to Have Unlimited Paid Time Off from the Job
Columbia, SC - Carol Fowler, Chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, released the following statement in response to news that Governor Mark Sanford will be taking another two weeks of vacation to visit Europe with his family.
"Mark Sanford gets still another vacation--two weeks in Europe with his family, leaving behind a state that is desperate for leadership to solve a host of problems.
"He's lucky. Most South Carolinians don't have unlimited paid time off. They can't just leave their jobs for days at a time whenever they want to, no matter what urgent family issues they're struggling to manage," Fowler said. "Of course, most South Carolinians are also expected to actually accomplish something when they are on the job."