Another Bizarre Moment in South Carolina

South Carolina is known for bizarre politics, but tomorrow’s congressional election surely ranks among the bizarre-est. 

And the whole nation should pay attention, if not because of its national importance, then at least because of its bizarreness.   

Recapping: Voters in South Carolina’s First Congressional District will choose a congressman Tuesday to fill a vacancy.  Our heavily Republican legislature has skillfully gerrymandered the district into a bright crimson, and yet the polls show a political newcomer Democrat might win.

The race has national implications.  If a Democrat can win in this district, a Democrat can win anywhere.

The Republican choice is Mark Sanford, our disgraced former governor and a Tea Party darling.  He’s the one who told his staff, and his wife, that he was going hiking on the Appalachian Trail, then flew to Argentina  to be with his “soul mate” -- paying for  some of his trip with my money.  

Sanford later divorced his wife, got engaged to his paramour, paid the biggest fine for ethics violations in South Carolina history, filed for Congress, asked his ex-wife to direct his campaign (she declined), and trespassed at least once into her home despite a court order telling him to stay away. 

The Democrat candidate is Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a political newcomer best known as comedian Stephen Colbert’s sister but an accomplished woman in her own right.  After a disastrous marriage that produced three children, she put herself through college and rose to the top levels of a male-dominated maritime corporation.  She preaches a traditional Democrat philosophy.  

It’s not a matter of forgiving Sanford. He’s forgiven,  just not forgotten.  After all, he confessed because he got caught, not because of a sensitive conscience.  It’s a matter of fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

I’ll vote for Busch.

-Skip