Word: governors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Sanford, in fact, has always been more effective as a conservative icon than as a conservative governor, a figure popular with the Republican Party's red-meat base but in chronic conflict with South Carolina's GOP-controlled legislature. When TIME ranked him in 2005 as one of the nation's worst state chief executives, it was because his fiscal hard-liner theatrics (carrying piglets under each arm to the door of the state legislature to protest pork-barrel spending) rarely yielded real results. In too many instances, his conservative principles thwarted the economic development of a poor Southern state...
...embarrassing missives were just the latest twist in a bizarre scandal that had gripped the state and political observers across the country even before the governor returned from his unexplained absence and revealed his affair. Not even his staff seemed to know exactly where the governor was, and until he was greeted at Atlanta's airport on the morning of June 24 by a reporter from The State, the official line was that Sanford had been hiking on the Appalachian Trail to clear his head after a tough legislative session. Though even his toughest critics seemed to feel some measure...
...Sanford said he'll resign the RGA's chairmanship but refused to say whether he'll step down as governor. His friend and former chief of staff, state senator Tom Davis, says Sanford "shouldn't resign, even though I say that with reservations given what's happened the past few days. He deserves the chance to rebuild the trust of the state, and I think today's confession was a good start," Davis told TIME. "I think he's done an extraordinarily good job as governor of alerting people to issues that have been swept under...
...Critics like South Carolina state senator Hugh Leatherman, a Republican, say it's Sanford's professional infidelity that stands to short-circuit his national political ambitions. "People will forgive private sins," says Leatherman, "but not a governor lying to them like this. This is an issue of governance. He can complain all he wants about the political bubble, but a governor is on duty 24/7." Even Lieut. Governor Andre Bauer slammed Sanford for being MIA. Leatherman, like many South Carolina pols, is not yet calling for Sanford's resignation, but he says Sanford "can't be effective as a governor...
...Sanford said his wife Jenny, herself a savvy politico who was instrumental in her husband's rise from real estate broker to U.S. Representative to governor, had known of the affair for about five months. In her own statement on June 24, she said that while she had asked Sanford to leave two weeks ago - the reason she herself didn't know where he was the past week - the couple has agreed to a "trial separation with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage." But in a dig at Sanford, she added, "I will continue to pour my energy into...