Take the money

Remember South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford? You know, the guy that wanted to grandstand for the 2012 primaries instead of helping his state. The guy who decided $700 million budgets holes for the school system were preferable to the icy grip of socialism. Remember how we all figured it would end: with his removal from office or his subsequent near death beating by White House officials armed with sacks full of stimulus money? Well, it turns out Rahm might be making a trip down to Charleston and it ain't for a low country boil. He's got a burlap sack full of nickels and bad intentions.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford requested stimulus cash for the state's schools Monday, telling the U.S. education secretary he's doing so under duress and the $700 million in bailout money will create more problems.

The request to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, sent by e-mail, caps months of Sanford's criticism of the $787 billion federal economic recovery law that raised the national political profile of the Republican Governors Association chairman and speculation of a 2012 White House bid. The state Supreme Court ordered him Thursday to follow a state budget law and request the money for the state's schools and colleges.

"First, it's important to state one last time for the record what a monumentally terrible idea I believe the entire so-called stimulus act is, and why in particular utilizing this money as our General Assembly has done is ultimately going to cause more harm than good," Sanford wrote in the letter to Duncan.

And what led to this change of heart followed by uncontrollable bitching and whining? Was it common sense? The threat of nude photo release? The desire to do what's right but still appear to dance for the base? No, the Supreme Court of South Carolina got out their legal shillelagh, rapped him across the knuckles, and ordered him to act like an adult. They issued a Writ of Mandamus, which is some sort of powerful wizard enchantment using newt eyes and dark/terrible secrets divined from the Necronomicon and latter Harry Potter books.

So that knocks Sanford out of the GOP 2012 horror show. Doing something rational and sane, even only because a court forced you to, is a GOP base no-no. It's a shame, bankrupting the state's educational system in an insane bid to do battle with the invisible hand of socialism you saw looming over SC seemed like such a rational plan. Oh well Mark, there's always 2016.