COLUMBIA, S.C. — Legislators irked for months over Gov. Mark Sanford's summertime vanishing act and his tearful revelation that he was in Argentina for a rendezvous with his lover plan to start debating a measure Tuesday that ultimately would remove him from office.
The Republican does face new ethics charges about his travel and campaign finances. But the seven lawmakers who comprise a panel of the House Judiciary Committee that will debate impeachment are focused solely this week on his five-day absence in June and failure to put someone in charge of the state while he was gone.
The four Republicans who co-sponsored the measure contend he was derelict in his duty and wrong to mislead staffers into thinking he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.
The measure says in part that Sanford's "conduct under these circumstances has brought extreme dishonor and shame to the Office of the Governor of South Carolina and to the reputation of the State of South Carolina." It continues that it has caused the office and state "to suffer ridicule resulting in extreme shame and disgrace."
The panel of three Democrats and four Republicans includes Chairman Jim Harrison. The Columbia Republican said Monday that later meetings will consider the 37 civil charges Sanford is facing following a three-month State Ethics Commission probe. Among other violations, Sanford is accused of using taxpayer money for high-priced airplane tickets that took him around the world and to Argentina.
Lawyers representing Sanford said in a legal briefing delivered Monday that the governor hasn't done anything that rises to the standard of impeachment.
"Impeaching a sitting governor is a seldom used and serious legal action that many have termed 'the political equivalent to capital punishment.' It is reserved for situations in which no lesser response or reprimand will do," said the document from the attorneys.
The lawyers include Ross Garber, who represented former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland in 2004 when that politican's ouster was considered. Rowland ultimately resigned, pleaded guilty to a corruption charge and went to prison.
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