Fifty-six Republican members of the South Carolina state House met Saturday in Myrtle Beach, and not a single one voiced support for embattled Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, according to Political Beacon political sources.Late in the roughly two-and-a-half hour meeting, GOP state Rep. Greg Delleney stood up to demand that Sanford resign because the governor has "disgraced and brought shame on the state."
"Can anybody in here give me one good reason, one positive thing, that's going to occur by him remaining in office?" asked Delleney, who is drafting impeachment articles against the governor. None of the state's House Republicans had an answer. According to numerous sources inside the caucus meeting, Delleney was one of a number of Republican state representatives who stood up to demand that the state's party leadership call for a special session to move forward with impeachment proceedings against the governor. The legislature is not scheduled to reconvene until January.
The meeting concluded a week that saw increased talk of impeaching the governor and Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who would fill the remainder of the term if Sanford resigned, saying that he would not run for a new term if he replaced the governor. Despite Sanford's resistance and the mounting calls for his impeachment, state legislative leadership is so far holding back from making any commitments on potential impeachment proceedings because it would take a two-thirds vote of both the state House and Senate to bring the legislature back to consider Sanford's impeachment.
Gov. Mark Sanford has trouble on his hands and will not let the State move forward, so now if the Republican wants to hold on to many of their offices in next year’s elections, then they must take action now to save their seat in various of offices. This could very well affect the outcome of GOP leadership in the state in 2010.
