What Will Mark Sanford Do? Will It Matter?

The video above is a pre-announcement of Mark Sanford's run-- or possible run-- for president. He handed out his office number for people to call him. I did. A handler eventually agreed to pass my name and number along to him.

Sanford comes from a whacky Florida family. His wealthy parents-- dad was a cardiothoracic surgeon-- insisted the whole family share one bedroom during the summers in order to save electricity. That vignette actually helps people understand who Sanford is politically. Back in the mid-'90s I saw him as a hard right member of Congress with a libertarian bent on some politically-correct issues-- libertarian on wrecking the federal government, not so libertarian about women's Choice or LGBTQ equality for example. The Cato Institute named him the most fiscally conservative member of Congress.

A real estate agent, he ran for the open seat Arthur Ravenel (father of the nut from Southern Charm) gave up in 1994. Democrats didn't bother to field candidates against him when he ran for reelection in 1996 and 1998. He made a name for himself by for voting against bills that otherwise got unanimous support, like the time he voted against a bill that preserved sites linked to the Underground Railroad-- a very convenient way to appeal to backward voters in Beaufort, Berkeley and Dorchester counties if not in Charleston. He voted against pork barrel projects even when they benefited his own district, infuriating some of his own constituents by opposing a defense appropriations bill that included funds for Charleston's harbor. A political careerist, he insisted on painting himself as a "citizen-legislator"-- retiring from the House to keep his promise to serve only 3 terms-- but then immediately turning around and running for governor.

He beat the Democratic incumbent and embarked upon a rocky couple of terms, despite the GOP controlling the whole state government. Chris Haire of the Charleston City Paper shared his insights into Sanford in a 2014 state-by-state rundown of the country's worst politicians. "Until June 2009," wrote Haire, "Mark Sanford was little more than a buffoon in C Street slacks and a sensible libertarian sports jacket from the clearance rack at Kohl's. During his first term as governor of South Carolina and most of his second, there were laughs aplenty. He took two piglets into the Statehouse to protest earmarks. One was named Pork, the other Barrel-- natch-- and one, if not both, promptly shat on the floor during Sanford's important presser.

Then there was the time when the Legislature overrode, or nearly overrode, all of his vetoes. We're not sure if that was in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, or 2009 because it seemed to happen every year. And then there was Sanford's general weirdness. When he was a child, his well-to-do family slept in the same room during the summer to conserve electricity, and when his father died, guess who made the coffin-- Mark. During his gubernatorial years, Sanford liked to dig holes with a hydraulic excavator back at his country farm in order to relax-- unfortunately, a child fell into one of those holes and died.

But then came some real creepiness. It began when Sanford apparently told his staff he was taking off to hike the Appalachian Trail, but instead he flew to Argentina on the taxpayer's dime to be with his mistress.

Upon his return home, the Luv Guv gave a strangely honest but extremely uncomfortable confession on live television. Much to everyone's surprise, the Bible-beating members of the South Carolina Statehouse didn't demand his immediate resignation-- and this was even after they had read his erotic poetry. Shortly after Sanford's affair became public, his wife Jenny divorced him and wrote a tell-all book (the governor once gave her a piece of paper for her birthday featuring a drawing of half of a bicycle, and the next year he gave her a drawing with the other half, along with a $25 used bike). Jenny also filed a complaint with the court after Mark repeatedly trespassed on her property; he even hung out at her home during the Super Bowl when she wasn't there.

And get this, he flew airplanes at their two sons. Yes, you read that correctly-- he flew airplanes at his children, whatever that means, according to a divorce documents. But despite all of that-- the cheating, the lying, the stalking, and North By Northwest-style terrorizing-- Sanford ran for his old U.S. House seat and won. Now he can take his mistress out to eat in D.C. without meeting the disapproving eyes of his constituents back home in Charleston.

He managed to escape impeachment, shrugged off a 102–11 censure vote, and finished his second term as governor (2011) and-- even more incredibly-- turned right around and ran for his old congressional seat-- and won! It was an open seat and 16 Republicans contested the primary making Sanford's name recognition the decisive factor. Endorsed by Nikki Haley, John Boehner, reality TV star Tom Ravenel, Rand and Ron Paul, Lindsey Graham, he beat Steven Colbert's sister in the general election. He was also endorsed by pornograhpher Larry Flynt: "His open embrace of his mistress in the name of love, breaking his sacred marriage vows, was an act of bravery that has drawn my support."

He was re-elected in 2014 and 2016 without opposition and then... along came Trumpanzee. Trump backed him in 2016 but almost as soon as Trump occupied the White House, Sanford realized what a dreadful mistake he had made and began criticizing him regularly. In the first term he voted against Trump more frequently but all but 3 House Republicans. Trump opposed him during the 2018 primary and endorsed state Rep. Katie Arrington who defeated Sanford by less than 3 thousand votes.

Arrington was then defeated by Blue Dog Joe Cunningham, currently the most conservative Democrat in the House and the most likely to lose his seat next year. But my bet is that Sanford doesn't join the half dozen Republicans already in the primary (and the half dozen actively considering running) but runs against Trump instead, perhaps as a Republican, perhaps as a Libertarian, which could actually hurt Trump even more. He's in New Hampshire today-- no public events, but "quietly having meetings with individuals he trusts to give him honest feedback on the best political path forward."

And, no, he didn't call back