A good question
We’re just saying, he’s a leader, not a politician. Sorta.
Over the past six years Mark Sanford has been begging the General Assembly to restructure state government by putting more departments under his power. We have always been on Sanford’s side on this issue, but now we must ask a simple question…
Why should we give Sanford control over more departments when he obviously can’t control the one’s already under his purview?
Maybe he should spend more time being a leader instead of a politician. Just saying.
April 4th, 2008 at 3:51 am
What is the point of this post? So the governor’s job is to supervise every HP officer individually?
Mark Sanford *has* been a leader this state can be proud. When the State House is still run by the same ol’ southern politics of yesterday, Mark Sanford has stood his ground. And you boys have branded him as being unable to work with anyone. That is actually a good thing. He’s the only one that’s right most of the time.
He was on a Charleston radio station this morning and handled this issue well. The videos you showed here, and thereby improperly implied the problems exhibited in them are widespread, are anomalies. They’re rare instances. Don’t impugn the credibility of all the officers just because you don’t like the governor.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I am confunsed.
Brad Warthen at the State says the Highway Patrol is not part of the Governor’s cabinet. I looked it up and I see it is part of DPS…which is clealy in the cabinet.
So what is the deal…can someone tell me…is the Highway Partol a part of the Governor’s Cabinet?
April 4th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Gregory - Sanford’s argument is that putting departments under the Governor’s Office would make them more accountable. We don’t see a whole lot of accountability here.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Every governor since Carroll Campbell has DECLARED that the Department of Public Safety is part of his Cabinet. Every governor has been wrong.
A Cabinet is composed of department heads who work at the pleasure of the governor. ie, whom the governor can fire for any or no reason, at any time.
The director of DPS can be fired only if he violates the law or can be proven to be derelict in his duties or some other such sin. Otherwise, he has the job guaranteed for four years (or maybe it’s six; I always have to look it up).
Think about it: If your boss can’t fire you, can’t change your salary, can’t change your duties, do you actually WORK for him?
The only reason Sanford was able to get rid of the current director is that his term was up, and he had to be either reappointed or replaced.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Thanks for setting us straight Cindi. This is why you remain our favorite editorialist…but don’t tell Brad.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Well, there is some truth to what Ms. Scoppe say, but in fact DPS is a cabinet agency. It calls itself one, and the Governor calls it one. DPS is at cabinet meetings, prepares jointly its budget, etc. The one point about the Director is valid, but that does not diminish everything else.
Ms. Scoppe and the State are very careful not to print anything negative about the cabinet (or almost cabinet) agencies, as it ruins the State’s chosen theory…that all that is bad in SC is because of the legislature.
I am not in love with the legislature, but they are only part of the story. The Governors cabinet agencies have been spending money like wildfire…and if you take a look at the exact amounts of spending growth you will see that Sanford’s crowd spends much like the rest of the government. HHS alone had hidden away 250 million dollars, but you want read much about that as that “little problem” went away when the leaders in the Senate were told there would be no one of merit running against them in the elections. Deal done…all happy.
My point is…neither form of government is very good when the people in charge don’t actually care about government. Sanford and the others love politics…their ego’s being stroked, money lining their pockets, personal glory and power and all of that…but they could care less about the actual running of the government. If the State Newspaper did its job properly we would not be in this situation. And of course, the State would not be going broke as we would be buying their paper to read REAL news.