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‘Mark Sanford Gets Resurrected” — it’s the perfect headline for Easter Week. Sanford, the South Carolina congressman-turned-governor who fell from grace (and from office) when he surreptitiously slipped off to Argentina to meet a lover, is back. Polls seem to indicate that he’ll coast to victory in a runoff against Curtis Bostic to fill the House seat Tim Scott vacated when he was appointed to the Senate. Though Bostic has positioned himself as far to the right as possible — the URL for his campaign website is StopSpending.com, and Rick Santorum recently stumped for him — Sanford has touted his...

Disgraced former Governor Mark Sanford easily won the runoff election for the Republican nomination in South Carolina's First Congressional District. He will face Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of comedian Steve Colbert, in the special election next month. From The Hill: The former governor's runoff win seemed likely as of two weeks ago, when he finished more than 20 percentage points ahead of Bostic in the first round of voting. Bostic got off to a slow start in the two-week primary runoff, hampered by a lack of funds, and while he secured some high-profile endorsements, including from former Sen. Rick...

I find that the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza usually plays things pretty much down the middle, and subscribe to his Fix email blast. So it came as an unpleasant surprise to find in my inbox a little while ago a Cillizza email, linking to his current Fix column, tthat referred to Mark Sanford as "the turd in the political punch bowl." View the screengrab here.

Following revelations that his ex-wife accused him of trespassing on her property earlier this year, former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford (R) has lost the support of his national party. The news comes as controversy continues to swirl around Sanford and his personal life — a process that began with his well-publicized 2009 affair but was inflamed, the Washington Post has learned, when one of the Sanfords’ sons met Mark Sanford’s former mistress for the first time the night he won the GOP nomination. The National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday took the unusual step of telegraphing that it will...

According to Public Policy Polling, anyway. Granted, polling is especially with a special election, because it’s difficult to really gauge what turnout is going to look like … but it’s kind of starting to look like, if any Republican could somehow possibly manage to lose this deeply crimson seat, Sanford could. PPP’s newest poll on the special election in South Carolina finds Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch expanding her lead to 9 points over Mark Sanford at 50/41. Green Party candidate Eugene Platt polls at 3%.Colbert Busch’s lead is on the rise for several reasons. She has a 51/35 advantage with...

If Mark Sanford had been asked in the early months of 2009 where he saw himself four years down the line, he probably would not have answered, “Standing on a sidewalk in front of a folding music stand, pretending to debate a poster with Nancy Pelosi’s likeness on it.” But that’s exactly what the former South Carolina governor was up to in Charleston on Wednesday: conducting the stunt as part of an effort to turn around his foundering U.S. House campaign. Sanford’s attempt to draw attention to his Democratic opponent’s reluctance to debate him risked underscoring how his once promising...

We need help in SC-01. Mark Sanford is running slightly behind Democrat Elizabeth Colbert-Busch thanks to a ton of Nancy Pelosi's money. Now we could debate whether Sanford was the best candidate or not for Republicans but it is what it is. The 2nd place guy, Curtis Bostic, has many supporters pledging to write in his name. Even Bostic's son is encouraging it on his Twitter account. We need to encourage Bostic to do the right thing and discourage his supporters from writing in any name and encourage them to vote for Mark Sanford (even if it's not an "endorsement"...

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's (R) attempted political resurrection has turned the state’s House special election into one of the most unusual races in recent memory.  He's been damaged by personal accusations and peculiar missteps, and responded in ways previously unimagined by political operatives. Senior Republicans believe Sanford could still win in the heavily conservative district on May 7 — but it won’t be easy.  Or pretty.  Here are the five strangest moments of the campaign.1. Sanford asks his ex-wife Jenny Sanford to be his campaign manager Jenny Sanford was her husband’s campaign manager and top political adviser for...

In their first and only debate ahead of a May 7 special election for the House, Mark Sanford (R) and Elizabeth Colbert Busch (D) sparred over budgets, guns, and — of course — the Republican candidate’s personal life. Colbert Busch, a senior administrator at Clemson University, described herself as a “tough independent businesswoman” who understood budgets from her time in the private sector. Sanford, the former congressman and governor, positioned himself as a veteran lawmaker with a “twenty year track record of trying to do something about the way the government spends.” Although South Carolina’s First District is considered GOP-leaning,...

Elizabeth Colbert Busch seeks to distance herself from national Democrats “It’s cutting into Medicare benefits and it’s having companies lay off their employees because they are worried about the cost of it,” she said at a debate. Colbert Busch, who is running in a special election against former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford for South Carolina's 1st congressional district, noted while there are some good parts of the health care law, she was troubled by it's cost and the burden it could put on employers. "Obamacare is extremely problematic, it is expensive, it is a $500 billion cost than we...

The numbers are in and former governor (I’ll leave the phrase “disgraced former governor” to the sour grapes Democrat media) Mark Sanford beat comedian Steven Colbert’s sister. Since she lost there is no need to identify her as anything else because that is what she started as and that is what she remains. Congressman-elect Mark Sanford got 54% and even though Steven Colbert’s sister’s name was on two lines and South Carolina allows aggregate vote counting she got 45%. One of the lines Steven Colbert’s sister was on was the Working Family Party’s. This is a Communist/George Soros bought and...

With the victory of disgraced former governor Mark Sanford in the recent South Carolina congressional race, there are bound to be those who would equate his supporters with Bill Clinton's. After all, both men were unfaithful to their wives. Both men lied to their constituents about it. And both men had supporters who voted party over principle, didn't they? Not exactly. For sure, there are Republicans imbued with the libertine spirit of the age who, often sexually compromised themselves, can easily justify Sanford's behavior. There are Republicans who buy into the tripe that a politician's "personal life" should have no...

Reuters) - The Justice Department will monitor voting in Charleston County, South Carolina, in Tuesday's special election to fill a House of Representatives seat, the department said on Monday. Former South Carolina Republican Governor Mark Sanford is facing Democratic newcomer Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of television political satirist Stephen Colbert, in the First District House race.

Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, the Democratic nominee for the South Carolina First Congressional District special election, is listed twice on today's ballot. Colbert-Busch is also the nominee of the Working Families party. "She's been nominated by both parties. There's no prohibition in South Carolina against that," explains Chris Whitmire, director of public information and training at the South Carolina State Election Commission. All votes for Colbert-Busch "go to Colbert-Busch," regardless of whether the voter selects the Democratic Busch or the Working Families Busch. But tonight, when the votes are counted, Busch's votes will be separated by party, even if it's the cumulative...

Teacher who stomped on flag receives $85,000 settlement The South Carolina teacher placed on administrative leave after throwing an American flag on the floor and stomping on it was paid $85,000 as part of an out-of-court settlement in a case arising out of that incident. The settlement does not include the salary that Chapin High School English teacher Scott Compton will continue to receive until June 7, according to The State. He continues to get paid although he was placed on leave in January and submitted his resignation on Mar. 27. “Prior to his resignation, attorneys for Mr. Compton informed...

No live thread yet, so I'm starting one. Voted at 2:30 p.m. in Mt Pleasant 19. No line. Poll worker reported 28.3% turnout so far in a precinct that had a 66% turnout in the last major election. Results should be here after the polls close.

Have liberals already conceded defeat in today's South Carolina special election? Though polls show the race a true toss-up, some Democrats are attacking not just Republicans, but smearing the entire state as well. During today's Stephanie Miller Show, guest Charlie Pierce of Esquire Magazine slammed the Palmetto State as "tribal", "a cult" and the ultimate dig, "religious"! From the program: [video] STEPHANIE MILLER (07 May 2013): The cogent point in your headline “South Carolina is still South Carolina. JIM WARD: Ha ha ha ha! STEPHANIE MILLER: Obviously the latest poll had Mark Sanford ahead, right? CHARLIE PIERCE: And you know...

Mark Sanford (R) vs. Elizabeth Colbert Busch (D). The special election is for the seat occupied by Tim Scott, who was appointed to the Senate to fill Jim DeMint's seat. South Carolina State Electoral Commission

CHARLOTTE (CBS Charlotte) – Angry about his sister’s congressional election loss to Mark Sanford, Stephen Colbert did the logical thing – and declared Sanford his new sister

The reason, Republicans say and some Democrats acknowledge, is straightforward. Whatever other circumstances might cloud a race, Republicans can still argue that Democratic candidates will be nothing more than stooges for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Sanford made the point frequently in his own campaign, particularly during the race’s final weeks. Most memorably, he held a mock debate with a cardboard cut-out of the Democratic leader. Even the tawdry details of Sanford’s past failed to make the race about him.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian, imploring party activists Friday night to defeat this state’s Indian-American governor, predicted next year’s Democratic standard-bearer would “send Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from.” Haley was raised in South Carolina and attended college here, but her parents were Sikh immigrants. Harpootlian, a longtime Democratic figure who has a history of using harsh rhetoric, made the comments at the party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner just moments before Vice-President Joe Biden took the stage. Asked what he meant by comment, Harpootlian wrote in an email: “Lexington County.” Before being elected governor...

On Election Day in South Carolina, as Republican Mark Sanford seeks to regain his old congressional seat, Mika Brzezinski did her best to stop Joe Scarborough from mentioning an ugly slur that the Chairman of the state's Democratic party had made against Republican Governor Nikki Haley. SC Dem Chairman Dick Harpootlian was caught in controversy this week as he pledged to send Haley--daughter of Indian immigrants--"back to wherever the hell she came from.” According to the Morning Joe panel, Harpootlian has apologized for that remark. But Harpootlian has never apologized for his 2012 remark, comparing Haley with Adolf Hitler's mistress...

Let me say upfront: I would rather we lived in a society where adultery had a higher social cost. That’s not to say people shouldn’t be forgiving or that there should be no such thing as second chances. But ideally, I’d like it if things were less loosey-goosey. Cheat on your wife, and maybe you don’t get to run for public office anymore. Send junk-tweets to random young women who aren’t your wife? Well there goes your dream of becoming mayor. Exploit an intern whose name you can barely remember while you’re the President of the United States, maybe your...

Media coverage of the South Carolina special election focused upon the candidates, Elizabeth Colbert-Busch and the winner, Mark Sanford. Yet the real winner could turn out to be somebody who isn’t from South Carolina: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.... ...Anyone who follows presidential politics knows that South Carolina is a key primary state. Ron Paul came up short both times, only getting one percent in the crowded primary captured eventually by Arizona Sen. John McCain with 33 percent in 2008. Four years later, Paul did much better, getting 13 percent of the votes. But Paul finished fourth of four candidates in...

A special good morning to my liberal friends who thought they might win in SC-01, but lost. Now, I know you are in high dudgeons today about the GOP and family values and Mark Sanford. But let's just start with a reality check — Mark Sanford may have cheated on his wife, but your hero Teddy Kennedy killed a lady. Good morning! Mark Sanford has won the special election in South Carolina’s first congressional district. He was abandoned by much of the South Carolina congressional delegation. He was abandoned by the NRCC and its fundraising. The Democrats outspent him by...

Heads up, Saturday night Race!

As the congressional investigation into the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, continues to heat up, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters on Monday that the administration is allowing survivors of the attack and other Department employees to come forward and tell the truth about what happened. “We have always encouraged any State Department employee who wants to share their story and tell the truth,” Ventrell said on Monday, according to the Washington Post. But a letter the State Department’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Thomas Gibbons sent to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on the...

SAVANNAH, Ga. May 5, 2013 (AP) Less than two months after British forces captured Savannah in December 1778, patriot militiamen scored a rare Revolutionary War victory in Georgia after a short but violent gunbattle forced British loyalists to abandon a small fort built on a frontiersman's cattle farm. More than 234 years later, archaeologists say they've pinpointed the location of Carr's Fort in northeastern Georgia after a search with metal detectors covering more than 4 square miles turned up musket balls and rifle parts as well as horse shoes and old frying pans. The February 1779 shootout at Carr's Fort...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) wrote Tuesday he believes major revelations about the lead up to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, are eminent, in a Facebook message: “I think the dam is about to break on Benghazi. We’re going to find a system failure before, during, and after the attacks. “We’re going to find political manipulation seven weeks before an election. We’re going to find people asleep at the switch when it comes to the State Department, including Hillary Clinton. “The bond that has been broken between those who serve us in harms...

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Former Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford revived a scandal-scarred political career by winning back his old congressional seat Tuesday in a district that hasn't elected a Democrat in three decades. The comeback was complete when he defeated Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert. With 87 percent of the precincts reporting, Sanford had 54 percent of the vote. Sanford, who turns 53 later this month, has never lost a race in three runs for Congress and two for governor. And he said before the votes were counted Tuesday that if he lost...

Dave Wasserman �@Redistrict 5m It's over: Sanford wins. #SC01 Retweeted by Jay Cost and 1 other

(CNSNews.com) - "The dam's about to break on Benghazi," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren on Monday night. He said this week's testimony from State Department whistleblowers is "going to make you mad." He's also urging other witnesses to come forward. Graham was among the first Republicans to speak to Greg Hicks, the number two diplomat in Libya when Benghazi was attacked. Hicks will tell the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday that everyone in Libya knew it was a terror attack from the very beginning, even though the Obama White House -- two...

Today’s the day that voters in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District march to the polling stations and decide whether to elect the disgraced former governor or the comedian’s sister to represent them in the House of Representatives. As if that wasn’t bad enough, now visitors will be coming to town to watch them make this embarrassing choice, and I don’t mean the media: The Justice Department will monitor voting in Charleston County, South Carolina, in Tuesday’s special election to fill a House of Representatives seat, the department said on Monday.Former South Carolina Republican Governor Mark Sanford is facing Democratic newcomer...

Lexington-Richland 5 paid former Chapin High teacher Scott Compton √ $85,000 to avoid a legal challenge, part of a settlement that led to his resignation after he stomped on an American flag during a class lesson. The payment is on top of Compton’s salary that will be paid through June 7, even though he has been out of the classroom since December. School officials did not provide Compton’s salary Monday, but their plan pays teachers with his 12 years’ experience $43,340 to $59,647 a year. Lexington-Richland 5 taxpayers also will foot the bill for more than $31,500 in attorney fees,...

PPP's final poll of the special election in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District finds a race that's too close to call, with Republican Mark Sanford leading Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch 47-46. The 1 point lead for Sanford represents a 10 point reversal from PPP's poll of the race two weeks ago, when Colbert Busch led by 9 points at 50-41. Sanford has gotten back into the race by nationalizing it and painting Colbert Busch as a liberal. A plurality of voters in the district- 47%- say they think Colbert Busch is a liberal compared to 43% who characterize her as...

Former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint argued on Sunday that implementing immigration reform as proposed by the “Gang of Eight” would “cost Americans trillions of dollars.” “The study you’ll see from Heritage this week presents a staggering cost of another amnesty in our country and the detrimental effects long term that that will have,” Mr. DeMint, president of the Heritage Foundation, said on ABC’s “This Week.”

he latest insensitive and arguably racist public utterance coming from the supposed party of tolerance and compassion comes from a Democrat in South Carolina. But not just any Democrat. This one is Dick Harpootlian, the Chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. Harpootlian has a history of making outrageously offensive public remarks about South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, yet he remained as party chairman until (according to Politico) his term ended on Saturday. Mediaite, Politico, and almost no one else in the establishment press has reported that Harpootlian, speaking at a Jefferson-Jackson dinner Friday night just before Vice President Joe...

LEXINGTON, S.C. (CN) - A South Carolina city discriminated against a transgender public safety employee by making him use a woman's bulletproof vest after he had gender reassignment surgery, he claims in court. Marion Gregory Green fka Maria Gisell Green sued the City of Cayce in Lexington County Court. Cayce, pop. 13,000, is the seat of Lexington County. It is the only defendant in the complaint. Green went to work as for the city as a public safety officer trainee in July 2006. During the next five years, while "presenting" as a woman, Green worked in law enforcement, fire suppression,...

Outrage After Democrats Insult Nikki Haley's Indian Heritage Saying They'll Send The Republican Gov. 'Back To Wherever The Hell She Came From' 3 May 2013 Conservatives are outraged after a Democrat in South Carolina allegedly insulted Republican Gov. Nikki Haley's Indian heritage at a party gathering in Columbia on Friday. The state's Democratic Party Chairman, Dick Harpootlian, is believed to have said the party will take on the Conservative in the next gubernatorial race and send 'Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from.' Gov. Haley was born in the U.S. but her parents are from India. Read...

Chris Moody @Chris_Moody South Carolina Dem Party Chairman says he hopes candidate Vince Sheheen will send "Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from." 6:43 PM - 3 May 2013 35 Retweets 3 favorites The last time we heard from South Carolina Democratic chairman Dick Harpootlian, he was drawing comparisons between Republican Gov. Nikki Haley and Adolf Hitler’s mistress, Eva Braun. That was last September, and something tells us Harpootlian hasn’t spent the past several months in charm school. At a Democrat party dinner tonight attended by Vice President Joe Biden, Harpootlian rallied his troops to send Haley...

Key passage: I want to commend the voters of the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina who support Mark Sanford. They have the courage to toss aside lifelong convictions to embrace the sex pioneer of our time. They have rejected the religious teachings of their Bible-thumping preachers and tossed the false sanctity of marriage into the trashcan. Sanford’s fellow pioneers are teaching their children the invaluable lesson that traditional values are nothing more than a scam. These voters are telling the sanctimonious, self-righteous and hypocritical opponents of Mark Sanford, “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.”

It is an amazing testament to how bad the other candidates were that Mark Sanford ran away with the race in South Carolina’s first congressional district. A deeply flawed man, he was the one guy the primary voters knew wouldn’t go wobbly in Washington. But they, and I, presumed he was over the issues with his ex-wife. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago we learned things were not settled. The NRCC and GOP abandoned Mark Sanford as a result. In a race the GOP could still — even now — win, the GOP decided it would rather lose than win....

People who have guns they do not want anymore will be allowed to drop them off at two locations, A Father's Place on Highway 378 in Conway, and at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church behind the gymnasium. The program will operate from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, so you will want to get there early enough to pick out a good spot. Many broken and junk firearms are turned in at these events, but a fair number of people who inherited decent guns, but do not want to have anything to do with them, show up. There are often some...

On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that including a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants in any comprehensive immigration bill would jeopardize the likelihood of the legislation passing. “I think if instead the bill includes elements that are deeply divisive--and I would note that I don’t think there is any issue in this entire debate that is more divisive than a path to citizenship for those who are here illegally--in my view, any bill that insists upon that jeopardizes the likelihood of passing any immigration reform bill,” Cruz said at the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing, according to CNS News....

Both the process and the content of the current immigration bill violate America’s core principles and legacy of immigration, according to Heritage President Jim DeMint. “This whole process is not really American, to take a few people and go behind closed doors and then come out and suddenly have it on the floor of the Senate for debate,” said DeMint on “The Mike Huckabee Show” earlier this week. (Listen here) “Instead of incomprehensible, comprehensive bills that are thousands of pages, we need to take a step-by-step approach so people know what we’re doing, and with immigration, the obvious priority is...

Several Republican lawmakers are calling for the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings to be tried as an enemy combatant, rather than as an ordinary criminal. “It is clear the events we have seen over the past few days in Boston were an attempt to kill American citizens and terrorize a major American city,” read a Saturday statement from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.). “The accused perpetrators of these acts were not common criminals attempting to profit from a criminal enterprise, but terrorists trying to injure, maim, and kill...

During a hearing into the constitutionality of voter identification laws enacted across the country, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) tore into claims by the Department of Justice that those laws were racially discriminatory. In the space of five minutes, Gowdy knocked down the claims, one by one, that a voter ID law passed in South Carolina in 2011 discriminated against African-Americans or was dissimilar to laws the Justice Department had cleared in a variety of other states. Gowdy began by noting that, when the Palmetto State’s voter identification law was passed, a third of the state’s congressional delegation were African-American; former...

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee adopts a resolution which stipulates that the U.S. will assist Israel in an attack against Iran. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee adopted on Tuesday a resolution which stipulates that the U.S. will assist Israel if it is forced to take action against Iran. The resolution, Senate Resolution 65, was introduced last month by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and was co-sponsored by 15 Senators, including Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Chuck Schumer (D-New York)...

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s approval rating among Republican voters in South Carolina has plunged by fourteen points in just two months – evidence of growing dissatisfaction with his increasingly leftward ideological bent. According to the results of a new Winthrop University poll, Graham’s approval rating among GOP voters in the Palmetto State is 57.5 percent – down from 71.6 percent in February. “This drop corresponds to the entry of two vocal challengers, and discussion of a third, into the primary race against him,” the Winthrop pollsters note. It also comes on the heels of Graham’s high profile attack against fiscally...