South Carolina's Republican Party is making it abundantly clear that they believe Gov. Mark Sanford needs to resign post-haste. South Carolina Republican Party Chairwoman Karen Floyd seemed to suggest Wednesday that the time had come for GOP Gov. Mark Sanford to consider resigning from office.
"For the past two days, I have been speaking with Republican leaders across South Carolina," she said in a statement. "There is clearly a growing view that the time may have come for Governor Sanford to remove himself and his family from the limelight, so that he can devote his efforts full-time to repairing the damage in his personal life." The statement comes on the same day as a growing number of GOP state senators called for Sanford to step down. CNN has learned that GOP Sens. Daniel Verdin, Shane Martin, Ronnie Cromer and Wes Hayes joined the anti-Sanford chorus Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of Republican senators calling for the governor's resignation to 13. There are 27 Republicans in the state Senate. Sanford and his staff have said repeatedly this week that he will not resign. He wrote in a message to his political action committee e-mail list Monday that while he considered resigning, "I would ultimately be a better person and of more service in whatever doors God opened next in life if I stuck around to learn lessons rather than running and hiding down at the farm."Ahh, but it gets worse. Not only are SC Republicans telling him to get the hell out of Columbia, but the state's Congressional Republicans are even more eager to show him the door.Sen. Jim DeMint on Wednesday urged embattled Gov. Mark Sanford, a fellow South Carolina Republican, to make the “right decision” about his political future. “He’s dropped the flag. The rest of us have to get up and go on,” DeMint said during an interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.” “A lot of us are talking to him behind the scenes in hopes that he'll make the right decision about what needs to be done,” the first-term senator said.It's pretty clear that Sanford is being urged to resign in the strongest possible terms, because the state's Attorney General is already caling for an investigation into Sanford's travel records. Everyone in the state is throwing the guy under the bus, and that's only good news for Andre Bauer, the state's Lt. Governor. Bauer may have stepped on a few toes, but at this point he's infinitely preferable to Sanford.Once again I stand by my prediction that Sanford will get the axe, especially since he can't keep his bloody mouth shut.