On this day, July 4^th, 2009, we especially need to pause and appreciate the freedoms that we have to enjoy.

free press - It can report even the most uncomfortable details of an elected official. This has been a rough week for the governor, yet to maintain a government “by the people”, it is necessary for this free press to continue.

freedom of speech - As citizens of this great land, you and I have the freedom to speak our mind to newspapers, blogs like this, talk radio, tv, twitter, and facebook, etc. I enjoy the participants of this blog (even the harsh critics)

strong military - Thousands of men and women are putting themselves in harms way all around the world to protect these freedoms.

free elections – You have the right to vote in or vote out your elected officials. We have the right to decide what issues are important to us and which ones are not. This very debate of one’s personal decisions are up to you to decide what factors determine your vote.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children what it was once like in the United States when men were free.”

Ronald Reagan to the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, March 30, 1961

Foxnews.com

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin shocked the political word Friday by announcing that she will step down at the end of the month and transfer power to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.

Palin made the announcement from her home in Wasilla, flanked by her husband, Todd, and family and state commissioners.

“I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” Palin said after the announcement, according to a press release from her office. “Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose.”

The announcement came on the same week that one of her top public health officials says she was forced out of office because Palin felt she wasn’t in step on social issues.

Palin’s decision now allows her to avoid the difficult task of running for president while serving as governor.

Todd Palin told FOX News that his wife will concentrate on “doing the things for Alaska and the country” that she is passionate about and can not do as governor with the limitation and constant opposition she deals with within the state.

Palin, who defeated incumbent Gov. Murkowski in a primary in 2006,.gained national prominence when GOP presidential candidate John McCain picked her as his running mate last year. But her approval ratings in the state have skidded in recent months.

Palin has been dogged in recent months by ethics inquiries. Her office last month announced the 15th dismissal of an ethics complaint against her or one of her staff.

On Wednesday, Beverly Wooley, who has worked more than 20 years in public health in Alaska, most of it with the municipality of Anchorage, ended her stint as state public health director.

She’s the second top health official to leave within days. The state’s chief medical officer, Jay Butler, left in late June after declining to take on Wooley’s job along with his own. He now is in Atlanta, overseeing a U.S. Centers for Disease Control task force on a vaccine to protect against the H1N1 flu virus.

FOX News’ Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The State

The last week has been very painful for me, my family and for the people of South Carolina. However, throughout this terrible ordeal, the incredible outpouring of kindness, support, and prayer I’ve received from countless friends and folks I have never even met has been truly uplifting. I appreciate that more than I can say. Please know that my sons and I are doing fine, given the circumstances. We are surrounded by friends and family, and we will make it through this. I believe it is how we respond to the challenges we face in life, and what we learn from them, that is most telling about who we truly are.

There is no question that Mark’s behavior is inexcusable. Actions have consequences and he will be dealing with those consequences for a long while. Trust has been broken and will need to be rebuilt. Mark will need to earn back that trust, first and foremost with his family, and also with the people of South Carolina.

The real issue now is one of forgiveness. I am willing to forgive Mark for his actions. We have been deeply disappointed in and even angry at Mark. The Bible says, “In your anger do not sin.” (Psalm 4:4) In this situation, this speaks to the essence of forgiveness and the critical need to channel one’s energy into positive steps that uphold the dignity of marriage and the family, and lead to reconciliation over time. My forgiveness is essential for us both to move on with our lives, with peace, in whatever direction that may take us.

Desmond Tutu said “forgiveness is the grace by which you enable the other person to get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew.” Forgiveness opens the door for Mark to begin to work privately, humbly and respectfully toward reconciliation with me. However, to achieve true reconciliation will take time, involve repentance, and will not be easy.

Mark showed a lack of judgment in his recent actions as governor. However, his far more egregious offenses were committed against God, the institutions of marriage and family, our boys and me. Mark has stated that his intent and determination is to save our marriage, and to make amends to the people of South Carolina. I hope he can make good on those intentions, and for the sake of our boys I leave the door open to it. In that spirit of forgiveness, it is up to the people and elected officials of South Carolina to decide whether they will give Mark another chance as well.

My friend and colleague, Senator Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) on Governor Mark Sanford. Tom is a true reformer and personal friend of Sanford for 30+ years. It will be interesting to follow Senator Davis’s thoughts during this crisis.

Statement from Tom Davis July 1, 2009

Posted on July 1, 2009

FOR RELEASE ON JULY 1, 2009

Statement by Tom Davis re: Governor Mark Sanford

I came to Columbia today because I have a responsibility to the taxpayers of Beaufort County and the people of South Carolina. Obviously I have tremendous concern for my friends, Mark and Jenny Sanford and their family, but I also have a job to do as an elected official.

Before any important decision I make comes due diligence, and I owe it to my constituents to perform that due diligence before taking a public position on an issue as important as whether to call for the resignation of a duly-elected statewide official.

Accordingly, I have met today with the governor and members of his staff; I have had telephone conversations with my friend, Jenny Sanford; I have talked with the governor’s legislative supporters and opponents; and I have talked with key reform leaders who have been fighting for the issues I believe in – fiscal responsibility, limited government, market principles and individual liberty.

I am also planning on speaking today with Attorney General Henry McMaster and SLED Chief Reggie Lloyd, and am I particularly interested in learning the outcome of SLED’s review as to whether the governor has ever illegally used any state funds. I am told that review will be completed by tomorrow.

Again, this is a critical decision for the State of South Carolina and I want to rely on firsthand conversations, not media reports, rumors, political pressure or speculation.

Based on these conversations, I expect to form my official position very shortly. But I can assure you that whatever official position I ultimately reach will be one that I truly believe to be in the best interests of the people of Beaufort County in particular and the state of South Carolina in general.

In the meantime, I would encourage all South Carolinians to keep the Sanfords in their thoughts and prayers.

Take a look at 2 websites created recently:

“stand with Jenny” by the Palmetto Family Council: The people of South Carolina, particularly the wives and mothersof the Palmetto State, feel the hurt of this scandal most deeply, and refuse to let this moment pass without taking time to thank and encourage the one person who has been a rock in this crisis:First Lady Jennifer Sullivan Sanford. Friends of Palmetto Family Council are saying loud and clear that Jenny Sanford deserves our thanks and our support. And here’s why…

“Sanford must go!” So far this is an anonymous website: He lied to his wife. He lied to his staff. And he lied to you, the citizens of the State he took a solemn oath to represent. Now, Governor Mark Sanford appears to be defiantly digging in. He is desperately clinging to power. He says he’s determined to stay in office at all costs. And we know he won’t stop at anything if he lusts for something - even if the risk is a constitutional crisis.

At this time, we must separate political support from friendship. Mark has been the front man, or our quarterback for reform for several years. This movement is not about personal loyalties; it is about the conservative issues we believe in. That’s what separate reformers from good-ole-boys. As our quarterback, Mark intentionally threw a pick to the other team. This movement of reform needs a new quarterback and its time for the Governor to step aside.

Finally, I hope this sparks a serious look at elected leadership across the board. We claim ethical values and can’t be hypocritical. I for one, take one’s personal decisions into account when I consider whom I will support in politics. How far do we need to delve into one’s personal affairs while making these decisions? I don’t know exactly. I’m not one to pry feverishly into an elected official’s closet, yet I do look at the facts that are public knowledge. In a free society every voter has the privilege to consider whatever he/she thinks is important.

Here’s an e-mail sent out by Gov. Mark Sanford.

Dear Friends, I write to apologize and ask for your forgiveness. Well beyond the personal consequences within my own family, I know that at so many different levels my actions have upset, offended and disappointed friends and supporters and for this I am most sorry. As I mentioned in last week’s press conference, I’ve always believed God’s laws were there to protect us from ourselves, and what has transpired over this last week vividly illustrates the damage that comes personally, and to those you love and respect, in doing otherwise. So in the aftermath of this failure I want to not only apologize, but to commit to growing personally and spiritually. Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign - as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword. A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise - that for God to really work in my life I shouldn’t be getting off so lightly. While it would be personally easier to exit stage left, their point has been that my larger sin was the sin of pride. They contended that in many instances I may well have held the right position on limited government, spending or taxes - but that if my spirit wasn’t right in the presentation of those ideas to people in the General Assembly, or elsewhere, I could elicit the response that I had at many times indeed gotten from other state leaders. Their belief was that if I walked in with a real spirit of humility then this last legislative term could well be our most productive one - and that outside this term, 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. They have also made the point that a good part of life is about scripts - that the idea of redemption isn’t something that Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake should just read about, it’s something they should see. Accordingly, they suggested that there was a very different life script that would be lived and learned by our boys, and thousands like them, if this story simply ended with scandal and then the end of office - versus a fall from grace and then renewal and rebuilding and growth in its aftermath. I won’t belabor all these points, but I did want to write as expressed earlier to say that I’m sorry and that more than anything I personally ask for your prayers for me, Jenny, the boys and so many others who have been impacted by what I have done. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Take care. Mark

Interesting read from San Gabriel Valley by Cal Thomas

The first thing that should be acknowledged about South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s admission to an extramarital affair is that it could happen to any of us. That is not an excuse (and no, it has not happened to me, or to my wife). Every married person has heard the voice; the one that says you deserve something “better.”

Gov. Sanford should have been familiar with the voice because of the Bible studies he attended. The voice began seducing humanity a long time ago. It told our first parents that they needed more than the perfection of Eden. The voice told them that God knew that if they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they would be like God. But they already were like God, because they were made in His image.

Stick with me you secularists and non-literalists, because there is a point to be made for you, too.

Psychiatrists explain that married people tire of one another after 10 or 20 years (it used to be seven years, as in that Marilyn Monroe/Tom Ewell film “The Seven Year Itch.” Must be inflation.). Good marriages are the result of hard work. Forsaking all others is more than a wedding promise. It is a daily denial of one’s lower instincts. Temptation is everywhere. The key to overcoming it is to realize you are fighting an adversarial force that wants to destroy you, embarrass you and cause ridicule to be heaped on the God you claim to worship.

One can make excuses about power and loneliness and starting out as a friendship that develops into something else, as Gov. Sanford rambled on about, but one can’t explain adultery. It is what it is and the person who commits it should be calling on God for mercy, not the voters for understanding.

I once asked evangelist Billy Graham if he experienced temptations of the flesh when he was young. He said, “of course.” How did he deal with them? With passion he responded, “I asked God to strike me dead before He ever allowed me to dishonor Him in that way.” That is the kind of seriousness one needs to overcome the temptations of a corrupt culture in which shameful behavior is too often paraded in the streets.

There was a time when a divorce would disqualify someone from public office. Now people admit affairs and expect to stay in office. “It’s just sex,” said defenders of Bill Clinton. One might as well say, “it was just a gun” that killed my spouse. Adultery wounds in ways a bullet cannot. One can potentially heal from a bullet wound, but a shot to the soul and to the trust that must be central to any marriage is nearly impossible to repair. The wounded spouse always wonders, “Will he/she do it again?”

A relationship most promise to venerate “until death us do part” is damaged by adultery, whether it’s a TV evangelist, a politician or a regular Joe who violates the marriage bed. In fact, we rarely even use the word “adultery” anymore because it sounds so, uh, biblical, and those teachings and commands long ago fell out of fashion, though they work for those who embrace them.

Any man who claims never to have had thoughts of straying is a liar. Any man who has sought the help of God and other men in helping him to honor his marriage promises to his wife and children is a hero, especially in today’s morally exhausted culture.

I miss Paul Harvey and his acknowledgement of those who had been married 50, 60, even 70 years. Those people are my role models. I’m sure they heard the voice, too, but they told it to get lost and it did. Pushing against weights builds up the body, pushing against the voice builds up the soul and improves a marriage. You can never take a marriage - or the voice - for granted; it’s always on the prowl looking for new people to destroy.

tmseditors@tribune.com.

Cal Thomas is a syndicated columnist with Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, N.Y. 14207.

Book Signing
US Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC)

“Saving Freedom”

We can stop America’s slide into socialism

Sam’s Club
Liberty Highway, Anderson
Thursday 07.02.09 at noon

Can’t say that I agree with this observer, but this is an interesting read:

Maybe he doesn’t really want the job

By Tommy Tomlinson www.charlotteobserver.com

The quick spin after Mark Sanford confessed his sins on Wednesday was that he wrecked his chance to be president.

Here’s another thought: Maybe he decided he doesn’t even want to be governor.

He lied to his staff, left South Carolina without a chief executive, betrayed his wife, abandoned his kids on Father’s Day and took off to Buenos Aires to be with his mistress. James Bond couldn’t pull that off without getting caught.

It’s the kind of thing you do when you don’t care if you keep your job or not.

He didn’t resign (although he did step down as chairman of the Republican Governors Association). He may well hang on for the year and a half left in his term. But whatever grand ambitions he had for his political life are gone.

And maybe he’s OK with that.

When you’re a politician on the national stage, you take a lifetime seat in the dunk tank. You sign up for a daily dose of criticism from political opponents, activists, bloggers, radio and TV yappers, newspaper writers, and the guy at the next table in the restaurant. You probably get death threats, and because of that you get the joy of a security detail that waits outside the door when you go to the bathroom. You can go on vacation, but you can never get away, not completely, not even for a day.

In return you’re famous, you’ll probably get rich, they might name a bridge after you, and maybe – if you navigate the system, learn to compromise, and occasionally wield your power like a poleax – you can do a little bit of good.

Some trade.

Not a word of that excuses Sanford, or any other politician who sleeps around. At some level they reduce to the same image – that great New York Magazine cover that featured a full-length photo of Eliot Spitzer and an arrow pointing to his crotch with the caption: BRAIN.

The State newspaper in Columbia got ahold of e-mails from Sanford to the woman in Argentina that date back to last July. He moons over her gentle kisses, the curve of her hips, the “two magnificent parts of yourself” that she holds in the faded glow of the light. (Probably not her elbows.)

You have to wonder if he ever wrote a note like that to his wife.

That’s only the bottom half of the e-mail, though. In the top half Sanford talks about a weekend in Aspen with John McCain. That visit – remember, this was last summer, during the presidential race – “kicked up the whole VP talk all over again in the press back home,” he writes.

Think about that. In a secret note, written to a woman he lusts after – and maybe even loves – he starts off by talking about his job.

Could be that the only thing that truly turns him on is his own power. That’s the stereotype we like to drape over the politician who cheats. But what if it’s more than simple ego? What if Mark Sanford finally got the job he wanted, only to find out the job’s got him?

If that’s the case, Argentina won’t fix it. He could go to the moon and it wouldn’t matter. The only way to deal with it is to give up the job, turn off the lights and go home. And before long, I suspect that’s what the governor of South Carolina will do.