Inside politics

LOW-KEY SANFORD

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, under fire for ethics and personal questions by some fellow Republicans back home, made a low-profile showing on the second day of the three-day meeting of the Republican Governors Association, Washington Times political correspondent Ralph Z. Hallow reports from Austin, Texas.

Mr. Sanford, who headed the association until the revelation of an extramarital affair sparked an international media frenzy last summer, quietly took his place at a resort hotel ballrooms huge square table with fellow governors for a morning discussion session.

“Better to do this than to appear to be hiding back home,” a Republican lobbyist commented privately on seeing Mr. Sanford take his place among the other state chief executives.

Mr. Sanford listened quietly to fellow GOP governors discuss the political landscape for 2010. At one point, Mr. Sanford rushed from the room, telling The Times that he had to deal with an unspecified problem back in Columbia, South Carolina’s capital.

When the governor attended a Southern regional luncheon for governors later in the day, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the event host, recognized Mr. Sanford, who won a round of applause from his fellow Southern governors.

The cloud that has hovered over Mr. Sanford since the summer lifted a bit when the state Ethics Commission on Wednesday issued a report after months of deliberations over reports of ethics violations by the governor. The commission found no evidence of crimes, but did find cause for a hearing in January on suspected minor ethics lapses.

JACKSON’S INSULT

“If you stray from the liberal plantation as an African-American elected official, expect Jesse Jackson to call you out on it,” John Fund writes at www.opinionjournal.com.

“The Rev. Jackson attended a reception on Capitol Hill [Wednesday] night for the Congressional Black Caucus. During his remarks he railed against opponents of health care reform. ‘We even have blacks voting against the health care bill,’ the Hill newspaper reports him saying. ‘You can’t vote against health care and call yourself a black man.’

“Mr. Jackson’s comments can only have been directed at Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, the sole member of the CBC to have voted against the health care bill this month in the House.

“For his part, Mr. Davis declined to get into a spitting contest. ‘One of the reasons that I like and admire Rev. Jesse Jackson is that 21 years ago he inspired the idea that a black politician would not be judged simply as a black leader,’ he said in a statement. ‘The best way to honor Rev. Jackson’s legacy is to decline to engage in an argument with him that begins and ends with race.’

“Sadly, no members of the Congressional Black Caucus have stepped forward to deplore Rev. Jackson’s words. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri said the criticism of his CBC colleague was ‘accurate,’ although he claimed not to have heard Rev. Jackson say: ‘You can’t vote against health care and call yourself a black man.’ The veteran civil rights leader, he added, ‘is expected by his constituency to call balls and strikes.’

“At least Rep. Maxine Waters offered an explanation of Mr. Davis’s apostasy, noting that he represents a relatively conservative district in Alabama and is now running for governor in a state in which Republicans have won most recent statewide elections.

“For the record, Rep. Davis says he voted against the Pelosi health care bill because it ‘is not the best we can do.’ He prefers a different approach passed by the Senate Finance Committee, which he said would have been more effective in getting employers to assist workers in obtaining health insurance.”

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