Thursday, Jul. 02, 2009

Truly independent review needed to clear the air

IF THE “LINE-CROSSING” that Gov. Mark Sanford has now admitted to doing with other women did indeed all occur before he met his “soul mate” eight years ago, then there’s nothing about those encounters for state officials to investigate, since they would have occurred before he was governor. And we share SLED Chief Reggie Lloyd’s concerns about his agency being used for political investigations.

But the incessant dribbling out of more details about his indiscretions and infidelities has raised enough doubts that it seems clear that an official and fully independent investigation is the only thing that has any chance of clearing up questions about whether he has done anything legally inappropriate. And that is the only thing that will allow us to move on as a state with Mr. Sanford as our governor.

What we do not need, however, is a long, drawn-out probe that keeps this matter before us for an inordinate amount of time or that wanders into matters unrelated to the question that is the public’s business: Did Mr. Sanford use state funds or in any other way misuse his office to facilitate his extramarital excursions? This is not a terribly complicated question, and it should not take long to get to the bottom of it. (As for the suggestion that officials should consider bringing criminal charges for adultery — we really don’t think state legislators want to be advocating such prosecutions.)

Nor do we need an “investigation,” as some of the governor’s longtime critics are demanding, of whether the governor violated his constitutional obligations, and is therefore impeachable, by deliberately abandoning the state without telling anyone and without turning power over to the lieutenant governor. That is a political question, reserved for the Legislature. If lawmakers need guidance, they should ask for an attorney general’s opinion on the matter. But that is a purely legal and judgmental call, and as such it is well outside the bounds of SLED or any other investigative agency.

And we certainly could do without the mischaracterization of SLED. Despite what Mr. Sanford and his predecessors have said, it is not a Cabinet agency. Though the governor hired Mr. Lloyd, he cannot fire him, which means the SLED chief answers to Mr. Sanford about as much as FED Chairman Ben Bernanke answers to the president.

With all those caveats, though, it’s important not only that the focused and quick investigation is truly independent but also that it will be seen as such by the public. So while Attorney General Henry McMaster made the correct call in asking SLED to investigate, we think he would be wise to hand the SLED report over to a special prosecutor — likely one of the state’s 16 solicitors — to review and reach conclusions about.

Mr. McMaster has shown himself to be a man of great integrity in matters of the law, but we understand that many would question whether any decision he reaches was related to the very strong stake he, as a gubernatorial candidate, has in it. And particularly since we have seen nothing to date that indicates to us that Mr. Sanford did anything legally inappropriate, that public confidence is, after all, one of the most important things to be gained from an investigation.

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