Mark Sanford: a legacy in his own mind

In his final few weeks as governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford is looking back on those disastrous several days of mid-2009 that he did not spend hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Sanford was, as the Republican politician later admitted, doing other things in South America with a dear, dear Argentine friend who had become his mistress.

Thus endeth the rising-star chapter of the married Bible Belt father who had been building impressive conservative credentials resisting some of President Obama’s stimulus spending, in one of the early GOP primary states come 2012. Not to mention the endeth of the Sanford marriage.

Now about to leave the state chief executive’s office to its first female governor, Republican state legislator Nikki Haley, Sanford has decided that those cringe-inducing days were actually good for South Carolina.

How’s that? someone might ask.

Here’s how, Sanford explained last week to WIS-TV:

“I think that a lot of people at time would push against certain things based on their fear that my political star was climbing. If they did that, it would help me to get to wherever it was they thought I was going.

“What became abundantly clear was the supposed stars on the rainbow weren’t there and I think we were able to debate the issue at hand. That I was less the issue, and the issue was more the issue.”

The already-ex-husband-and-about-to-be-ex-governor, who currently has a 55% approval rating, adds a bit of self-serving storytelling:

“There’s an amazing level of grace in this state. Because what I’ve seen as I’ve moved around is people saying, ‘Look, you messed up. We don’t like what you did, but I very much appreciate what you’ve done in terms of watching out for our pocketbook, or wallet, or grow economic opportunity in this state, reform the way things are done in Columbia, and for that reason, I’m going to judge you for the whole of your eight years, rather than one single day.’”

Sanford says come turnover day, Jan. 12, he has no plans other than to borrow his son’s pickup truck and drive toward the ocean.

Sen. Bernie Sanders went from filibuster to Twitter-buster hours into his nine-hour stand Friday against the proposed tax-cut deal, the first genuine filibuster seen in the Senate since 1992.

Twitter users flocked to Sanders’ page to express their support for the independent senator from Vermont, a longtime critic of extending tax cuts for America’s wealthiest and a vocal critic of the deal President Obama negotiated with Republicans, as he stood talking for hour after hour with only water as sustenance.

Sanders added more than 4,000 new Twitter followers, and his name trended at No. 1 on Twitter throughout much of Friday afternoon. His name was also a top search term on Google Trends.

Sanders took the floor at 10:25 a.m. and eventually ceded it just after 7 p.m. His staff tweeted continually through his stand. Examples: “Sen. Bernie Sanders has been standing up on the Senate floor for 6 hours now. Welcome to the 7th hour.”

“Sen. Bernie Sanders is reading from letters he received from constituents.”

“Sen. Bernie Sanders is now in his 9th hour of non-stop #filibuster. Sanders has not left the floor once in that time.”

And finally: “And with that, Madam President, I would yield the floor.”

andrew.malcolm@latimes.com

craig.howie@latimes.com

Top of the Ticket, The Times’ blog on national politics ( http://161.35.110.226/ticket is a blend of commentary, analysis and news. These are selections from the last week.