[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/08/12/sanford.jpg caption=" Join the conversation on Jack's blog."]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Embattled South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford should be impeached for abusing state finances.
So says a state senator who is also a fellow Republican. Senator David Thomas says the governor violated state regulations by billing South Carolina for business and first-class tickets on international flights during trade missions. The law requires officials to buy the cheapest seats possible. He also is accused of using state airplanes for personal and political travel, which he admits doing.
Governor Sanford acknowledges he "did wrong" and that "there are consequences for that.” But the weak-kneed rationale for his malfeasance in office is something along the lines of "other people have done this and even done it more often." It's the kind of logic used by people doing long stretches in prison for robbing banks. Other people did that too.
Of course, Sanford has been under fire since he mysteriously disappeared in late June. At first his office said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. A week later, in a rambling news conference, the governor admitted he was in Argentina with a woman he has been having extra-marital affair with.
At the time, people called on him to resign but Sanford said he planned to continue as governor and would try to fix his relationship with his wife and his 4 sons.
His wife Jenny has since moved out of the governor's mansion in Columbia and taken the four kids with her, but Sanford says they're not getting a divorce.
SO HERE'S THE QUESTION: Is Mark Sanford no longer fit to serve as governor of South Carolina?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
John in Anderson, Indiana
I don't care about his sex life at all. Not one bit. But if he wasted or misused one nickel of taxpayer money, he's got to go.
Mary in Florida
Sure he is fit to serve as governor. If you removed from office all men who have been unfaithful, there would be only women in higher office.
Kate
Let's face it. The Republicans are searching for anything they can find to get rid of this guy, before another election cycle passes and this looney tune is still in the news.
Joe in Missouri
Does hypocrisy disqualify you? My complaint with Sanford is that he is a hypocrite. He is like Newt Gingrich who judged Bill Clinton while he was doing the same thing or worse on the sly. Give me a straight-out sinner any day.
Carl in San Diego
Jack, I could care less about his affair. However, he either should have been impeached or resigned since he left his state, which he swore to govern and serve, without any notice of how he could be contacted. He let the people of his state down. If you or I just disappeared for a time from our job, without anyone knowing or able to contact us, we wouldn't have a job.
Ed in Cincinnati
It is not a question of being fit but rather a question of being effective. Given his baggage, he is and will continue to be ineffective. It is time for him to go.
Robert in Venice, Florida
Mrs. Sanford should divorce him, South Carolina should impeach him and throw him out, and he should fly to his soul mate in Rio where hopefully we would never have to hear of or about him again.