BRACK: On Sanford, unemployment, airport parking, bike lane and Trump

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  A bunch of headlines — some good, some not — scream out for some kind of commentary, so let’s dive right in.

Our congressman, Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, offered a self-serving opinion piece/lecture of Aug. 15 in The New York Times that urged his party’s presidential standard bearer, Donald Trump, to release his federal income tax returns.

He’s right, particularly to suggest that Trump’s “obstinacy” in releasing returns would have dramatic impacts in down-ballot elections and in future elections because others wouldn’t feel they had to be as transparent as candidates in the past.

But two things about Sanford’s op-ed are disheartening.  First, he’s continuing to support Trump, despite having “no stomach for his personal style,” although he couches that support on whether Trump releases the returns.  Second, some of Sanford’s criticism feels like pot-calling-the-kettle-sanctimony since Sanford wasn’t so transparent about his extramarital affair as governor that led to a permanent apology tour.  In many ways, the op-ed seems like a convenient platform for Sanford to make criticisms of Trump as a mask of a way to try to repair his own dicey public image, but perhaps Sanford’s own words in the op-ed take on a deeper meaning in this context:

“Words come and go.  The problem is what happens when his words lead him to do things that will reverberate long after the campaign is over.”

HATS OFF to South Carolina and state leaders for working hard to reduce unemployment.  News from Friday shows that the state’s unemployment rate is a low 5.2 percent, the lowest since 2001.   A big driver, apparently though, was public sector hiring.  State officials say they still have a lot of work to do to help match skills of 120,000 South Carolinians with good jobs.  Nevertheless, a low unemployment rate is good for the state in multiple ways.

RISING FEES at the airport for parking may pay for a second parking deck at Charleston International Airport, but the fees will hurt you in your pocket.  An airport committee voted last week to raise surface fees by $2 to $10 a day while valet fees will go up by $3 to $18 a day.  Both fees, which will be considered by the full airport commission Thursday, are 25 percent price hikes.  Deck parking will remain $15 a day.  Better idea?  Keep high fees the same and leverage current assets in ways to build a new parking deck, if needed.

A BIKE LANE over the Ashley River is getting a lot of attention — again — as Charleston County Council seems poised to poke its nose into something that the City of Charleston says it wants.  Charleston City Council members Bill Moody and Keith Waring, both of whom are whining about the proposed bike lane, need to understand they lost the vote and move on.  County Council needs to keep its word with voters to do what it has said it would do in the past — fund the lane.  Folks, it’s time.  To do less would be to violate the spirit of representative democracy.

IF YOU HAVEN’T gotten your fill of presidential politics and commentary, take a look at Friday’s Statehouse Report commentary that focuses on how the November election is scary in more ways than one.  The best quote came from former state Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, who got so frustrated with parties that he started the American Party with former GOP gubernatorial candidate Oscar Lovelace.  Rex said he saw some modern similarities between this year’s election and that of 1848 when a “sort of Trumpy” Zachary Taylor took the top office.  He added:

“Trump is a creation of the Republican Party.  He is their Frankenstein and the monster got up off the table after all of these years.”

Enjoy your week.

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