Assault On Children

by digby

In the great tradition of Republican leaders Michael Steele and Rush Limbaugh, Governor Mark Sanford has put both feet in his mouth and bitten down hard.

Here’s Joan Walsh:

Remember Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the Dillon, S.C., girl who asked Congress for stimulus funds to rehab her dilapidated middle school? I thought she was an inspiration for America; wingnuts at the Washington Times thought she was “irresponsible” for asking government to solve her problems.Now her governor, Mark Sanford, has taken that line of thinking one step further: He told Fox’s great poet Glenn Beck that taking stimulus funds to fix schools like Bethea’s would be “fiscal child abuse,” while rejecting the funds helps kids. No, I’m not kidding.The folks at Think Progress have the video.

As Joan points out, it’s pretty hard not to wonder just how much race plays into this decision. There’s no doubt that the poorest kids in South Carolina tend to be African American.

Mark Sanford is going to run for president on the fiscal responsibility ticket. And it may just work. If the economy is better, he and his ilk will rant and rave about debt. If it’s worse, he’ll say the spending did no good. And who knows what the media narratives will be?

But he’s going to hell no matter what happens. Poor people in his poor state are going to suffer for his cynical political posturing and is sickening.