Trying to sell a Senate seat for personal gain is an impeachable offense, as we all know. How about shamelessly sacrificing the welfare of your state for your own selfish political aspirations?

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has probably set a new record for reckless disregard of his duty to his constituents:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) has completed his review of the recently enacted stimulus package and will be sending President Obama a letter in the next few days asking for permission to apply a quarter of South Carolina’s stimulus money, approximately $700 million, to paying down state debt rather than using the money to fund government programs.
[...]
If Obama turns down Sanford’s request, the South Carolina governor will not seek the $700 million in stimulus funds which are under the governor’s discretion. …

“In the unfortunate case that the President would deny our request, I will not seek the funds, as I believe doing so would not help our current economic problems and would do real harm to our future financial picture,” writes Sanford.

By the way, it’s not like Sanford is gracefully accepting three-quarters of South Carolina’s stimulus money. That $2.1 billion is “beyond the governor’s discretion”.

Sanford is supposed to represent everyone in South Carolina, isn’t he, not just the one person who fancies his chances in the 2012 presidential election?

Bobby Jindal‘s attempt to reject $90 million in stimulus money was pathetic enough. But Sanford is in a class of his own.