Mark Sanford deserves some props -- for breaking his word.
Well, it's not exactly breaking his word that he deserves credit for. It's the fact that in reversing his pledge to reject stimulus funding, Sanford is, as Alex Seitz-Wald notes, securing jobless benefits for more than 17,000 out-of-work South Carolinians. NYT:
The federal Department of Labor announced Tuesday that South Carolina had officially cleared its approval process and that the stimulus money was being released immediately.
The reversal by Mr. Sanford attracted virtually no notice, but it made South Carolina the 33rd state in the country to expand jobless benefits to qualify for its full share of stimulus money under the program, according to the National Employment Law Project, a liberal advocacy group.
Of course, while it is true that Sanford is now making the right decision, it's worth noting that he's only doing it after his infamous hike to Argentina, which effectively killed his political career. So this isn't exactly a profile in courage. But it does show that even conservative Republicans, freed of the need to pander to GOP's wingnut base, actually believe the stimulus can do some good. It's too bad more of them weren't willing to make that case in early 2009. If they had been, it might have been possible to get a bigger stimulus through Congress.