REAL-ID a slam dunk

Last week, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford decided not to ask for an extension to implement REAL-ID in his state. He'll get it anyway.

Without the extension, we'd have until mid-May to get on board with the new, Homeland Security-driven national ID.

I like Mark Sanford. He's a Republican, but you'd swear he's really a libertarian in sheep's clothing. He's become popular out in these parts, and his name is being bandied about as a possible running mate for John McCain.

Sanford has held that the South Carolina drivers' license process is reasonably close to complying with the new national ID standards. I can personally vouch for that myself. When I moved back to the state a few years ago, I wanted to reinstate my driver's license. A simple matter; just turn in my year-old North Carolina license, have the folks at the Motor Vehicles department look up my old license, I give them the license fee, and I'm good to go. I'd done it before (in 2000, when I moved back from Tennessee). Turns out I needed a birth certificate this time. The folks at Motor Vehicles told me it was a Homeland Security thing.

I'd written in the past about REAL-ID, and my stance hasn't changed on it at all. In these days of terrorism, paranoia, hysteria, and the resulting Homeland Security effort, I can trust the government about as far as I can throw it. And it's not because of any real or perceived malevolence on its part, but its general incompetence. But even the incompetence isn't bad if the central government is a weak one. But give that same incompetence to a strong central government, then all kinds of things can happen.

Sanford told a local radio station today that the REAL-ID was passed by Congress through the back door, without debate, tacked onto a bill approving relief for tsunami victims a few years ago. Now, that in itself is dangerous. Plus, REAL-ID is one of those unfunded mandates -- Congress says, here's what we want. Y'all implement it and pay for it.

"It's the worst piece of legislation I've ever seen at any point in the political process," he told WTMA. "It's being jammed on us."

Under the plan, the new national ID card would be required to get on an airplane or go into a federal building -- which Sanford interprets to include your local Congressman's office. That's scary.

"If you care about civil liberties, you ought to care about this," he said.

Which is why I'm watching this.