South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican who has been told by his state Supreme Court to submit an application for the stimulus program’s state fiscal stabilization fund, has finally done so. The cover letter alone is worth a read. Here are some highlights:

On the stimulus in general: “A monumentally terrible idea...”

On submitting this application: “I’'m signing these documents under duress...”

Perhaps his most compelling point (although still a great, quotable line) is on whether governors can really be held accountable for the stimulus program’s “assurances”: “In reviewing this application, for me it again highlighted the absurdity of ramrodding federal dollars into the states when I suspect more governors than myself have little ability or wherewithal to say with certainty that these and other conditions under the law can, or will be, carried out. In this case it makes something of a mockery of the law itself...”