State Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, on Thursday called on the General Assembly to remove Gov. Mark Sanford from office after Knotts accused his fellow Republican of launching a smear campaign against Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and gays.

In a letter to each member of the General Assembly, Knotts, of West Columbia, said Sanford is behind recent, unsubstantiated Internet reports that Bauer, 40, is gay.

Knotts, a former police investigator, produced no proof to tie Sanford or his allies to the Internet reports.

Instead, Knotts said the Internet campaign mirrors one used against him by Sanford allies in a bid to derail Knotts’ last re-election campaign.

In the letter dated Sept. 2, Knotts — a political enemy of Sanford and an equally supportive friend of Bauer — called on legislators “to move swiftly to rid our state of this governor.”

Sanford’s office denied the claims contained in Knotts’ letter “as bizarre as many of the other claims and attacks of recent weeks.”

Bauer’s office denied, again,that he is gay. In a July interview with The State, Bauer raised the subject himself, saying he had heard the rumors about his sexual orientation.

Asked then if he is homosexual, Bauer said: “One word, two letters. ‘No.’ Let’s go ahead and dispel that now.”

“The lieutenant governor flatly denied this malicious rumor when it first surfaced in late June,” said Frank Adams, Bauer’s spokesman. “He is attempting to stay above this baseless political rumor and will have nothing more to add.”

Sanford is under intense public and political pressure for an extramarital affair and his dishonesty about his whereabouts while visiting his lover in Argentina, as well as scrutiny of his use of public resources such as state planes and travel expenses.

Legislators seriously are discussing impeachment proceedings against Sanford. Meanwhile, the State Ethics Commission is conducting an investigation.

“This (Knotts’) letter is simply wrong,” Sanford spokesman Ben Fox said in a statement. “Some have even argued this indeed points to an obsession with slandering anyone who tries to change the ‘good ol’ boy’ system of politics in Columbia.”

But Knotts said the Internet smear targeting Bauer goes further — and is aimed at hurting families, reputations, and the broader gay community — all in a bid to save Sanford’s political hide.

“Andre is not gay,” Knotts said Thursday. “Having known him since he was 8 years old, I am 100 percent certain this rumor is false.

“Still, there are good people who are gay. I have friends that are gay. My wife has friends that are gay. I don’t like them bashing the gays,” Knotts said.

One Bauer political supporter said the Internet campaign has some earmarks of tactics that Republicans typically use when they want to divide the GOP: race and sexually.

And yet, Bauer remains a Rushpubliscum.

I don’t know whether or not Andre Bauer is scum or not, but his political affiliation strongly suggests that he is. I do know that being gay shouldn’t mean a damn thing to voters, since being gay has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you’ll be a dishonest thief who steals taxpayer resources so you can sleep with people you’re not married to.

Maybe South Carolinians ought to consider voting for gay politicians, so that people like Randy Sandy will have to pay for their own sex adventures. Just a thought.