A lot of people want to talk with Mauldin Rep. Dan Tripp today, to hear how he defends himself against charges that he “unethically” taped a cantankerous meeting last week between Governor Mark Sanford and the state House Republican caucus.

The Charleston Post and Courier reports:

Gov. Mark Sanford lashed out Tuesday at the Upstate lawmaker who allegedly tape-recorded his private meeting with House Republicans, calling him unethical and promising to confront him over it.

The newspaper tried to contact Tripp to respond, but reported:

Tripp is reportedly out of the state this week on his honeymoon. He could not be reached for comment.

As luck would have it, Tripp did comment before he left on his honeymoon, exclusively to the Ralph Bristol Show on WORD.

Here’s a transcript of ­that tape:

Bristol: My understanding is that the State Newspaper got this (transcript of the meeting) from a recording of that meeting that was taken secretly by somebody. Do you know who did that, and is that okay?

Tripp: That is a wrong characterization. When we were standing outside, waiting for them to unlock the doors, there was a lot of chatter about  -- the guard for the budget and control board – they came and forcibly removed the media from the meeting room and, you know, quite honestly, I’ve had some problems with the Governor’s staff. They say one thing in private meetings and they spin it another way in the press. So I said, you know what, I’m not going to let the Governor do that in this situation, so I….

Bristol: So you recorded the meeting.

Tripp: I took the tape recorder in. It wasn’t secretly. I was sitting on the front row of the auditorium. The recorder was on my notebook, on top of the desk, and it was in plain view of the Governor and the Speaker, of everybody involved. There were probably 10 legislators that knew why I was carrying it into the meeting. You know it’s a little bit of (inaudible)…

Bristol: Yeah, I don’t have a problem with you doing that. I’m glad there was a recording of it. It’s just that someone told me that there was a surreptitious recording of it and that you might have been the one that did it, and I just wanted to ask you about that.

Tripp: That would be a wrong characterization. I think we should have had an open meeting yesterday and I wanted to make sure that every little bit of substance would come out of the meeting.

Bristol: Alright sir, thank you…

The Post and Courier reports:

Sanford and ranking lawmakers said last week's meeting was supposed to be a chance for an open discussion where their comments, including frustrations with Sanford, were to remain private.

Sanford said Tuesday that one danger on the reliability of the taping is that it appeared some of Tripp's remarks in the meeting appeared crafted for the benefit of the tape recorder. Tripp, he said, attempted to steer the discussion.

"He was, in essence, trying to bait me, saying crazy things about (Commerce Secretary) Bob Faith." Sanford characterized what Tripp did as "trying to get you off your edge, and get you basically heated under the collar. And that's not right."

To review a couple of key points, Tripp says he wanted to “make sure that every little bit of substance would come out of the meeting.”  But, he gave the recording to The State newspaper, which has not published a complete transcript – only an edited transcript.

Sanford claims Tripp’s remarks appeared crafted for the benefit of the tape – in other words, that he was grandstanding for the media in a meeting others thought was private.  The State transcript does not include many remarks from Tripp.

The only way to clear the air is for The State to release a complete transcript of the tape, and to release copies of the tape itself to the electronic media.