For years, there have been rumors that Lt. Gov. André Bauer is gay. Like, really gay. Shit, we were told he wore sparkly silver pants to a Britney Spears show. That’s pretty bad.
But, we laid off. Hell, we saw Bauer hit on a very attractive girl in 1998. OK, she took shaving cream and a razor to his boat on Lake Murray, but she was pretty smokin’. Doesn’t seem like a guy that rolls with dudes. Or so we thought.
Then came a blog post that twisted our noggin.
And for those reasons I am now able to confirm a rumor that has circulated in South Carolina for years. South Carolina Lt. Governor André Bauer is a closeted anti-gay politician who stands to replace Mark Sanford should Sanford resign or be impeached (a real possibility as Sanford is caught in his own sex scandal.)
So, what is the deal with Bauer? I have confirmed and spoken to four individuals who I have no doubt are telling me the truth. These men have been hit on by Bauer, with one of them telling me it happened at least five times since Bauer’s election in 2003. To a varying degree I have met with and believe the sources. And, as you’ll recall, I have that 100% record.
This was still not enough for me to report on him. Then another call came in and I met with the source while he was visiting DC recently. “He’s gay,” the source told me.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because I’ve had sex with him on two separate occasions.” That too, was not enough for me to report on without confirmation from others. I was led on a path to chatting with acquaintances of the source and two former employees of Bauer who served on his staff between 2004 and 2007. They reported to me that on a total of three occasions Bauer spent hours alone with men in hotel rooms. Each of them explained that the visits were with younger men who were not on the staff of the Lt. Governor nor had any official reason to be with him. The two men each confirmed that they had not known each other and each described similar circumstances under which these interactions occurred. One of them confirmed that he was told by the Lt. Governor’s visitor he had a sexual encounter with Bauer.
Damn. Guess André will be holding off on that gubernatorial run.
A while back, we were told that all sorts of hell was going down at the S.C. Policy Council, because allegedly SCPC head Ashley Landess wouldn’t back a report taking Gov. Mark Sanford to task for his abuse of state planes. It’s finally come to a head, as we were told SCPC spokesman Bryan Cox left because of the issue.
The whole situation is pretty interesting, considering that the Policy Council chairman is none other than Rick Quinn. That naturally drags Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster into the mess, which could reflect badly on his gubernatorial ambitions. After all, what’s up with an organization that his political consultant is running pulling punches about Sanford?
Come on, Rick — ‘fess up. Why are you protecting America’s most-despised governor?
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dwight Drake seems to have some smart people working for him. The campaign debuted a new video this morning, and it didn’t take long for it to be featured on MSNBC, and network anchor David Shuster pimping it on Twitter.
We hope they’re not too smart, however. We’re still pulling for a rip-roaring Sheheen-Drake runoff next year.
Initially, it seemed like all the phones were taken away from House Republicans who were meeting for their annual get-together in Myrtle Beach. There were no tweets, no news stories, no nothing. The place looked like it was on lock down. That ended Saturday.
One of the first signals came from Rep. Alan Clemmons, who started tweeting without abandon.
Then came the stories. According to reports from the meeting, GOP legislators in the House are ready for Gov. Mark Sanford to go hike the Appalachian Trail, but an agreement on impeachment wasn’t made. Regardless, not one representative defended the Governor, which bodes ill for him.
As it stands right now, Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell is advocating for caution, waiting for the results of the investigation by the State Ethics Commission.
“Members of the caucus are disappointed in him, angry with him and in some ways disgusted by the whole thing and they want to deal with it and they want to deal with it as quickly as possible,” Harrell said to the Associated Press.
However, legislators are chomping at the bit to throw Sanford out.
From The State:
Rep. Greg Delleney: “We determine what serious misconduct is. We’re not dependent on courts. We’re not dependent on the Ethics Commission.”
Rep. Mike Pitts: “It’s almost unanimous for resignation. At this point, I don’t see a rational man who’s thinking clearly and is capable of leading this state.”
Rep. Bill Sandifer: “I would predict these attacks [by Sanford] will become more volatile and more vile as time moves along. I cannot trust this person to stay in office.”
Delleney was even more demonstrative in an AP story, saying “He has disgraced the office of governor of South Carolina. He has disgraced and brought shame on the state.” The representative is also drafting impeachment measures, saying that the Governor’s travel to meet his girl on the side was “premeditated dereliction of duty.”
According to Politico, House Republicans are writing an ultimatum to Sanford.
GOP state Rep. Michael Thompson told POLITICO that several state lawmakers are circulating and signing a letter that will be delivered to Sanford early next week demanding that he step down and threatening to move to impeach him if he does not.
“If he hasn’t resigned at this point I don’t think that he is,” Thompson said. “Whether or not when all the cards are on the table the legislature actually starts the proceedings is anyone’s guess.”
In other news, The State called Sanford “Gov. McAngry,” which, after its totally toothless coverage of state politics over the years, restores some amount of cool to the paper.
Apparently, S.C. political consulting firm Richard Quinn & Associates has a new media firm. Two Lantern Media (Robert Newman, for the win) was started up on Jan. 8, with RQ&A consultant Adam Piper as its registered agent (he was replaced by Harrison Brant in late June). However, in eight months, the group has done a grand total of six Web sites.
That’s right. Six.
And four don’t really count. The four sites were done for in-house parties The Palmetto Scoop, Rep. Rex Rice (who is an RQ&A client running for the Republican nomination for SC-03), Rice site stopdeficitspending.com and attorney general client Alan Wilson. The other two were for S.C. Club for Growth and GOP gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley. Our ol’ drunk wheelin’ friend McLovin said of his August redesign, “I absolutely love the design because it is crisp, clean, and offers easy access to the thing that keeps y’all coming back: Great content. I would like to extend a HUGE hand to the site’s designers, an up-and-coming firm in Columbia called Two Lantern Media. You can check out their own brand new website by clicking here.” Lordy. Transparency, thy name is Fogle.
As well, for a new media firm, its use of social networking has been pretty sad.
For instance, there’s the Two Lantern page on Facebook. It has one fan. Any guesses as to who that fan is?
Its performance on Twitter hasn’t been any better — two tweets. Period. A trained monkey running a company would do better than that.
Maybe these guys should have, oh, we don’t know, actually talked to a new media professional before launching this thing.
For the third time in as many days, Gov. Mark Sanford called a press conference to go on the offensive against his perceived opponents. Yes, there are people in the General Assembly who smell blood in the water and are setting their sights on the Governor. Of course. If Sanford hadn’t endorsed Will Folks’ proposal to declare war on more than half the GOP caucus last year, maybe things would be different.
But, the Governor cast his lot with the biggest douchebags in S.C. politics, and now his has to lay down in that bed. Thankfully, after days of asking, Sanford finally said he would waive confidentiality as it came to a State Ethics Commission investigation of his travel practices. However, according to the South Carolina Radio Network, the SEC has yet to receive notification from the Governor’s Office waiving its right to confidentiality. As well, there’s no confirmation that the investigation is going on, though per an SCRN tweet, the Governor’s Office has sent its paperwork to lift the veil on the real/potential investigation.
One of the most absurd things to happen Friday was when The State‘s John O’Connor asked Sanford a question, and he responded, “I don’t work for you.” It’s a good thing we weren’t a beat reporter for a paper there, because we would have hounded the d-bag-in-chief until he gave a genuine answer.
The Herald-Journal reporter Jason Spencer got a little torqued off, as we did, but did a much better job at explaining the situation:
Last I checked, reporters paid taxes and most, if not all, register to vote. They tend to take their civic responsibilities seriously.
Last I checked, many reporters were more informed about the processes of government than the average man on the street and, sometimes, even elected officials.
Last I checked, elected officials should look at EVERY reporter — from the smallest weekly to the largest daily — as virtually thousands of people rolled into one. People as in taxpayers, constituents, residents. It’s a bit of advice I got from an editor at the first weekly I worked at after college. The Internet only exponentially increases a news organization’s reach.
Last I checked, millions of people still rely on news organizations to not only report information, but to do so in the larger context of how that information is presented. (Sanford complained that The State reported on his current conflict, and not as much on the records his staff pulled on past administrations and even sitting lawmakers.)
Last I checked, newspapers still employee people in this state, pay taxes of their own and have to deal with travel budgets. Many of those travel budgets are shrinking or in some cases being eliminated — and they are wasted when media outlets send reporters all over the state for press conferences in which the person speaking refuses to answer any questions.
Last I checked, Elected Office 101 taught elected officials never to pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Or, today, has access to unlimited space online. Why? They’ll never get the last word. Ever.
And, last I checked, every reporter is keenly aware that it’s not always obvious ethical or other infractions that must be avoided — it’s the appearance of impropriety that can cost a someone his/her credibility.
Perhaps, governor, that last part is the most important lesson of all.
How the hell can Sanford get away with this? Sure, he may not like getting asked hard questions for once, but O’Connor is a resident of this state and is paid up on his taxes. That means that, yes, Sanford does work for him.
Somebody get Marky Mark a dose of laudanum and wake him up when he starts making sense. Because right now he’s not helping anybody out, least of which himself.
First off, Charleston attorney and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mullins McLeod put up an online petition asking for Gov. Mark Sanford to resign. Most people saw through his petition as a way to gain names and email addresses among people who want the Governor to step down, and who are sympathetic to Democratic gubernatorial candidates.
Hey, it worked. Good, for McLeod. But, a good turn deserves a copy. So, Columbia lobbyist Dwight Drake has started a petition of his own. This one requests a number of S.C. constitutional officers to impeach our total failure of a governor. The following is what appears on Drake’s Web site:
The South Carolina Constitution provides for the removal of a Governor who is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
According to Article IV, Section 12 (2), the state’s four constitutional officers – the attorney general, the secretary of state, the comptroller general and the state treasurer – can make that decision and make that declaration to the General Assembly. In fact, it only takes a simple majority of three to decide, then the General Assembly would need a 2/3 majority vote and he would be removed from office.
Yesterday I called on the Constitutional Officers to declare the Governor unable to serve, and begin the process of removal from office, Unfortunately, they haven’t gotten the message. They need to hear from you.
If you have had enough, if you’re tired of the sideshow, if you want to get our state moving again, then please sign the petition and send a message that Sanford can no longer serve.
We’ll be looking for something interesting happening in the near future.
U.S. Rep. Artur Davis is locked, loaded and ready to go. While most people (probably nine out of 10) would say that Alabama’s governor’s office is reserved for the winner of the Republican gubernatorial primary, Davis is making some unusual waves.
According to a poll by Capital Survey Research, an arm of the Alabama Education Association, Davis is beating every Republican candidate for the Yellowhammer State’s highest office. The whole thing is nuts. Davis leads his closest Democratic competition by 30 points, and going up on GOP opponents by as little as six points and as much as 12 points.
Per Political Parlor:
Gerald Johnson, Director of Capital Survey Research, briefed a meeting of Democratic Party County Chairs on this poll at last weekend’s DemExpo. Three attendees have acknowledged to the Political Parlor that Johnson said that the poll results showed Artur Davis led in head-to-head matchups against Democratic contender Ron Sparks and against each announced Republican candidate.
Somebody is going to have to circle the wagons among Alabama Republicans, otherwise Davis is going to ride this wave straight through to next November.
Ala. Gov. Bob Riley, who was at The Capstone the same time as one of my uncles and legendary quarterback Joe Namath, held a media availability in which he posed for pictures with state university mascots. You see, in Alabama, football is the closest thing to a religion you will find in the South.
Dave White of The Birmingham News captured that photo, which was accompanied by the following extended cutline:
University of Alabama mascot Big Al looms behind Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and Auburn University mascot Aubie on the Capitol steps in Montgomery this morning, just after Riley proclaimed Sept. 4 as College Colors Day. Many other state college mascots also joined Riley. The governor urged people to wear their favorite school’s colors. ”I just want to encourage everybody to go out, buy a cap, buy a T-shirt, buy something from your own university,” Riley said after visiting with the mascots. Aubie and Riley were holding the 2010 Aubie calendar. Riley is a 1965 University of Alabama graduate.
We’ve been reading “America’s Finest News Source,” The Onion, for neigh on 11 years, and never expected something we were politically close to would be featured on the site. Then, voilà, God said, “You shall have Mark Sanford to kick around, and he shall do incredibly stupid things, allowing for nationwide parody. Enjoy the chuckles.”
After thinking about it, nevermind the tubthumping for impeachment. Sure, Sanford has been a horrible governor, but the man’s a goldmine of jokes and news. Sixteen more months of that could be pretty entertaining.
