Ending political debates: A modest proposal

Back during the Republican gubernatorial primary campaign, after one of the many debates someone asked us if we watched. Internal response was, “Why the fuck would we?” External response was, “No.” It might have had a little bit to do with the candidates, but a whole lot to do with the office and level of political polishing. For most debates for higher office, they’re totally stone-cold boring and contain no new information. Just a competition to see who could most artfully chop up their stump speeches into timed segments. So let’s kill the debates.

Most of the presidential debates, and they began in the summer of 2007 for chrissakes, were just exercises in waiting for the freak candidate to say something weird or drinking games for people who find it hard to get obliterated without rules and points. In races with a lot of people, many candidates say very little and even less of actual import. They would be better served with covering themselves with bumper stickers and turning about for the cameras.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Vince Sheheen decided to a new twist on an exceptionally old trick — did the staff get high and approve this? — by challenging GOP nominee Nikki Haley to fucking Lincoln-Douglas debates. A whole mess of ‘em! And stories were written far and wide. This comprises the vast majority of all action regarding debates. Candidate A proposes something a little out of the ordinary. Candidate B says bah to that. Then so many news stories. It’s just a method to generate news coverage. As a result, most of the people who actually give a damn are those who are directly involved, and nobody else cares.

In that way, more than 90 percent of all political debates between candidates are little different than the presidential nominating conventions. No, they’re actually very much worse. Conventions have political memorabilia to buy, the occasional famous person sighting, entertainment by famous people (this applies mostly to Democrats, or to your definition of “famous”) and those wonderful hospitality parties thrown by big corporations and special interests that have the open bars and free food. Debates, even high-level debates, don’t come close. The best swag you’ll bring home is a press pass bought off some writer at the hotel bar. And about 90 minutes of sheer boredom.

Lower ballot race debates could be worthwhile, but if you’ve had to sit through multiple city council debates or watched State House candidates go at it in some back room in BFE with 11 people attending, you’d agree that the news value is negligible. Columbia would be better served by having the city candidates debate in front of the Metro desk reporters and save everyone else the trouble.

But here’s the connection between the debates and the conventions: as former DNC chairman Don Fowler taught us at Carolina, conventions never help a campaign and if they have effect, it’s bad. Fowler pointed to RNC ’92 in Houston and his own DNC ’88 in Atlanta as examples. The same goes for the debates. They’re only particularly newsworthy and have an effect on the campaign if somebody seriously fucks up, as in George H.W. Bush in ’92 in Richmond (looking at his watch) or Al Gore in 2000 (le sigh).

Discussions, like among the Pub Politics crew or the fabulous C-SPAN broadcast of William F. Buckley and George McGovern from several years ago are different matters altogether. People sitting down with different points of view and talking about them can elicit interesting commentary and analysis. And jokes that aren’t pre-scripted. Operatives, former pols, reporters who are allowed an opinion — Lee Bandy at the Dan Rather thing in ’08 was great — these are people close enough to the action to really know what’s going down, but removed enough to actually say something worth listening to.

But these candidate debates, they’re moribund, they’re out cold. It’s toe-tag time.

Posted by Wes Wolfe on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Filed under 2010 Constitutional Officers Races, 2010 Governor's Race, 2012 S.C. Republican Presidential Primary Race, Featured, Front Page, S.C. Democratic Party, S.C. Government, S.C. Republican Party, SC House, SC Senate, U.S. House, U.S. Senate · Tagged with Debates, Election '10, Elections, Nikki Haley, Vince Sheheen

Bright stirs up the silly again

We don’t know of one legislative caucus that abides by the Freedom of Information Act laws that extend to their respective governing bodies. Usually, the public finds out about what happens in caucus meetings because of leaks from legislators and staffers. So it struck us as odd and yet apropos that Sen. Lee Bright, who rarely makes a decision that stands up to scrutiny, would announce to the world that he’ll no longer attend Senate Republican Caucus meetings that have more than 23 members attending.

How did this decision come about? Well, he was a part of a three-legislator group that appointed people to the Holly Springs Volunteer Fire Department commission who are in the hottest of water for aggressively conducting government business in secret. Now he’s shocked by the whole ordeal and seemingly flinging darts at the wall to figure out what the appropriate response should be.

Bright said he’s learned a lot about the FOIA during the summer-long Holly Springs controversy — and he now realizes the extent that law is abused.

The FOIA defines “meeting” as the convening of a quorum. “Quorum” is defined as a simple majority.

For the five-member Holly Springs board, three people constitute a quorum, and therefore, must make the proper public and media notices about meetings and make those meetings open to the public.

South Carolina has 46 state senators, which means 24 make up a quorum.

[...]

When asked about how the FOIA cannot apply when a quorum of a public body is present, Donehue produced a 2005 memo from the Senate Research Office. The four-page document concludes the FOIA doesn’t apply because the caucus itself doesn’t fit the definition of a public body.

However, a 17-page opinion from state Attorney General Henry McMaster a year later found otherwise.

Let’s analyze this. Caucuses are not standing committees or special committees, and state party caucuses especially deal with political matters where official government votes are not taken, nor is official state business conducted. And if you apply the law the way it seems it would be applied by McMaster’s opinion, a party caucus with more than half the members of the chamber would be subject to the law, while the minority party, or parties, would have more leeway to skirt it. The whole thing doesn’t make sense.

We — and this is a first — don’t buy the S.C. Press Association’s opinion either, that the caucus could simply go into executive session. It seems that the executive session provisions would also be problematic. And in that light, let’s take Bright’s theory down the road to its logical conclusion.

1. The majority party caucus cannot meet without thorough documentation and openness to the general public.
2. Therefore, an arctic chill will descend on the ability of the caucus to properly discuss its operations regarding political strategy, organization and other such activities.
3. Where the fuck and when the hell is the majority party supposed to conduct its business? Conference call? Listserv? What happens when there needs to be a meeting in the middle of a session?
4. Ergo, this idea is a big bowl of dumbassery.

Laws are rarely perfect and always open to interpretation. The FOIA law isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t take a gaggle of attorneys to see the law was imperfectly written and the current enforcement procedure makes the most sense. Then again, Bright and sense are rarely seen together, so we really shouldn’t be that surprised.

Posted by Wes Wolfe on Monday, August 16, 2010 at 5:08 am
Filed under Featured, Front Page, Media, S.C. Government, SC Senate · Tagged with Dumbassery, Freedom of Information Act, Lee Bright, S.C. Senate Republican Caucus, transparency

The slippery, sliding South Carolinians

In light of what Sen. Hugh Leatherman wants to do with capping tuition increases, it’s funny to think about the sort of world that would happen if the S.C. Policy Council would get its way. After all, the SCPC has seen little of any government – public sector – spending that it likes. And it seems to have a hard-on for defunding all public education in South Carolina, whether it’s K-12 or higher ed.

Now, we’re pretty sure of our audience. We’re pretty sure y’all trade in argumentative fallacies, logical fallacies, the sort of ways about speaking of one’s position that are easily broken apart by level-headed thinking and basic common sense. But those arguments are the bread-and-butter of politics. They’re what you’ll see in handouts, mail pieces, advertisements, stump speeches and stand-up comedy routines.

So let’s have some fun with the Policy Council.

One big player this year, and probably in the GOP presidential primary race, is former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Newt’s a big fan of alternate history, along with writing partner and author William R. Forstchen. Let’s do a bit of alternate future, aye?

Beginning, the SCPC gets what it wants. Government in South Carolina, as we knew it, is gone. No statewide law enforcement, regulation, everything. The Palmetto State falls into “failed state” status as much as we all learned in early-level political science classes. The federal government, fed up with our antics and devoid of S.C. federal officials who will cooperate with the federal government, gives up on us. We devolve into a weird combination of post-1992 Somalia, 18th century Russia and plutocratic rule and a theocracy.

South Carolina does have a government, at its basic form, but it’s really strange. Ceding to people who have been involved, we have multiple capitals. Amalgamated Industry & Agriculture, the corporate group that handles everything dealing with money and commerce, buys the State House complex and handles disputes in Columbia. The rest of the United States and the world consider this the “Commerce Capital.”

A strong band of armed social conservatives claim part of the power vacuum for itself, establishing a ruling order in the Upstate to handle every vice and everything you do with your naughty, naughty genitals. Originally located in Greenville, a breakaway, fundamentalist group establishes a new religious government in Spartanburg. So now you have two groups of statewide religious police checking up on you. Be careful, brother.

The Grand Strand is ceded to North Carolina, and Hilton Head is ceded to Georgia. Too many people were having trouble figuring how to work Yankee-heavy areas into our new combination of free markets and religious fundamentalism. Yankees who feel like they belong apply, and are given permanent resident status, as long as they absolve all fealty to the Big Ten, the NBA and anything regarding to sports north of Baltimore or west of Austin. Being a hockey fan is considered a capital crime.

Congress, working slowly but worked into a frenzy because of the developments, sends Georgia and North Carolina national guard units to run border patrol. Initially, powered by Twitter and Facebook, many moderates, liberals, intellectuals, artists and other sorts took off for Charlotte and Savannah before the borders close. Rural residents and sportsmen who know the border regions and are friendly to criminals who become known as “RINOs,” “Democrats,” “educators,” “reporters,” “musicians,” “good-time Johnnys” and “those who are too big for their britches” are under special scrutiny from the Upstate moralist squads.

As the situation unfolds from the mountains to the river, Charleston figures out what’s up, organizes a government unto itself and rejoins the United States, a historical irony by itself. A city-state of a fashion, the Commonwealth of Charleston maintains its connection to America, but with an independence that befits the Holy City and its denizens. CC takes within its bounds all of Charleston County, and parts of neighboring cities and counties. The Jasper County port situation, to put it mildly, becomes a little more complicated. And by complicated, we mean issues with all-powerful corporations, multiple governmental entities and firearms. Wait – nevermind. That’s exactly how it is now.

Oh, the more things change….

Posted by Wes Wolfe on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 4:48 am
Filed under 2010 Constitutional Officers Races, 2010 Governor's Race, 2012 S.C. Republican Presidential Primary Race, Featured, Front Page, Governor Mark Sanford, Media, New media, Now for something completely different, Other news, S.C. Democratic Party, S.C. Government, S.C. Republican Party, SC House, SC Senate · Tagged with

Tuition cap simply the beginning

The picture, a fog-bound Horseshoe at the University of South Carolina. It’s a good showing of higher education in South Carolina, at least for the last couple decades. Before we graduated from high school, we heard from more than one Carolina student — and this was prior to June 1999 — that USC was way, way more expensive for in-staters than North Carolina or Virginia. Granted, we’re not going to bust our asses to see what the average tuition was for USC, UNC and UVa were for fall 1999, but we’ve got this. So, let’s bring on the AP.

An education group says South Carolina’s public colleges charge the highest tuition among 16 Southern states.

The Post & Courier of Charleston reported Sunday that median tuition at South Carolina four-year public schools was $8,400 for the 2008-09 school year. That compares with $4,174 in North Carolina and $4,032 in Georgia.

The figures were reported by the Southern Regional Education Board. The board says part of the reason for the high tuition is because state lawmakers do not fund South Carolina public colleges at the same level as North Carolina and Georgia.

State funding at South Carolina colleges was about $4,800 a student in 2008-09. That compared with more than $11,500 per student in North Carolina and about $7,800 per student in Georgia.

Oh, really? South Carolina lawmakers are not spending on public education to the same level of other Southern states? Jesus, man, you’re blowing our minds right here. Goddamn — we guess that we missed that entire situation while spending 2.5 years in K-12 and three years in higher ed in the Palmetto State. That whole issue missed us entirely.

It doesn’t take a graduate from a college way the hell off the Interstate to tell you that South Carolina doesn’t do dick for its higher education students of a lower income (among other things) compared to North Carolina, Georgia, or especially Virginia, where we transferred from. No kidding — if UVa had as good of a public relations program as Carolina did in 2001-2002, we would be the bastards making Va. Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli‘s life a living hell. But, unfortunately for Mussolini, er, Cuccinelli, we’re here, trying to help people out.

The fact is, though the rotten core would like to dispute it, Sen. Hugh Leatherman‘s idea of capping state college tuition hikes at 7.3 percent is the least anyone can do, but it’s taking one of the most powerful members of the General Assembly to do just that. Even The Post & Courier, whose editorial board must get Christmas cards from both Mark and Jenny Sanford, says that Leatherman is making a needed move.

Many students at our colleges graduate deeply in debt. And that was before the state’s institutions of higher learning upped tuition by as much as 14.8 percent.

There is no question that colleges, like every state agency and almost every business and family, are in a financial pinch. And there is no question that South Carolina would suffer if its colleges were unable to attract and educate people to take on challenging careers in a state actively courting new industry and business.

State colleges have seen state allocations decline over the years as a percentage of their budgets, and that’s occurred more precipitately with the current drop in state revenue. As a result, colleges are more likely to increase tuition to counter the shortfall. College officials should resist the urge, recognizing that students are dealing with the tough economy, too.

Even if students are able to manage higher costs through government loans, it only delays the pain.

This year, the College of Charleston has approved a whopping 14.8 percent hike; The Citadel, a hefty 13 percent jump; and Clemson, 7.5 percent.

Perhaps Sen. Leatherman has overstepped his authority by threatening to deal with state’s colleges and universities in the next budget go-round. But who else has been willing to take up the cause of struggling students and their families?

Just like the P&C, to take a shot at Leatherman to please the Sanford moneymen (and moneywomen). Here’s an idea — help people without a shit-ton of money, but good grades, get into college. You know, merit. Don’t give people who have the benefit of name and money initial admission. South Carolina is good on academic scholarships, so we should try getting need-based grants and loans in line with other Southern states. Because, and this is just a minor idea, South Carolina could lose its best and brightest to other states, while keeping its rich and asinine in-state.

Posted by Wes Wolfe on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 3:08 am
Filed under Featured, Front Page, Governor Mark Sanford, Media, SC Senate · Tagged with Georgia, Higher education, Hugh Leatherman, North Carolina, South Carolina, The Post & Courier, Virginia

General Assembly on pace to tackle illegal immigration

Wednesday, a U.S. district judge suspended a number of measures in Arizona’s new law to combat illegal immigration, which has thrown more gasoline on the fire, as if the issue needed it. We’ve never cared too much about the immigration issue — the people who care will fight it out and we’ll accept what comes down. But this ruling could have an impact on other states considering similar laws.

In her temporary injunction, Bolton delayed the most contentious provisions of the law, including a section that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws. She also barred enforcement of parts requiring immigrants to carry their papers and banned illegal immigrants from soliciting employment in public places — a move aimed at day laborers that congregate in large numbers in parking lots across Arizona. The judge also blocked officers from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.

One of those states, naturally enough, is South Carolina. During the last legislative session, Sen. Larry Grooms sponsored a bill crafted on the Arizona legislation, and is looking to file a bill on the issue for next year.

“I’m not going to sponsor legislation that the court has said is unconstitutional,” he said. “But if we find out there legal problems with what Arizona has enacted, we’ll be able to work around it.”

Grooms said a test vote in the Senate on a budget provision that was similar to the Arizona law garnered more than two-thirds support, a sign that such a measure would pass the Legislature.

In a release Wednesday afternoon, Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell appeared absolutely committed to getting illegal immigration legislation passed, which means that it’s likely that it will be at the top of the list for the 2011 agenda. Considering the heat surrounding the issue nationally, it may define parts of next year’s session not devoted to another tough budget battle.

“We see today’s decision as only the first step in an important legal struggle,” McConnell said. “This ruling will not deter me from continuing to work on this issue. I am committed to continuing full steam to have a bill ready for the Senate and for us to pass a stronger Arizona style immigration bill when we return in January.”

Posted by Wes Wolfe on Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 5:21 am
Filed under Featured, Front Page, SC Senate · Tagged with Arizona, Glenn McConnell, Illegal immigration, Larry Grooms

Southern legislators headed to Charleston

Saturday, legislators from across the South will be meeting in Charleston for the 64th annual Southern Legislative Conference so that they might return to their respective states with a little better ideas as to how to tackle issues that address the region. Off the top of our heads, some things that have needed attention for years are the neglect of public schools since desegregation, really trying to do more to move beyond manufacturing for a job base and totally restructuring the tax system. Alabama is really bad about this, since its constitution is even worse than ours, but South Carolina is doing things with the Taxation Realignment Commission. Maybe some lessons can be taken from that.

Beyond the event being held in the Lowcountry, South Carolina flavor is all over this year’s conference. Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell is the conference chairman, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham will speak at the opening plenary session, while U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn will hold court at the closing plenary. The conference, which was paid for by donations from businesses, is expected to generate about $3.5 million for the local economy.

“This event will bring in thousands of new visitors and will create a multi-million dollar economic boost for our state,” Harrell said in a statement. “For many of the conference guests, this will be their first trip to our state and we hope our hospitality makes return visitors out of many of them.”

Part of the conference is indeed showing off local attractions — Charles Towne Landing, the South Carolina Aquarium, Dunes West (which we haven’t been to in 19 years, but it must still be nice, right?), the Culinary Institute of Charleston and nearby museums, among other things. That makes it seem like a relaxing few days in the Holy City, with some meetings in between. Oh, ho, would that be a mistake assumption. A cursory look at the agenda shows that, yeah, this means all sorts of work. Committees here and committees there on every type of public policy, meetings on this, that and the other. They’re going to have to play nine at Dunes West just to readjust.

And — oh, yeah — Darius Rucker is playing.

Posted by Wes Wolfe on Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 4:48 am
Filed under Featured, Front Page, Other news, SC House, SC Senate · Tagged with Ben Bernanke, Bobby Harrell, Darius Rucker, Jim Clyburn, Lindsey Graham, Southern Legislative Conference

Gibbs takes off from Holly Springs VFD commission

Changes are going down in the Holly Springs VFD commission, and perhaps the strange dealings may be coming to an end. If you recall:

…those commissioners are appointed by Sens. Lee Bright and Shane Martin and Rep. Joey Millwood. From what we’ve been told about the four appointments, not everything’s been on the up-and-up, which is simply shocking when it comes to a couple savants like Bright and Millwood. It’s all a bit Byzantine, but hang with us here. First of all, when it was time for applications for a couple of the positions, they were not supposed to be allowed after Jan. 1. But, these got passed through. They were Clarence Gibbs, who owns Inman Realty, and Roscoe Kyle, a retired police officer. First, Gibbs employs Kelly Waters, who is another commissioner. Second, commissioner Ryan Phillips has a home loan with Gibbs. Third, Kyle grows crops on Gibbs’ property and is pals with him and Phillips.

The good news is that Gibbs has left the commission, so there’s some progress being made. Maybe in the coming weeks, it might open up more to Freedom of Information Act requests and basic government transparency measures. And perhaps because of this, Gibbs said in The Herald-Journal that he’ll be freed up to say what he wants and still interact with the commission without being subjected to those little irritants that let people in the district know what the hell is going on.

This surely won’t be the end of this story, but it’ll be interesting to see how the tempest in a teapot will end up.

Posted by Wes Wolfe on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Filed under Featured, Front Page, Other news, SC House, SC Senate · Tagged with Clarence Gibbs, Holly Springs Fire Department, Inman Realty, Joey Millwood, Kelly Waters, Lee Bright, Roscoe Kyle, Ryan Phillips, Shane Martin

TRAC develops new taxation plan

The Taxation Realignment Commission is in the final stretch of its task to examine and offer common sense changes to the state tax code. Just getting the mission of TRAC through the General Assembly was not unlike pulling teeth when it came up, but it now could be the time that simplifications to the South Carolina tax system are ready to go. Wednesday, TRAC gave approval to a number of changes that will be up for final approval later this year.

For the most part, it’s advocating repealing sales tax exemptions for a whole host of products, including newspaper, groceries, cars, prescription drugs and some Internet sales. Certainly, that’s going to irritate some people, because no one likes to spend money if they don’t have to. But, it all evens out. Actually, the overall sales tax burden will drop, and the state is projected to receive the same amount of revenue. Sounds like a win, right?

Just like this year and the last, tough decisions had to be made in regard to funding, across the board. The idea behind TRAC was to get some of the best minds in the state around a table to take a hard look at our tax structure and make educated, hard decisions. If the commissioners came out with a report brimming with unicorns and lollipops, something would be wrong. Hopefully when this comes to a conclusion, legislators will keep in mind that it’s time for hard decisions and not everything is black and white.

Posted by Wes Wolfe on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Filed under Featured, Front Page, S.C. Government, SC House, SC Senate · Tagged with Sales tax, taxation realignment commission, TRAC

Howard Rich returns, Pt. Three: The Democrats

Perhaps seeing where the power lines are drawn, or simply making a few selections, Howard Rich’s support of Democrats was a little anemic, but still interesting. We enjoyed the obvious support of Sen. Robert Ford’s gubernatorial bid, and the only dollars to a senate account we could find — Darrell Jackson.

ROBERT FORD
Democrat, governor, lost primary
Contributions: $23,542.15
(In-kind: $3,491.15)
Expenditures: $67,836.28
Cash on hand: $33,972.28

Significant contributions
123 Lasalle Associates, $3,500
Howard Rich shell company
123 Lasalle Inc., $3,500
Howard Rich shell company
Rich Lending Corporation, $3,500
Howard Rich shell company
Leon Howard, $200
State representative
Clementa Pinckney, $250
State senator
Kent Williams, $250
State senator
SCRG PAC, $3,492.15
School choice organization
188 Claremont LLC, $3,500
Howard Rich shell company
Terry Alexander, $350
State representative
Gerald Malloy, $500
State senator
Darrell Jackson, $500
State senator