We get a lot of weird emails over here, and this is the fruit of one of the weirdest, and most entertaining. Behold, the rhyme of the S.C. primary.
“We Got a Primary”
Jim Clyburn robo-callin’ me all day like a stalker ex
Vinny Sheheen sayin’ ain’t no runoff with Jim Rex
Kelly Payne damn changin’ the game for ed
Joe Wilson all “You lie” — oh, no, that’s what Haley said
What, what — it’s the primary down here in S.C.
What, what, got CNN, Chuck Todd, MSNBC
What, what, got Jakie Knotts, two more shots, burning crosses in Santee
What, what, know Wes Wolfe can only vote absentee
Callin’ all you Tea Party yellow coiled snake flag wavers
McMaster clowns got Will Folks doin’ Andre Bauer favors
Got emails, videos, private eyes out takin’ pictures
Bill Connor goin’ all “Too much of this” on Larry Richter
Everybody tweetin’ “Where the party at tomorrow evenin’?”
Bauer got a bus full of young chicks, cross the state line he leavin’
What, what it’s the primary down in Succa-lina
What, what, got national politicos sayin’ “Mmmmmm, nothin’ fine-uh”
What, what, got Gina Smith and her homeboy John O’Connah
What, what, got a primary down in Succa-lina
What, what, got a primary down in Succa-line
In our last post regarding the circumstances that Larry Marchant was forced out from Lt. Gov. André Bauer‘s gubernatorial campaign, we wrote that the phrase “inappropriate conduct” was loaded like a turducken. Indeed it was. Marchant, a lobbyist and political consultant, told the Associated Press Wednesday that he and Rep. Nikki Haley knocked boots in the Beehive State.
Marchant says their one-night stand happened in 2008 during a trip to Utah. He was married then and still is.
Earlier Wednesday, Marchant resigned from the campaign of gubernatorial hopeful Andre Bauer, the state’s lieutenant governor.
Haley is a mother of two who says she has always been faithful in 13 years of marriage.
Let’s see — Will Folks, Marchant, did she go for the sleazeball Sanfordite trifecta with another guy, or just limit it to these to gentlemen?
Well, isn’t that interesting. News broke late Wednesday afternoon, courtesy of The Post & Courier, that Lt. Gov. André Bauer has nixed political consultant/lobbyist Larry Marchant‘s association with his gubernatorial campaign (guess that Bauer sign outside of 3020 Devine will be removed soon). And it’s not your everyday difference of opinion type thing that often leads to the firing of consultants.
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Andre Bauer said today he has asked for and received the resignation of a political consultant for “inappropriate conduct” but would say little more.
[...]
His news release contained no specifics. “We asked for and received the resignation,” Bauer spokesman Hank Page said in an e-mail. “Beyond that, we will have no further comment.”
Oh, “inappropriate conduct.” A phrase more loaded than a turducken. Somebody please start leaking soon. There’s got to be a great story here.
The title to this post comes from the Charleston City Paper‘s Chris Haire, who seems to get just as fired up about RedState’s Erick Erickson, the Viking, as we do. The tweet pretty much ruined our morning, as we planned on laying down and listening to podcasts all morning, which is how we enjoy spending our weekend mornings. Now we’re ending up writing this while listening to audio of Thursday’s “Pardon the Interruption.” Dammit.
So, Erickson responded to comments on his post. It was fucking painful to read.
I can’t say that I am surprised by the level of aggravation and acrimony in the comments of my “Letting the Chips Fall” post. I certainly promised more than I delivered. You should have seen the first six drafts. They were much better.
Six drafts? Really? What is he, a bad writer in an English 101 class? And they were better? Maybe he should have run with one of those half-dozen, then.
For the few cheery souls remaining, I appreciate that you got the point — it’s exactly what Will Folks has been doing, but doing in a ridiculous third person narrative. The emails and phone calls from people in the media wanting to know when exactly I was going to do the big reveal on this were more than a little illuminating.
OK, so while trying to raise money for a candidate in a state in which he does not live, and knows even less about, he talks big and delivers nothing and that was the point? Hey, we have a public relations degree. We know spin when we see it, especially bad spin. And goddamn, this is bad spin. Then he goes into his bad argument again.
Look — if you told us we would be spending all this time sticking up for the gubernatorial campaign of Lt. Gov. André Bauer, we would have told you that you were nuts. But here we are again. Here’s how Erickson came up with his theory that the Bauer campaign was behind all this: He references the well-known fact that Will Folks worked with Rod Shealy four years ago. Then, he sites the well-known belief that Sen. Jake Knotts had a guy investigating political opponents who were, and this is important, out to get him. And to back it all up, what does Erickson do? He sites a Harper’s article from three years ago, and year-old posts from Wheels, who was then and is now a paid consultant of Richard Quinn & Associates, the firm behind Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster‘s gubernatorial campaign.
It — it boggles the mind. The man is an uninformed fool. We haven’t chimed in on the Tim James mess as it deals with the Alabama gubernatorial election. Know why? We don’t know enough. Just reading what shows up in news stories and blogs does not make you informed. It comes from discussions with people in the know, people not in the know, and generally living in the eye of the storm.
As we’ve said before, it’s one thing to make an educated guess, but it’s quite another to spend 30 minutes on Google and think you’ve solved the mystery behind a political scandal. Just about every political insider in Columbia thinks Erickson has no fucking idea what he’s talking about. Might be a clue.
Oh, this is rich. RedState‘s Erick Erickson, the Viking lord of the interwebs, wrote yesterday that he had talked to a lot of people and that he definitively knew that Will Folks got paid to out his relationship with Rep. Nikki Haley. Today, at the grand unveiling, he had a whole bunch of nothing, part of which was predicated on a post by, of all people, Wheels and his defunct blog. The whole post is a miasma of educated guesses, which is a lot of what we do over here. The difference is that Erickson is viewing the situation from afar, which means, as one tweet put it, that he’s clueless.
He’s laying the whole thing at the feet of Lt. Gov. André Bauer, because of Rod Shealy and Jake Knotts, the end. Really. No talk of when Folks was paid, how he was paid, how much he was paid and who did the paying. Erickson did lay this bit of knowledge:
Then there is Jake Knotts who allegedly hired a private investigator to dig into Will Folks and who is rumored to be responsible for the rumored picture. Knotts also helped in the Bauer Palace Coup. Note that in the same blog post at the Palmetto Scoop about Knott’s involvement to help Bauer, Adam Fogle wrote the quote, “Bauer seems to have cut some kind of deal with blogger Bill Folks.”
Pfft. No shit Knotts hired a guy. In the process of running down the hit list story, he said things about knowing about meetings at certain locations, among other information, that could only be gleaned by a private dick. We think it had a lot more to do with Gov. Mark Sanford and the political machinations going on there, though. The man said it himself, “You don’t investigate an investigator.” He was a top-notch narcotics cop for years. You think he doesn’t have a wide network of pals and resources to draw on? Whether there was a guy scoping out Folks’ residence and catching Folks and Haley in flagrante delicto can only be borne out if such information comes to light.
Erickson’s post, in its entirety, though, just reeks of someone trying to talk about the dark corners of S.C. politics that guys like us live in, while not really knowing anything about them. It’s like Bill Plaschke discussing Southeastern Conference football. And worse, he promised and didn’t deliver. Try again next time.
The tables have been turned in the money race in the campaign for the Republican nomination for governor. Lt. Gov. André Bauer, after trailing for much of the race, has jumped out in front. For the past several periods, it was U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, followed by Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster, but no longer. Not only did Bauer raise the most money between April 1 and the pre-election report, but he has the most money on hand as the campaign enters the homestretch. Though Rep. Nikki Haley received some money via out-of-staters Sarah Palin and Erick Erickson recently (can’t trust Vikings or Alaskans, can you?), it’s doubtful she can even come close to the front-runners.
GRESHAM BARRETT
Contributions: $209,046.47
(In kind: $18,050.15)
Expenditures: $1,127,641.46
Cash on hand: $647,626.59
Significant contributions
Haynesworth Sinkler Boyd State-Local PAC, $3,500
Political action committee
Citizens United Political Victory Fund, $500
Political action committee
The Presidential Coalition LLC, $500
Political action committee allied with Citizens United
Katrina Shealy, $100, $50
Former state Senate candidate
Cynthia Costa, $500, $250
RNC committeewoman
Daniel Rickenmann, $400
Columbia city councilman
James Edwards, $1,200
Former governor
South Carolina Good Government Committee, $3,500
PAC of the S.C. Chamber of Commerce
Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, $2,000
Insurance company
Virgil Goode for Congress, $250
Campaign committee
Cash American International, $1,500
Payday lending company
Burnie Maybank, $500
Former head, S.C. Department of Revenue
Significant disbursements
Creative Communications (media buy), $45,350, $244,763, $152,288, $128,926, $84,012, $8,000, $59,658
Scott F. Talley PA (legal fees), $2,500
Thompson Creative (media production), $25,233.50, $20,139.43
Ayres, McHenry & Associates (research), $16,194
Under the Power Lines (Web services), $2,750, $500, $2,500, $250, $2,750
First Tuesday Strategies (political consulting), $5,000×3, $350, $3,000
Drea Byers (fundraising consulting), $6,000×2
Starboard Communications (printing), $1,437.99, $8,872.26, $4,470.66, $355
On The Mark (printing), $359.52, $273.49, $270.92
LDR Services (media consulting), $25,966.54
HENRY MCMASTER
Contributions: $141,7905
(In kind: $14,135)
Expenditures: $1,029,613.03
Cash on hand: $545,443.81
Significant contributions
Kristin Maguire, $1,000
Former chairwoman, state board of education
Arthur Ravenel, $250
Former U.S. representative
Jason Zacher, $75
Public relations professional
Haynesworth Sinkler Boyd PA, $3,500
Law firm
George Shissias, $500
Power broker
Significant expenditures
BMH Consulting (expenses, consulting), $1,812.91, $7,620, $2,448, $1,623.77, $649.35, $5,756, $3,800, $321.44
Campaign Services (printing), $5,927.50, $1,451
Strategy Group for Media (media buy), $37,000, $252,874, $42,315, $70,470, $202,980, $215,480
Connell Donatelli (Web site), $3,933.93
Richard Quinn & Associates (tech, rent, expenses), $4,138.73, $29,663.09
Conquest Communications (telemarketing), $4,229.56
Campaign Solutions (Web site), $14,479.44, $4,398.48
The Philips Group (fundraising), $22,666
ANDRÉ BAUER
Contributions: $274,315.26
(In kind: $6,755.40)
Expenditures: $943,315.55
Cash on hand: $736,394.76
Significant contributions
Ravenel Development Corporation, $3,500
Developer
Steven Mungo, $1,000
Developer
Thomas Ravenel, $500
Former state treasurer
Significant expenditures
Dresner, Wickers & Associates (media buy), $114,100, $1,848.99, $8,940, $139,000, $130,400, $146,700
Alexon IT (Web site), $927.39, $704
SCPR Associates (sign supplies), $1,800, $9,621
S&S Strategies (film production, consulting), $14,933.74, $5,340.21, $3,000
Black Label Strategies (consulting), $2,125.50
NIKKI HALEY
Contributions: $102,761.82
(In kind: $7,604.33)
Expenditures: $245,426.51
Cash on hand: $387,347.85
Significant contributions
John Cattano, $1,000
Former S.C. Republican Party Treasurer
S.C. Club for Growth PAC, $3,500
Political action committee
Chad Walldorf, $3,500
Chairman of S.C. Club for Growth
Significant expenditures
Red Sea (ads, consulting), $161,573.15, $15,000
As the day has gone on, there have been two reactions to the alleged affair between Rep. Nikki Haley and Will Folks that have been turning around in our mind — something that usually means there’s something to it. One is a conclusion some people are coming to as to the reason that Folks went public with his allegation this morning. It concerns one of the other candidates in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Lt. Gov. André Bauer.
We saw a blog comment about it and already fielded a phone call discussing the possibility. The thinking goes like this: whether the affair did or didn’t happen, the impetus for going forward this close to the primary is motivated by trying to help another campaign. Folks’ prior relationship with consultant Rod Shealy (an “unofficial campaign adviser”) and with lobbyist/consultant Larry Marchant (one of Bauer’s consultants of record) had a few tongues wagging. We’re not sold on it.
There are a number of reasons. One is that Folks has all but publicly fellated Haley on his sites since leaving Gov. Mark Sanford‘s employ, while fairly regularly raking Bauer over the coals. This isn’t a clean bill of health on possibly helping Bauer, but it does suggest a high improbability. Then there’s the fact that the Free Times story has been in the works for weeks. As we’ve said before, Folks’ post has all the earmarks of trying to get out ahead of a story than trying to make news on his own. The FT story would have come out regardless.
Also, the length of the rumors. We first heard about it in 2008, when reports of her car regularly outside his house were traveling around political circles. According to FT, the rumor caught fire at the State House early last year. As Rep. Todd Rutherford says in the story, the rumored affair wasn’t exactly a secret. All of these factors lead us to think there’s no connection to the Bauer campaign.
The other matter is former The State editorial page editor Brad Warthen‘s reaction to the scandal. Up front, we’ve met him several times and consider Warthen a nice, intelligent guy. But sometimes he’s so head-slappingly naïve — or dare we say, self-righteous — it reminds us of why bad journalism can come from “major” newspapers, whose reporters tend to develop a none-too-healthy sense of entitlement, unless they already brought it to the table.
Exhibit One is his rant against “the Wonkette.” We thought it was a joke at first, like how people purposefully incorrectly say, “the Internets.” After a while, it was pretty clear that wasn’t a mistake. Since Ana Marie Cox left the site, there have been multiple editors and writers. It even left the Gawker empire. His main bone to pick is that it makes prurient jokes and drops f-bombs. Well, somebody call Miss Manners, because we have a full-blown goddamn crisis on our hands.
Between the ages of 12 and 16, we barely swore at all. Know what changed that? A year of working in politics. In the words of one of our ex-girlfriends, Warthen should put on his big-girl panties and stop the bitching. You want to know why we write like we do, with all sorts of sweariness, cynicism and dark jokes? That’s how we talk, and think. That’s how our friends talk, too. How exactly did Ned Flanders cover political matters in South Carolina for years and still think like he does?
The other bit is the posts about the Folks-Haley hullabaloo. It reads like something straight out of the ivory tower.
“Just to acknowledge the unsavory thing buzzing around on Twitter and the Web this morning (which Doug Ross brings up obliquely on a previous post) — now that the MSM has bowed to the inevitable and reported on it — I provide this place for you to discuss the implications.
I’m not going to mention the particulars. You can find them here, more or less.
Personally, I just hate the fact that I even heard about it. Something like this is to news what ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is to cinema.”
“The interesting thing about this case is that we see someone who respects nothing about other people turning that same disrespect upon himself and taking perverse pride in doing so, even as he drags others down. Sort of a scorpion and the frog thing. The whole thing is terribly unpleasant to watch, and you just feel bad for all concerned.”
“This whole thing takes us to such an inappropriate place — we shouldn’t even be having this conversation — that I guess my appropriateness meter is on the blink.”
“Here are links to some of the things being written today as a result of one SC blogger essentially saying of a female candidate, ‘Yeah, I tapped that.’ (What, you know of a classier way to put it? Please share, because I’m at a loss as we all go swirling down the flushing toilet together in this sordid mess.)”
Come on. This is South Carolina politics. If you can’t stand the hardball, don’t suit up.
The big news today is the latest Rasmussen poll on the Republican gubernatorial race, showing that Rep. Nikki Haley is in the lead with 30 percent, followed by Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster at 19 percent, U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett at 17 and Lt. Gov. André Bauer showing up at 12 percent. Haley’s Tea Party supporters are wetting their pants at this news, but we have a word for this sort of thing: “boomlet.” You don’t go to fourth to first in a week without that support being very, very weak.
Sorry to burst your bubble, kids, but the reason these sort of things happen — a fairly unknown candidate getting a big gain — is because that candidate gets a lot of earned media without being properly challenged or having their record adequately questioned, and voters can project whatever they want on that candidate. You see it all the time in presidential primaries.
There’s about three weeks until the primary. If Haley even makes it into the runoff, much less pulls anything like 30 percent, we’ll eat a bowl of improperly-cleaned chitlins.
The other Haley news of the week is how her campaign — wait, ReformSC — was totally pwn3d in court on Wednesday as a judge ordered the Sanford shell organization to pull their ads that are basically campaign ads for Gov. Mark Sanford‘s hand-picked successor.
Circuit Court Judge J. Mark Hayes II said in his temporary restraining order that the allegations from Barrett and three donors to ReformSC, which funded the ads, indicate — if true — a “coordinated scheme” that appears to be “intentionally designed to unlawfully evade accountability measures required by South Carolina law.”
The cherry on top of this cupcake of wonderful is that the attorney for the plaintiffs was none other than former Rep. Scott Talley, who encountered such coordinated schemes among the Sanford cabal to back his opponent for the GOP nomination for Senate, Sen. Lee Bright. So, it’s not hard to say that he knew exactly what he was doing and how to do it. The real damning part is that three ReformSC donors (Dan Adams, Jim Agostini and Russell Phelon) came forward to be a part of the suit. If it’s anything like it was when we looked into the organization a couple years ago, it only has so many couples, and a few individuals, providing it with its cash.
In granting the injunction, the judge writes something particularly pertinent: “As such, while this Court acknowledges the political setting from which the allegations arise, the Court cannot ignore the significance of the alleged unlawful conduct and evidence rendered by the Plaintiffs in this matter. Simply stated, a judge’s failure to act when he should act can be an abandonment of his duty, as Chief Justice Roberts analogized, as the referrer of justice. More importantly a judge’s failure to act due to the power or influence of those associated with alleged unlawful conduct is never acceptable in a society governed by the rule of law. As one commentator has recently stated ‘Justice is blind and no one is above it.’”
When will these Sanford jokers ever learn? Oh, right — they don’t think the rules apply to them.
This year, as opposed to 2008 and 2006, Gov. Mark Sanford‘s lack of political capital has led his cabal of “independent” groups, non-profits and political consultants into a reality where they are no longer tightly united and starting to go their own way. Even his out-of-state allies aren’t on the script anymore. The national Club for Growth endorsed U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett for governor, while the S.C. Club for Growth, a typical close Sanford ally and member of said cabal, endorsed long-shot Rep. Nikki Haley.
Reform S.C., one of Sanford’s toady groups, is going on the air with new TV ads. Most people would say that it seems odd, considering it involves advocating for legislation this year, in particular. Where was the organization last year? Hm. And what’s the legislation? Well, that would be none other than a bill by Haley on more roll call voting. Color us surprised that the group’s first ads in some time are backing the Sanford candidate, one who is having significant fundraising trouble compared to the Big Three of Barrett, Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster and Lt. Gov. André Bauer.
It’s rather funny. And if there’s one thing that investigating Sanford’s groups told us, any conspiracy theory isn’t theory. The facts are likely more outrageous than what you could imagine.
In a rare move on the part of the Senate, Lt. Gov. André Bauer found himself on the wrong side of the count when a ruling he made was overturned. Late Thursday night and into early Friday morning, Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell and Bauer took turns presiding over the Senate’s marathon session to pass the budget. While Bauer was up, he ruled out of order a $12 fee on license plate registration.
That ruling, which was not welcomed by many on the floor, threw the budget out of balance. Needless to say, there was a feeling that the ruling was made under the wrong assumptions. Also — heavens — needing to go through and re-balance the budget would have been a gigantic clusterfuck if there ever was one. Shortly thereafter, McConnell stepped back in and a motion to reverse the Lieutenant Governor’s decision. It only took a majority vote.
In short order, or what amounted to that during the evening, Bauer was overruled by the Senate by a vote of 28-14. This sort of incident looks like fodder for the gubernatorial campaign, for Bauer and for his opponents. Bauer can roll out and say he was protecting the pocketbooks of South Carolinians, while his opponents can say that even after almost eight years as President of the Senate, he’s still making mistakes on knowing the rules of the chamber and lawmaking in South Carolina. Everybody wins.
