We’ve found ourselves perplexed over the recent months regarding the interesting political flexing going on by Steve Benjamin’s campaign for mayor of Columbia. The man ran as the Democratic nominee for attorney general in 2002, and counts among his strongest supporters top Midlands Democrats. And yet, it’s not a cut-and-dry situation.
Benjamin hired the local political consulting firm Richard Quinn and Associated to run his campaign. This is the same firm who ran Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster’s race against Benjamin in 2002, and is running McMaster’s gubernatorial campaign. Naturally, that’s giving Benjamin a free pass on RQ&A’s in-house blog, The Palmetto Scoop. Really — Wheels McGee has been at every Benjamin event we’ve ever attended, which is a tad odd for a GOP political consultant and blogger.
In the meantime, he’s also hired several people who were a part of President Barack Obama’s campaign during South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary (Craig Schirmer and Laurin Manning, among others). Early Thursday morning, Benjamin’s campaign announced it would start running a radio ad playing up his Obama connections in the Democratic-leaning capital city.
COLUMBIA, SC – Steve Benjamin’s Mayoral Campaign broke onto the airwaves this week with a radio ad featuring a 2007 voicemail left by then Senator Barack Obama.
“I’ve saved this voicemail for well over two years now,” Benjamin explains. “It has been a personal inspiration for me because I still believe in what we can do when we work together. I still believe in hope.”
The radio spot, Benjamin’s first, went into rotation this week and can be heard on radio stations all across Columbia and at www.stevebenjamin.com.
This takes an extraordinary amount of hubris, considering that his consultants ran U.S. Sen. John McCain’s Republican presidential primary campaigns in this state not once, but twice. Quinn Sr. was a close, unpaid advisor on McCain’s campaign for president in 2008. Then there’s something else.
Interestingly, the child, who seems fit to consider the majority of Republicans in the General Assembly as socialists, has been slurping Benjamin since the very outset. Baldy ran a line of smack against former Speaker of the House David Wilkins, writing, “Anyway, given how ferociously Wilkins promotes (and protects) his reputation as a “Republican,” we were a bit surprised to see him hosting a fundraiser earlier this week for uber-liberal trial lawyer Steve Morrison, who is running for mayor of Columbia, S.C. on the Leftist Lying Bastard ticket (j/k … it’s a non-partisan election).”
Mind you, he never says things like this about the Quinn firm and its relationship with Benjamin, even while assailing RQ&A when it comes to Innovista. It’s often said that a man is judged by the friends he keeps. Another old bromide is “actions speak louder than words.” Benjamin’s words try to play up his connection to Obama. But his actions in regard to people like the Quinns, Folks and Fogle say so much more.
And at this point, we’ve been totally soured on Benjamin, Morrison and City Councilman Kirkman Finlay III. Somebody put a call in to Aaron Johnson.
The Alabama football team went on the annual pilgrimage for national champions to the White House. Like the last time the Crimson Tide went to DC, the team was received by a first-term Democrat. Like we’ve said before, we blame George W. Bush for the recent travails (probation, probation again, losses to LSU and Auburn (2005), loss to Florida (2008). Is it any wonder Texas won its first national championship in years during the Bush era? (Conspiracy!)
President Barack Obama congratulated coach Nick Saban, Heisman Trophy-winning running back Mark Ingram and star linebacker Rolando McClain. The team presented him with a helmet featuring the number 13 (for the number of Bama national championships), a ceremonial football and the requisite custom jersey.
Also, Twitter.
For us, “The West Wing” was appointment viewing from the pilot, on. We remember being in Richmond, rushing into the living room to catch the opening credits. Maybe it was because we’d be going to help Bill Bradley in New Hampshire (really — Al Gore was a dick during that entire primary), maybe it’s because we hadn’t had the optimism of the transformative power of politics and government beaten out of us yet. Eight years of Bush the Lesser and going on four years of a Congress led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid has done that, in spades. Regardless, the show looked like fun.
For year on year, we went back to the show the same way an evangelical Christian would go to revival — for hope. It helped restore our hope that if a group of people who really cared about making America better coalesced and kicked ass, we could get some progress in DC. Le sigh.
Picking a favorite character (excepting Martin Sheen as President Jed Bartlet, who was on another level) is akin to picking a favorite from the Beatles. Josh Lyman is definitely up there, though, well-played by Bradley Whitford. It’s fairly well known now that Lyman was based off the man who is now President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Maybe if “The West Wing” was on HBO and not NBC, Lyman might have had a significant cache of f-bombs, but this was network TV, brother.
Thanks to Phil Bailey of the S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus tweeting it, this picture is now flying around the South Carolina political class at break-neck pace.
Oh, ho. Wow. This is as close as you’ll come to political porn not involving U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.
Sometimes it’s like the General Assembly is like the minor league to Congress. You can say something stupid, deal with a mini-scandal, learn from it and move on to the big leagues. Rep. Jeff Duncan, who is trying to make the leap from the S.C. House to the U.S. House, made the mistake of putting up a picture with a bad joke on his Facebook wall photos.
It’s funny ’cause he’s Kenyan! And some of the craziest people in American politics today are the birthers. Why not throw in your lot with Orly Taitz? Great political instincts there.
We really don’t like to address blowhards from the left or the right, because dealing with that is like making a rational argument in a chat room or a sports message board. But this had to be taken to task.
Michelle Malkin, who has defended World War II detention camps for Japanese-Americans, made the thinly-veiled accusation that the four doctors who appeared with President Barack Obama for one of Obama’s more forceful health care speeches were “dubious doctors” and “dangerous poseurs.”
Really?
Well, one of those doctors was none other than Dr. Sonia Vishin, a physician at our parents’ alma mater of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. And she sure as shit isn’t dubious.
Vishin, 29, is in her second year of a three-year fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at UAB. She is the state representative of Doctors for America, a national coalition of 15,000 doctors pushing for improved access to health care, making it more affordable, improving quality, and reducing the amount of time doctors have to spend dealing with paperwork and insurance companies.
At UAB, Vishin often sees patients without health coverage who could benefit from a reformed system that covers preventive care and lowers the cost of medicine.
“It’s people who haven’t taken their medications who should’ve come in earlier and by the time I see them they’re unable to breathe and the end up on a ventilator,” she said.
Vishin plans to return to Birmingham today to work on a grassroots campaign to promote health care reform, a topic that has brought intense debate and opposition around the country.
You can disagree with these doctors’ stances, and many people do. But to write what Malkin did is asinine.
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco is a funny guy. When you’re playing for a franchise with a history that has fail stamped all over it, it helps to have a sense of humor. Now, it looks like ol’ 85 just wants to crash with the President.
If President Barack Obama had the mind control powers of a powerful Jedi, he probably wouldn’t be having so much trouble with health care. Eg., “These aren’t the regulations you’re worried about. Move along.”
But, that hasn’t stopped him from trying. Insert your “It’s a TARP!” jokes.
No, the President isn’t joining Princess Biden in a war against Darth Aetna. Turns out he was doing a publicity photo shoot promoting Chicago for the 2016 Olympics. We’d scoff at the idea that the Windy City would get the Games, but the town gave the podium for a black man with a funny name to become the president of the United States, so we’ll see how this shakes out.
However, if Obama could outfit the U.S. fencing team with lightsabers, we could bring home the gold in that event.
Round of applause, fellas. There’s a reason Congress has such a low approval rating, and it’s for events of political theater like the one that unfolded Tuesday evening in the U.S. House. Maybe it’s because we’re friendly with partisans of both sides, and they all get fired up about this, but it seems to us that after the initial kerfuffle, this thing should have gone away.
Let’s recap: During President Barack Obama’s health care address, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson yelled, “You lie!” from the House floor. It shouldn’t have happened, it allowed a lot of people to throw jokes at his expense and poke fun. Great, that’s fine — he brought it on himself. Then, Wilson called Obama chief of staff and professional ball-breaker Rahm Emanuel to apologize.
Seems like that would work. A two-day story.
But, oh, this is American politics, and one turn deserves another, like a never-ending series of attacks reminiscent of August 1914. Liberals fired back, raising bank for challenger Rob Miller’s campaign. Wilson’s people countered, developing T-shirts and doing fundraising of their own. There were demonstrations and counter-demonstrations. There were clowns. Add into the mix an endless amount of sniping over the Internet.
What is the Democratic majority to do? We thought it was great that the Democrats picked a woman as its first speaker of the house in 12 years. Not so happy that it was Nancy Pelosi. For one reason or another, she never struck us as someone that you’d want in the leadership. But, it is what it is.
Sprinkle into the mix some classic South Carolina battles. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn commented in a story recently that he was none too happy that Wilson held a town hall meeting at Keenan High School, in the Sixth District. Whether that was a part of it or not, it was reported by a Politico reporter on C-SPAN today that Pelosi wasn’t initially behind the idea of a resolution, and it was Clyburn who lobbied for the resolution.
So, there we were, ’round 5 p.m., watching the House going through the roll call vote. In the end, the resolution passed, 240-179. Expect a continuing amount of warring against the 12 Democrats that voted against and the seven Republicans that voted for the resolution, including U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, who is in a tough primary fight to save his seat.
The play was called by the Democrats, so we’ll analyze what they could, or could not have done, in the situation. There are a number of factors to take into consideration, but it should be split on external and internal lines.
Externally speaking, they should have let it go. Yeah, let the netroots and the grassroots and every other roots complain and raise money and put up blog posts and hold rallies. They do that pretty well. Have the House Caucus issue a statement saying that you deplore the congressman’s actions, but respect his apology, and that it’s the party’s intention to move on and pass meaningful health care reform. Done. The House Dems look good, and seem like they have their eyes on the ball. May cost with the die-hards, but they’re never happy, anyway.
Internally speaking, Pelosi had to act. House Democrats watched for eight years while they saw Republicans hold the line for President George W. Bush. If the Dems didn’t do something that is ultimately a pretty petty thing, it would seem like they were weak. And, this is Washington politics — it’s like the African plains. The weak get eaten by the lions. Also, it was a way of telling Obama that the House has his back. Internal politics, it can be a bastard.
And so it is. In the insular, high school-like world of Capitol Hill, the House Dems didn’t have perspective — at least, that’s the way it looks from South Carolina. They did a very red meat thing in the middle of debating one of the biggest issues of the last century.
So, here we go again. This story will probably run another week or two before the next scandal or catastrophe, and there will be more claims of Marxism and racism thrown around and maybe, at some point, we can finally get to the bottom of the health care problem in our country.
But that didn’t happen today.
After U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson had a moment of temporary insanity and yelled at the President from the floor of the House on live, national television — joining the long list of off-kilter moments from S.C. politicos — he seemed really contrite in his apology, given to Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel (then Emanuel probably said, “Fuck you, Joe,” because he’s contractually obligated to drop f-bombs every few words).
But, almost immediately, he started back on the attack, which was almost like saying, “I’m sorry, but not really.” The fact is, if you’re not winning, you’re losing. The gaffe necessitated that he had to turn it to his advantage. His consultants started seriously aggressively pimping his shirts, and there was a rally scheduled at his office in West Columbia. He went up on YouTube.
In the video, Wilson says, “The supporters of the government takeover of health care and the liberals who want to give health care to illegals are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly conceived plan. They want to silence anyone who speaks out against it. They made it clear they want to defeat me and pass the plan.
The campaign’s use of social media was well-done, though at times very annoying.
And considering he’s being blown out in the post-speech money race, something had to be done. He gave an underdog that he should clock for a second-straight cycle some life and made his reelection — an all-but-certain prospect — a real doubt.
If Wilson had just kept his head down and got whipped by the Democrats in the media and let challenger Rob Miller keep rolling in money, he would be in an even worse position. He had to circle the wagons, as a matter of course. Whether his reaction saves his seat or he wins just because the district is drawn that way, we’ll be able to deduce next year.
We’ve known of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson for a while. He was our state senator when we were in high school. Just recently, we lived about a five-minute walk from his house. We’ve had our disagreements with him about this or that, like we do with any other elected official, but we never thought he was the sort of guy that would get so torqued off that he would yell at the President from the floor of the House.
What followed was like an atom bomb going off. Nationwide, the condemnation came down. There were jokes. Twitter about fell apart.
It didn’t take long for Wilson’s consultants at Richard Quinn & Associates to have his back.
Mind you, CNN posted a story at 10:23 p.m. with Wilson apologizing for his remark, saying, “This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”
We extend our “propers” to Wilson for owning up to a mistake. It happens. Not usually on a national stage, but sometimes you’re in a big spotlight. It’s just funny that Piper was still backing the remark past 11 p.m. Somebody should have shot him an email. Check your Gmail, son. Pretty sure there’s something in there from the congressman.
The head of the USC College Republicans also seems to think it’s cool to yell at the President on national TV.
Really, guys — just because you’re politically opposed to someone doesn’t mean you can act like a douchenozzle whenever you feel like it. Republicans would not, and didn’t, put up with this sort of thing from Democrats during the Bush administration, and rightly so. You’re out of power — deal with it until you’re back in the majority. Alabama’s football seasons in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007 didn’t make us happy, either, but we took our lumps until it was time to win again (of course, we also regularly hurled invectives at Phil Fulmer and Tommy Tuberville, so, ah, glass houses, we guess).
As for President Barack Obama, he gave Wilson the “stink eye.” Not as bad as former President Bill Clinton, but it looked fairly nasty from Mr. Chill.
Also, why are these men smiling?
Then, as always, there’s the next election. The Web sites for both Wilson and his returning challenger Rob Miller went down from the insane amount of traffic from partisans of both sides. As of right now, we don’t know what Wilson’s picking up on donations, but certainly, he’s doing well. As for Miller, his ActBlue share had brought in $78,336 from a total of 2,373 people as of 3:50 a.m. on Thursday, so liberals are responding. The lion’s share comes from a group of DailyKos readers, who have turned in $40,000-plus. It should be noted here that both campaigns are benefiting from the new Internet political culture.
