Rep. Nikki Haley‘s release of her legislative emails on Friday was disappointing on several different fronts. From what we know about legislators and their emailing habits, most, if not all, are extremely careful about doing nothing but official business through their legislative accounts. Despite the special exception the General Assembly has given itself in regard to releasing said emails, there can be a strong case made in the court of public opinion to have such emails released if it’s deemed to be in the public interest. Across the country, most other communication media owned by the government and used by government officials and staff are up for public examination. Just ask Houston Nutt about the incident coming from extensive text messaging from a University of Arkansas-owned cell phone.

And with Haley, the intersection of her transparency crusade and two very believable allegations of sexual indiscretions obviously led to a request for emails from her legislative account, exceptions be damned. But Haley bollixed it up from Day One, especially with Democratic nominee Vince Sheheen releasing so much information that about the only thing he didn’t do was invite the public to view a live colonoscopy. When you’re marketing yourself as Ms. Transparency, getting positively owned by your opponent on exactly that issue doesn’t look so good (not that it’ll matter in the long run to voters, who are giving her a break on everything). So, after relentless pounding on the issue, she finally gives in. Sort of.

Reporters could view the emails, but — NO COPIES! NO CAMERAS! Lordy. For an account that one wouldn’t expect to have much, anyway, the campaign’s straight-up paranoia is telling. It also gives a feel of the amateur. In effect, the campaign was saying, “Here, we’re going to do the least possible to get you off our ass and quit looking into this.” Not exactly what you’d expect from the transparency candidate.

We know that if you’re going to do something as an official, you do it from your personal account. This is something even the general public realized after the brouhaha surrounding Gov. Mark Sanford last year. If someone really wants to know what’s been going down, they need to get into Haley’s Yahoo! account. Otherwise, this is all academic.

Logos. They’re a part of branding, showing who you are, what you do. Some people are obsessed with them, like many people are about flags. Symbolism, colors, this and that. A logo or flag can be interpreted any number of ways beyond the official statement. That’s why we enjoyed learning a few things recently.

That is, a couple logos of a couple new political consulting firms. One was from Josh Gross and his nascent entity by the Starboard Communications offices.
We’d like it if we had a Facebook screencap of Larry Marchant‘s “Black Label Strategy” fun, but as we passed “the black hole of South Carolina politics” last night, we saw what could just end up as this:
Piracy. The free market at work.

For the season finale of “Real Time with Bill Maher” last Friday, they did a recap of the primary elections — who won, what it means and why Carly Fiorina is so obsessed with U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s hair. And as conversations about the primary typically do, this one meandered to the alleged affairs between Rep. Nikki Haley and Will Folks and Larry Marchant. There was some prep for this one, though. The team went to the graphic design program and Maher had a good time with it.

But in typical South Carolina fashion, we didn’t make it into the Elite Eight of the Stupid States tournament. Arizona took out No. 2 seed Alabama in the semis and triumphed in the championship against Texas. Always missing out on the title.

We, born into a family with two working parents, after the peaks of the civil rights and women’s rights movements, grew up understanding that people were equal. Silly us. Shit — we live in the South, where equal is never really equal. The rich are more equal, whites are more equal, and so are men. Or so we thought.

The reaction of supporters of Rep. Nikki Haley‘s gubernatorial campaign, and even some that don’t have a horse in the race, is sickening. Her campaign is benefiting because of one thing — her gender. As we’ve said before, if she was a he, and Will Folks and Larry Marchant were women, Haley would be dead in the water. But that isn’t the case.

It isn’t the case because she’s a woman. And, oh, a female politician would never cheat on her spouse with two total douchebags, would she? Actually, yeah, she would. As the Bloodhound Gang song goes, “we ain’t nothing but mammals.” What, like getting your hormones from ovaries instead of testicles makes you more virtuous? Don’t think so.

For a lot of people under 30, a female politician is just a politician. These notions of gender mattering come from older generations. Hence, why Haley keeps referring to herself as a woman, as if we were all blind and deaf. Why, yes, Representative — I’m going to vote for you because you have two X chromosomes. Congratulations.

And she’s got a lead in the Republican primary race because of this absurd gender bias that holds that women are more virtuous than men, and that she can’t defend herself. That’s right. You’d never see people circling the wagons around a male candidate like this. And if you’re a male candidate, official or just general wag like us, and you criticize her, you’re just another one of “the boys ganging up on the girl.”

Cue the epic eye-rolling.

Brad Warthen points out a column by Salon‘s Joe Conason that dips into this idiocy.

Brandishing charges of sexual infidelity, the state’s male Republican establishment has launched a vile character assassination of gubernatorial front-runner Nikki Haley, who is married with two children.

To which Warthen counters:

What utter and complete politically correct drivel: Because she’s a woman (I suppose), her being elected would be “progress.” Because the people accusing her are contemptible, what they say isn’t true. Because she is called names, electing her would be a “higher morality.”

Is this actually supposed to pass for thought?

Haley’s an adult and a politician. The same rules apply to her as to everyone else.

We were going to wait a little while for things to sort out and come up with a fully-baked take on what went down this evening, but with WACH’s Bryan Cox tweeting and thumping his chest that only they had a story up among local media (and including blogs in that), here we go. Now, “Pub Politics” is usually a tame affair. But today’s pre-primary/sine die hootenanny became all sorts of interesting. Toward the end, Sen. Jake Knotts sat down with other legislators and the fellas and gave his take on the gubernatorial race. Paraphrasing, he said that we already have one raghead in the White House, we don’t need one in the Governor’s Mansion.

There’s about a dozen different things wrong with that comment, starting out with the fact it’s a racist reference to Arabs. We don’t see how a mixed-race gentleman born in Hawai’i or the daughter of Indian immigrants (yeah, it was a reference to Rep. Nikki Haley, a fellow Lexington Republican) can even be accurately slurred in such a way, but there you go.

Immediately, it hit Twitter, and spread like the clap. Like the flu. Like the rage virus. Shit — it spread and it was quick. Suddenly, there are stories popping up on CNN and Politico. S.C. Republican Party chairwoman Karen Floyd issued a condemnation of the remarks.

The South Carolina Republican Party strongly condemns any use of racial or religious slurs. Senator Knotts should apologize for his inappropriate comments, so that we can put this unfortunate incident behind us and focus on issues important to moving our state forward.

Knotts later issued an apology, saying the comments were “intended in jest.”

Haley’s supporters, digging deep down in their well of self-righteousness — of which they run a surplus — went nuts. Now, maybe I’ve just read too much Slate over the years, but there’s something else here that’s been going on for a couple weeks that has us thinking.

Really, what the fuck is it with people who are neck-deep in S.C. politics everyday, going out and saying, “Oh, that’s awful. Politics in this state are so bad. Wah, wah, wah.” Um, yeah, no shit. Why act so surprised? A consultant/blogger and a consultant/lobbyist allege sexual relations with a gubernatorial candidate. A state senator says something racist and stupid. You know, if this were Louisiana, somebody would already be facing criminal charges for something pretty bad. Get real, and get with it.

As for Haley somehow winning the primary outright, well, that’s about one of the most idiotic things we’ve ever heard. Of course, we wouldn’t put it past the South Carolina electorate, which hasn’t always seemed the smartest when it goes to the polls.

There are a few theories put forth as to why this might happen. One is, “Wah! Those boys are ganging up on the girl!” OK. This is 2010, not 1977. That argument didn’t work for Hillary Clinton. So, if there were two women who were former consultants for one of the male gubernatorial candidates saying this, y’all would probably be calling that candidate a predator and a slimeball. See how the gender stereotyping works when the shoe is on the other foot?

The other is, “That yokel called her a bad name! Now she’ll certainly win!” Alright, this makes even less sense. We haven’t seen that tea partiers calling President Barack Obama a Muslim and a Kenyan (and the way they say it is derogatory) is making his poll numbers tick up any. Maybe when it just happens to a female conservative from the suburbs, eh? Because implied in both this statement and the first is that she can’t defend herself — yeah, didn’t think of that, did you?

And yet another goes, “The Establishment hates her! This is just another example.” Well kids, last time we checked Will Folks and Larry Marchant were card-carrying members of the Sanford cabal, along with Haley. Racist remarks aside, yeah, it’s no shock that Knotts is no fan of Haley. Knotts and the Sanford cabal have been at each other for a while.

Personally, we hope she loses. Not because of any bias, but because Gov. Mark Sanford‘s cronies have had a strangle-hold on the Governor’s Office for eight years and need to go. If Haley is elected, we’ll be dealing with this mess the whole way. Four more years of enmity between the governor and the General Assembly. Governance more suited to a political philosophy class than elective office. In short, if you liked what 2002-2010 has looked like, especially the last four years, then by all means, vote for Sanford 2.0. And then don’t be surprised when a Democrat is elected in 2014.

BONUS: Well, it sure looks like the campaign of U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett is either leakier than a beached wooden barge in the Cooper River, or someone over there just loves talking to reporters, bloggers, and generally rolling over on the campaign.

A source close to the campaign of one rival — Rep. Gresham Barrett, who touts his Christian faith in his ads — said the Barrett campaign has at least discussed playing the religion card. The source said his aides sometimes refer to her by the Indian name with which she was born, “Nimrata,” in the campaign office.

“They always thought that the religion thing would be what would save Gresham in the end against Nikki,” said the source, an outside adviser to Barrett who said he was speaking to a reporter because he disliked the notion of attacking Haley on her faith.

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.

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.

To say that FITSNews‘ Will Folks and Columbia lobbyist/political consultant Larry Marchant are tight would be an understatement. One might make allegations of money exchanging hands, but we recall what happened last time we wrote about allegations that didn’t come with something official. Like a police report.

After the Free Times broke the news of Marchant’s DUI arrest, interested parties were no doubt drawn to see what Folks would write about his pal. If you want to reread it, joke’s on you. It’s not there anymore.

Gov. Mark Sanford nearly impeached for cheating on his wife in Argentina while taxpayers payed the tab.

Former State Treasurer and rising political star Thomas Ravenel sent to prison on charges he operated a cocaine ring.

Former Sanford spokesman Will Folks pleading guilty to criminal domestic violence.

Lobbyist and political consultant Larry Marchant thrown in jail for driving under the influence.

A four-star failure, and embarrassments, all of them. Thus has been the public lives of four of the major players in South Carolina’s antagonizing school choice movement. The policy proposal that was once considered the most divisive in the State House is now hurdling to Earth in a fireball of humiliation and seems set to peter out to the lonely sound of a lone blogger’s key strokes.

How many of these guys are going to implode this effort, one personal scandal at a time? And when are people going to start connecting the dots? This so-called “reform movement” is having a meltdown, principal by principal, consultant by consultant.

You can’t trust an issue being peddled to you when you can’t trust the people pushing it and the lawmakers writing bills about it.