Who knew that an odd-numbered year would give us the sort of political skullduggery that’s usually reserved for the regular cycle? Well, it came down today that consultant Mike Green was arrested in Myrtle Beach because, according to WMBF, he was trying to create problems at a private party for mayoral candidate Mark McBride at Crocodile Rocks at Broadway at the Beach. Green was arrested for trespassing around 8 p.m. The candidate is in a runoff today with incumbent Mayor John Rhodes.

The police report, cited in the article, said that a consulting firm “pays him to cause problems for the opposing side, which is Mark McBride campaign.” Unless there’s something else been going on, Rhodes has been paying notorious Palmetto State consultant Rod Shealy for this race. The Mayor sent $7,891 his way in the third quarter of this year.

Apparently, “an altercation” occurred and Green repeatedly refused to leave. Yes, that area of Myrtle Beach tends to have that effect on people, especially those from environs north. The mug shot was also classic — blame that bad ol’ Tom DeLay. Now everybody smiles before going into the holding cell.

As is usual, when someone in the South utters something racist (extra points if they’re Republican), a brush fire ignites and national coverage ensues. Such is what happened with former S.C. Election Commission chairman Rusty DePass, who made a comment on Facebook saying, regarding the escaped gorilla at Riverbanks Zoo, “I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors — probably harmless.”

The reference to the First Lady went viral, leading even today to state NAACP president Lonnie Randolph to ask for a “proper” apology. As WIS‘ Judi Gatson tweeted Monday evening, DePass made another apology at the day’s Rotary Club meeting.

Then came the tweet/Facebook post from Starboard Communications associate Mike Green, who wrote, “JUST HEARD OBAMA IS GOING TO IMPOSE A 40% TAX ON ASPIRIN BECAUSE IT’S WHITE AND IT WORKS.” The kicker was that Richard Quinn & Associates associate Adam Piper gave the Facebook “thumbs up” to the post, saying he “likes this.”

For what it is worth, Green came out and apologized, writing, “I sincerely apologize for the comments I made on Twitter yesterday. I made a mistake,” and, “I realize that my comments were hurtful, wrong and have no place in civil discourse.” Piper has yet to respond.

Not to be outdone, a new account has shown up on Twitter, @scgopracism. While we immediately thought it was run by Democrats, a careful consideration of factors led us to decide that there is, or are, Republicans typing away. In our experience, there are a precious few Dems around here that have the thought to go online with this sort of thing or the tenaciousness to pound away at it. Or, heavens, maybe not. Your guess is as good as ours, since they seem to think that Jay W. Ragley is still SCGOP executive director.

It’s been non-stop over there, with tweets looking like this:

• @scgop Should DePass/Mike Green (@gopgreenhouse)/Adam Piper (@adampiper) racism stand? Plz respond. #sctweets @thestate @greenvillenews
  
• @adampiper is 3rd Vice Chair of @scgop He should have to address this issue of condoning racism. #sctweets @thestate @wltx
  
• #SCTWEETS Mike Green (@gopgreenhouse) apologizes for racist tweet but will Adam Piper (@adamper)? Will he resign? http://tinyurl.com/mfe7ow
  
• #SCTWEETS GOP operative @adampiper, who works for US House hopeful @RexRice, refuses to denounce racist joke. In fact, he “liked” it. #TCOT
  
• #SCTWEETS @scott_english But should @gopgreenhouse @adampiper apologize/resign for their racist jokes? #TCOT
  
• @WolfeReports do you think @gopgreenhouse should still work 4 GOP officials in light of his sense of humor? @ragley won’t respond. #SCTWEETS
  
• @ragley has condemned Mike Green @gopgreenhouse for racism but when will anyone else speak up? #SCTWEETS #TCOT

So, there’s that. But, let’s be honest, here. For anybody that’s a white Southerner, if you haven’t heard racist jokes like this your whole life, you’re lying. WR, living in relatively progressive environs around the South, thought most talk like this was gone (especially among those under 50 years old), and only encountered the odd racist or anti-Semitic joke (though gay jokes always seem to be in vogue). But, our three-year sojourn at Carolina proved that definitively wrong. It’s only that now, with Facebook and Twitter, what would once be uttered over beers on a front porch is now seen worldwide.

TWITTER/FACEBOOK BONUS
That’s right, kids. Coming right on the heels of racial insensitivity, we have an elected official advocating for drowning cats.

Yes, Rep. Tommy Stringer, after adopting a cat, couldn’t seem to care for it and is now bitching about taking it back. As one who adopted a shelter cat four years ago ($60 bucks for the cat — had all shots, spayed and litter box trained), we believe this says a hell of a lot more about the person adopting the cat than it does about the pet’s behavior.

UPDATE: We forgot this tweet from SCHotline’s Jeffrey Sewell comparing President Obama to Curious George back in November of last year. Where was the Daily News when that happened?

Few things are more interesting than internal battles within the S.C. Republican Party. With the S.C. Democrats damn near anemic, all the soap operas (or, at least the best ones) go on in the right side of the ledger.

In this case, it involves the race for SCGOP chairman. Recently, S.C. Republican operative Mike Green recorded a debate between the three candidates on his iPhone. The thing is, while he was testing it out, he shot several things. Almost all have been pulled off the Internet. One was early in a debate when you could see former Aiken County GOP treasurer Ginny Allen standing near candidate Karen Floyd with a Floyd sticker on.

In December, Allen was arrested by SLED for sending out robocalls on Sen. Greg Ryberg and House candidate Scott Singer. According to most S.C. politicos, she was also behind the Aiken-based political blog Kaolin Kronicle.

It just goes to show that in S.C. politics, you are rarely six degrees away from someone who has pending prison time.

Jeffery Sewell, S.C. political consultant and noted RINO hunter, recently sent out an email advertising his access to the S.C. Election Commission voter file. In the subject, he writes, “Complete ‘08 SCEC file complete with appendeges e.g. no dead, felons etc blah blah…buy from me or pay twice the price…available right now.”

Now, Sewell has been kind to this site in the past, which surely means Wolfe Reports will join the number of recently axed sites from his news aggregator. That is fine. It is only a matter of time until we piss off nearly everyone and find ourselves begging for money for cheap beer like the rest of the homeless in Five Points.

However, how does a guy who has taken pride in going after “Republicans In Name Only” offer his voter file to Democrats? One of the email addresses listed is Jay Parmley, executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party. Not only that, but Parmley is a member of the RISE SC Facebook group. RISE SC, as you may recall, is totally opposed to school choice, which Sewell says he favors and in which movement he has been involved.

But, that is not all. He has also offered the list to Rick Beltram, chairman of the Spartanburg County Republican Party. It should not take most people long to wonder why a guy who says he is a supporter of Karen Floyd and says she will be the next S.C. Republican Party chairman would be offering his list to one of her opponents.

And, still, there is more. He also offered it to people he called RINOs in the past, like S.C. operatives Rod Shealy and Wesley Donehue. What is not known is if the other people on the listing, like SCGOP chairman Katon Dawson, Richard Quinn & Associates’ Rick Quinn, McAllister Communications‘ Dave Wilson and Starboard Communications‘ Mike Green are considered to be in the same camp as the others, or just open to cut rate voter file access.

Either way, there are more things afoot in S.C. politics than anyone could even imagine.

As reported on FITSNews late Sunday afternoon, a new social networking site for S.C. conservatives, The Palmetto Network, is going forward to link up and coordinate social conservatives in the state.

In the post, it says that the site is invitation only, but Wolfe Reports registered as a member of the site when consultant Joshua Gross rolled out the site on Feb. 6, through a link in a Facebook news feed.

According to FITS, “FITS agreed not to release any members’ names, several prominent South Carolina politicos have already joined the network – including at least one candidate for governor.”

However, this site is under no such preconditions, and listed below are some of the more prominent members and a list of groups on The Palmetto Network, current as of 7 p.m. on Sunday. As of that time, no group yet had members.

MEMBERS, in alphabetical order
Elected officials and others
State Rep. Nathan Ballentine
U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett
State Sen. Kevin Bryant
Former Sec. of State Jim Miles
Former state representative candidate Trey Whitehurst

Consultants, operatives and others
Tony Beam, director of Christian Worldview Center, North Greenville University
Nicole Cobb, Spartanburg County chair of S.C. Young Republicans
Chad Connelly, SCRG board member
Sheri Few, founder of SC PIE
Mike Green, consultant
Joshua Gross, consultant
Allen Klump, law student
Ashley Manini, director of MEDPAC at S.C. Medical Association
Taft Matney, spokesman for Conservatives in Action
Matt Moore, executive director of S.C. Club for Growth
Randy Page, president of SCRG
Jeff Quinton, operations assistant at Public Opinion Strategies
Jay W. Ragley, executive director of SCGOP
Oran Smith, president of Palmetto Family Council
Dave Wilson, creative director at McAlister Communications

Media
Adam Fogle, The Palmetto Scoop
Will Folks, FITSNews
Wes Wolfe, Wolfe Reports

GROUPS, in order of appearance
Christian Worldview Center
Dr. Everett’s Ed Forum
FITSNews
Foundation for American Restoration
Gun Owners of SC
HHIRC
Kevin Hall for SCGOP Chairman
Palmetto Family Council
SC Association of Christian Schools
SC Citizens for Life
SC Home School Network (SCAHIS)
SC Independent School Association
SC Parents Involved in Education
SC Policy Council
SCACS-SC Association of Christian Schools (posted twice)
South Carolinians for Responsible Government
The Palmetto Scoop