Believe it or not, the Snuggie revolution has now claimed man’s best friend. There are, no kidding, Snuggies for dogs. It’s only $15! Well, plus eight bucks for shipping and handling.
We think all of this is a little weird, but we’re steeling ourselves, since the Snuggie had already claimed ownership of S.C. political consulting firm Starboard Communications, with associates Le Frye and Amy Bliss being taken in by its warmth.
We’ll try to save the dogs of the Capital City, but it doesn’t look like it will be easy.
One of South Carolinians for Responsible Government’s henchmen launched another attack on former Rep. Bob Walker recently, but the fact is that Walker, who lost by a scant 19 votes, was screwed over by the people running his race.
Walker’s firm was Starboard Communications. As we discovered when researching “the hit list,” Starboard was one of the main firms that was supposed to be helping out. It turns out that Josh Gross, when he was at Starboard last year, created the mail pieces for each of the Sandlapper Group’s candidates. Sandlapper candidates were all a part of the hit list proposal, and the two people who founded the firm in Nov. 2007, Taft Matney and Chad Connelly, were in deep with Gov. Mark Sanford’s front groups.
So, Gross was doing the mail for Walker’s opponent, current Rep. Joey Millwood (who has $2,431 on hand). While we won’t say that Starboard threw Walker’s race, it seems rather odd that the same firm would be working both sides of a very contentious race. Certainly, if we were advising a candidate, we would suggest that they not go with Starboard, for the off chance that the firm would also be doing work for that candidate’s opponent.
That’s the real issue, here. We’re waiting for Starboard, Sandlapper, Millwood, Gross and their apologists to admit to what we all know is true.
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?
Following the November elections, the S.C. Republican Party sported over $100,000 in debt, but, just before S.C. politico Karen Floyd is expected to assume the chairmanship, the party cleared out its remaining obligations, according to the April federal disclosure report.
It also meant a fine month for Starboard Communications, which was owed the lion’s share of the party’s outstanding debt.
The S.C. Democratic Party’s federal report has yet to show up online, and the same holds true for its state operations account.
SOUTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY
Federal account (April 2009)
Contributions: $94,005.82
Expenditures: $144,288.82
Cash on Hand: $58,825.31
Notable contributions
2009.03.16 | Graham for Senate, $33,500
2009.03.16 | Edward Sellers, $5,000
2009.03.24 | Graham for Senate, $10,000
2009.03.24 | Roger Milliken, $5,000
Notable expenditures
Schedule B
2009.03.17 | Starboard Communications (FEA slate mailings), $29,000
2009.03.27 | Starboard Communications (FEA slate mailings), $15,000
2009.03.27 | Starboard Communications (postage and printing), $16,110.20
2009.03.27 | The Philips Group (finance consulting), $2,000
2009.03.31 | Starboard Communications (FEA slate mailings), $40,217.31
Schedule H4
2009.03.17 | Mail Marketing Strategies (copies), $630
The last thing this site wants to do is be another in the innumerable Internet venues assailing Gov. Mark Sanford’s former spokesman for every step he takes. After all, for anyone watching the General Assembly this term, there are a lot more important things to discuss.
However, WR has a short fuse for some things, and one of them is idiocy. Needless to say, when an item is obvious, it will not be ignored.
Let’s go to the audio tape, as Warner Wolf would say. OK, maybe not so much audio, but to the recent archives. A few days ago, Will Folks of FITSNews and Adam Fogle of Richard Quinn & Associates and The Palmetto Scoop went at it about a very old accusation that Folks was doing work, and getting paid by, Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort.
While Fogle may not have paid attention to anything that has been on the Internet in the past 18 months, it was old news to most people that, at one time, Davis had been the registered agent for Folks’ political consulting firm. It was also known that the two were friendly (and that Davis was involved in the hit list project), so it would only make sense that they worked together.
That is not a big deal.
What may be an issue came up in comments on a post entitled, “More Shocking Gubernatorial Polling!” On it, Folks wrote:
As for Folks’ relationship with Sen. Davis, it is more of a “man crush” than anything else, and his counsel on Tom’s television advertisements (which were actually filmed in Beaufort, Bluffton and Hilton Head Island) was provided on a strictly pro bono basis.
Beside calling the commenter he is replying to retarded, a usual retort that is ironic to people who know a few things, it should be noted that when you provide a service to a candidate, it cannot be pro bono. According to the law, that constitutes an in-kind contribution.
So, when did this contribution happen? According to several Davis reports, there were multiple payments for television advertising.
- 2008.10.17, Starboard Communications, $20,000
- 2008.10.17, Strategic Media Placement, $5,000
- 2008.06.19, Strategy Group for Media, $5,000
- 2008.05.27, Strategy Group for Media, $7,400
- 2008.05.23, Strategy Group for Media, $70,000
- 2008.05.19, Strategy Group for Media, $70,000
Naturally, none of this means that there was an illegal transaction. Folks could have been paid by a number of payments to Starboard, which, more often than not, were referred to by the disclosure reports by the check number, not for why the payment was made. Also, the payment could have come from SGM.
But, either way, the work on behalf of the Davis campaign could not have been pro bono, because such an arrangement is not allowed by S.C. law. It would have required a payment by one of the above firms, or an in-kind disclosure on the form.
As Folks would say, anybody retarded enough to read the S.C. Ethics Commission site would know that.
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.
Wednesday, The Palmetto Scoop put up a post saying that Rep. Gresham Barrett had, among other things, announced that S.C. consultant B.J. Boling had been named the Upstate Republican’s communications director. Adam Fogle, an employee of consulting firm Richard Quinn & Associates and the proprietor of the blog, wrote that it was a way to have Boling employed on the taxpayers’ dime as a legislative aide and not an adviser to Barrett’s anticipated gubernatorial campaign.
Leaving aside Fogle’s motivation to attack Barrett as a Republican gubernatorial primary competitor to his firm’s client, Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster, the claims do not appear to be entirely factual.
On his own site, Fogle wrote in October of 2008 that Boling, formerly of consulting firm Starboard Communications (and, before that, worked out of RQ&A for Sen. John McCain’s presidential primary campaign), was acting as the spokesman for Barrett’s congressional campaign. The story cited came from The Herald-Journal.
On Jan. 15, 2009, Boling was called Barrett’s spokesman in a story by The Independent-Mail. Boling was also mentioned as the Congressman’s spokesman in a Feb. 10 story in the Greenville News.
The fact that Boling has been working for Barrett in his congressional office has not been a secret, and well known for some time. However, it would only make sense for Barrett to move Boling over to the gubernatorial campaign in the event of, and when it happens.
For political junkies, or people who get off on hands-on data mining, checking out disclosure reports by state political parties, and elected officials, can be an interesting way to spend an hour. Below are notable expenditures and and contributions to the S.C. Republican Party and the S.C. Democratic Party.
One of the most interesting revelations is the fact that, as of the last reporting period, the SCGOP has a debt of $128,352.76. The chairman of the Republican Party, Katon Dawson, made much hay about how he paid off the $300,000 of debt the party had when he took over. Currently, it looks like he will leave the party with debt, as well.
SOUTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY
Federal account
Disbursements of note
12.12.08, Greenville Jet Center (Greenville, SC), air fare, $3,434
01.12.09, Charlotte International Airport (Charlotte, NC), parking, $40
01.23.09, Mail Marketing Strategies (Columbia, SC), printing, $567
01.27.09, Capital Hilton (Washington, DC), lodging/meeting space, $8,976.80
01.28.09, Mail Marketing Strategies (Columbia, SC), printing, $284.57
Debts and obligations
n/a, Starboard Communications (Lexington, SC), slate mail printing and postage, $104,217.31
n/a, Alltel (Charlotte, NC), telephone, $23,231.69
n/a, Diamond Graphics (Lexington, SC), printing/Lindsey Graham sticker, $903.76
Notable contributions
12.09.08., Flour Corp. PAC (Washington, DC), $5,000
State account
Disbursements of note
11.07.08, Premier Resorts (North Myrtle Beach, SC), event expense, $10,000
11.07.08, Wachovia Mastercard (Atlanta, GA), travel, $1,990.99
11.21.08, ViaNovo LP (Austin, TX), research, $15,000
12.22.08, American Express (Phoenix, AZ), travel/air fare, $1,727.83
Notable contributions
11.03.08, Ira Brody (Rye, NY), $25,000
11.06.08, Georgia Republican Party (Atlanta, GA), $50,000
DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Federal account
Spending on the presidential inauguration
11.26.08, Fort Myer Officers’ Club (Fort Myer, VA), inaugural ball, $10,000
01.02.09, The Skipp Pearson Foundation (Columbia, SC), inaugural entertainment, $3,000
01.13.09, The Skipp Pearson Foundation (Columbia, SC), inaugural entertainment, $3,000
01.13.09, Fort Myer Officers’ Club (Fort Myer, VA), inaugural ball, $79,635
01.16.09, RPS, parking, $8
01.16.09, US Airways (Arlington, VA), air fare, $331.50
01.16.09, US Airways (Arlington, VA), air fare, $268.70
01.16.09, USPS (Columbia, SC), inaugural ball postage, $232.05
01.16.09, Printglobe (Austin, TX), inaugural ball supplies, $325
01.16.09, Smokey Weiner and the Hot Links (Isle of Palms, SC), inaugural event entertainment, $500
01.17.09, Fort Myer Officers’ Club (Fort Myer, VA), inaugural ball, $10,400
01.20.09, The Monocle (Washington, DC), inaugural reception, $5,300
01.30.09, Fort Myer Officers’ Club (Fort Myer, VA), inaugural ball, $3,374.80
above may not include all expenditures
Transfers
11.25.08, DNC (Washington, DC), $71,000
12.18.08, DNC (Washington, DC), $2,450
12.23.08, Obama for America (Chicago, IL), $18,000
12.31.08, DNC Services Corp. (Washington, DC), $5,481.50
