South Carolina and the social ramble
The state that leads the nation in political sex scandals
South Carolina and the social ramble
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
The weather is hot and tempers are short - John McCain: "Complete the dang fence!" Barack Obama: "Plug the damn hole!" - so perhaps today we should forgo the weighty issues in favor of something that will go down nice and easy, like a gin and tonic.
And where better to have fun in the sun than South Carolina? Seriously, if the cable programmers at Showtime are in the hunt for yet another racy series, they'd be well advised to simply call it "South Carolina." Few other states can boast of a political culture that yields such rich true-life material – as evidenced by the new not-so-Harlequin tale of the lady and the blogger.
We’ll get to that one in a moment. But first, let’s stipulate that no fictional script can compete with this state's track record for slime; after all, this is the place where conservative activists spread the false rumor, back in the 2000 GOP presidential primary, that candidate John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black baby. (They presumably were unaware that South Carolina icon/segregationist Strom Thurmond actually had fathered an illegitimate black baby.)
Let's also stipulate that nothing in the fiction realm can top the '09 saga of Mark Sanford, the conservative "love guv" who flew off to Argentina at state expense to meet his mistress while aides claimed he was soulfully trekking on the Appalachian Trail...although, on second thought, we do have these other promising plot arcs, all of very recent vintage:
The Republican state comptroller general is said to have engaged in extramarital sex with a Republican candidate who's vying to become the state superintendent of education. A deputy assistant state attorney general was recently fired after he was caught in his car (in a cemetery, no less) with a stripper, sex toys, and a Viagra pill. The lieutenant governor, who's vying in a June primary to become the '10 GOP gubernatorial nominee, has long been trying to fend off rumors that he is gay; so perhaps he was merely trying to demonstrate manly toughness, back in January, when he said that giving publicly-subsidized meals to poor people was akin to feeding stray animals ("My grandmother...told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed").
But nothing skews the slimemeter like the allegations this week about the lady and the blogger. South Carolina has fittingly broken new ground. Is there something in the water down there? Never before (at least to my knowledge) has a male conservative blogger come forward to volunteer that he had a sexual affair with a married female "family values" candidate - in this case, Nikki Haley, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful who is being touted as "pro-family" by Sarah Palin.
In our brave new digital world, anyone can go online and post anything. Two days ago, a political consultant named Will Folks declared on his own blog, a popular South Carolina political tip sheet, that he had slept with Haley when he worked for her back in 2007. He offered no proof. Haley, a state legislator, denounced the blog post as "categorically and totally false," contended that she has been "100 percent faithful" to her husband during their 13 wedded years, and insisted that she was being smeared only because she had opened up a double-digit lead in the polls on the eve of the June GOP gubernatorial primary.
What's weird is that Will Folks (the name is fit for a Grisham novel) considers himself a Haley supporter. He says that one of Haley's gubernatorial rivals (not the gay-rumored lieutenant governor) has been shopping the Folks-Haley sex story around, so Folks decided to preempt the rival by coming clean on his blog. ("I decided I would get ahead of it...in a way that was respectful to Nikki"). Why he assumed that his preemptive confession would help Haley is a mystery. This is a guy who's supposed to know a few things about public relations; he used to be Gov. Mark Sanford's press spokesman. And the love guv also happens to be Haley's mentor. And the love guv's ex-wife, Jenny, has endorsed Haley.
I told you, it's impossible to make this stuff up.
Anyway, Folks is not happy with Haley's denial. He reportedly said yesterday: "Nikki says it’s categorically false. The problem...is it’s categorically true. There will be a very aggressive effort mounted to obtain all of the data that will corroborate what I’ve said." Translation: he supposedly has emails and text messages that prove the liaison, and intends to make them public.
What's fascinating here is that Haley is the rare married female politician to be accused of an extramarital affair. It's the guys who generally get in trouble for that; witness, most recently, Indiana congressman Mark Souder and Nevada senator John Ensign. It will be interesting to see whether Haley's gubernatorial candidacy takes a hit - one South Carolina political analyst said Monday that an accusation of infidelity is "the only way to really attack a female candidate" - or whether, in the absence of proof, she garners a major sympathy vote, thus greasing her win in the GOP primary.
To help ensure the latter, Haley aired a new TV ad yesterday, referencing both "the grace of God" and Sarah Palin. She also insisted in a statement that the sex charge "is quite simply South Carolina politics at its worst."
We'll see about that. The century is still young. Maybe our Palmetto friends would be wise to heed the advice of the late, great pitcher Satchel Paige: "Go very light on the vices...The social ramble ain't restful."
The real story isn't about amorous South Carolinian Republicans. Although I am miffed that Polman fails to bring up Elliot Spitzer or perhaps the" Adult Store " Governor McGreevey, to mention a few. The real story is American Idol. Crystal Bowersox or Lee Dewyze? Who wins?— Alvenada- Jon Palestra: If you're going to be fair you would have to admit that wars are fought with the warrent of congressional approval. And in the case of the Iraq war authorization the approval was done in bipartisan fashion. Furthermore the unemployment rate during Bush's tenure was between 4.7% and 6%. Even in the last full month of Bush's presidency the unemployment rate was 7.2%.— Alvenada
- palestra, there were no 'substantial surplusses' & when we were hit on 9/11 his spending went up to protect the country. He cut taxes to get the economy going again (something this president could learn from:) & get us out of the dot com Clinton recession as well. Trickle down economics works, but Pres. Obama's 'trickle up' economics leads to 10% unemployemnt & record deficits (W's pale in comparison). The dems should have not been 'conned' into support for the war if they truly believed he was wrong (which they did not). The only way Pres Obama could cut into the deficit is to stop spending borrowed money like a drunk sailor to do a 'non-stimulus' $1 Trillion slush fund that worked so well they are talking about another one & not pass a healthcare reform act that will put us further in debt. Wake up and smell the unpaid for coffee, sir:) Gotta run, be back in a bit!— NEPhilly
- Jon Palestra - you said " You cannot compare Obama running up a large deficit in order to prevent a depression (largely successful) with W's rape of our national wealth. It's obscene the way you try and compare them"....................So Obama is allowed to run deficits in the trillions? Everyday it's a billion here and a billion there- is he still trying to prevent a depression? I cannot ever figure it out. Wasn't his awesomeness touting jobs figures a few weeks ago? Is the stimulus working or not working. Do tell— Alvenada
- Actually there was never a surplus. The Republican congress did help Clinton get to within 20 billion of balancing the budget in 2000 but the debt did grow by 1.2 trillion over Clinton's presidency. Here is the link...........................http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm
- Correct me if I am wrong on the weekly Obama spending tab. I'm trying to keep a weekly tab on Obama's deficit spending . I count 54 billion on the Financial Overhaul Bill, Another 165 billion on the proposed bailout of Teamster Pensions, and 133 Billion for tax on oil ( hard to believe you can tax oil more and the bill costs us 133 billion but apparantly it's true.) So for the week the grand tally of proposed additional spending is $352,000,000,000. Just incredible! Obama and this congress cannot control themselves
- NEPhilly, I never considered attacking Iraq as spending money to protect the country. I still can't figure out why Bush wanted to start a war with Iraq and pretty much ignore Afghanistan, which was where bin Laden was last sighted. And while I'm not going to defend Obama's huge spending, there is historic precedent for government spending during recession/depression. If you look at charts, spending during the Depression spiked high, then dropped.— NigeltheMastiff
- Is the bloom off the rose?............Enthusiasm for the president among Democrats, which bounced following passage of the health care law, has faded again. Just 48% of those in the president’s party now Strongly Approve of Obama’s performance. That’s down from 65% earlier. Overall the President's approval rating is at 43%.
- Nigel- not be snarky but the mood has struck. We can't figure out why Obama cannot stop spending money. Any thoughts?
- Bush and the Republicans had the White House from 2000 - 2006. They dramatically increased overall federal spending and created historic deficits and that doesn't include the two wars. The case for the Iraq war was clearly a bunch of lies. Bush said that he knew for certain that Iraq had WMD and knew where they were located. That was clearly a lie. But that wasn't the real case. Bush said that Iraq was an imminent threat and that he had intelligence that Iraq was going to provide nuclear technology to terrorists. That's why we couldn't wait 6 more months for the UN to complete their inspections. Trickle down economics didn't work. That's a fact of history. It just made the super wealth wealthier. Jobs are created when demand exceeds capacity and the wealthy have gotten out of investing in innovation at least two decades ago. There is zero benefit to giving tax cuts to the wealthy. Oh, uhm, swedesboromike, a budget deficit and debt are not the same thing. You can have a budget surplus AND debt growth. Bush increased overall spending, created huge deficits and increased overall debt. How did he fund all that spending? He got a loan plus interest from Communist China! China then significantly increase military spending.— MikeP
It's hilarious to read people accusing others of being liars by telling lies themselves.
The left's delusion with Iraq is getting old. It's pretty clear all intelligence agencies suspected Saddam of having WMD. Period. Russia too, no less. Congress approved the use of force in a bipartisan vote. Who was willing to take a chance after 9/11? President Clinton even stated Iraq was a threat and would use WMD's. And Husseins constant obfuscation and interference with the U.N. inspectors made people even more suspicious. Of course, the U.N. sanctions were ready to expire and Saddam had already used the corrupt U.N. for his Oil for Food scam, so the Iraq War was necessary. Of course hindsight is 20-20. Iraq is better off than it was under Hussein, maybe not infrastucture wise because of the war, but human rights wise, yes. Oh yeah, I remember lefties wanting us to go into Darfur to stop the genocide during those years. Invasion, nation building anyone?- MikeP, you really need to knock off the drugs this early in the day. Save it for the evening.
- No way did this Nikki Haley have an affair with that young looking Will Bunch, complete with receeding hairline and unshaven pudgy face. He has nothing. Also, McClatchey is the scum of news organizations.
- nigel, whenever the discussion turns to the Iraq War your true colors always show true:) Think of the war as 'stimulus spending' as most goes for buying equipment & paying soldiers, etc. and you will be alright:) If Bush truly thought Saddam had WMD or was about to get them he was obligated to go & all the leading dems of the time thought so, imho. Tax cuts along with spending cuts by the govt. most certainy does stimulate the economy, just ask the 18 million more people who had jobs at the end of the 80's:) Also, ask Nj about taxing the rich as their millionaires tax has driven the rich people out & they are going to collect almost $900 milion less in taxes than they thought over the next 2 years. Luckily Gov. Christie held govt. spending increases to 0% since he took office and low and behold they have an extra billion & can leave that in the economy to grow jobs. Taxing, spending and borrowing by the govt. does the economy more harm than good, imho.— NEPhilly
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
ARCHIVES
All commentaries posted before April 18, 2008, can be accessed at www.dickpolman.blogspot.com.
- American Spectator
- David Limbaugh
- Free Republic
- Glenn Reynolds
- Hugh Hewitt
- Human Events
- John Hawkins
- Matt Lewis
- Michelle Malkin
- National Review
- Opinion Journal
- Power Line
- Red State
- The Brody File
- The Daily Caller
- Town Hall
- Weekly Standard
- Center for American Progress
- Crooks and Liars
- Daily Kos
- David Corn
- Huffington Post
- Media Matters
- Mojoblog (Mother Jones)
- Open Left
- Political Animal
- Salon's War Room
- Talking Points Memo
- Tapped
- The Democratic Strategist
- The Grey Matter
- Unclaimed Territory
- Andrew Sullivan
- Attytood
- Chi Tribune's The Swamp
- CJR's Campaign Desk
- CNN's Political Ticker
- CQ Politics
- FactCheck.org
- Gail Collins
- Howard Kurtz
- Mickey Kaus
- NBC's First Read
- Obit
- Political Wire
- Politico
- Politics Daily
- Pollster.com
- Real Clear Politics
- The Atlantic Wire
- The Fix
- The Moderate Voice
- The Plank
- USA Today On Politics
- Wonkette
