I’m just going to give this one a pass for now

This is too much. I had been sort of unplugged from the rumor mill for a few hours when my wife told me she’d half-heard something else on the telly about Nikki Haley, so I checked Twitter, and when I saw the names attached to the latest salacious allegation…

… I just said to myself, this is more than I can handle at the end of a long day.

Y’all talk about it if you want. Me, I’m going to hit the sack and hope that tomorrow brings us a higher quality of nasty rumor.

27 thoughts on “I’m just going to give this one a pass for now

  1. Bart

    South Carolina politics – the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving and giving – the residents of the state the shaft!!!

  2. Michael P.

    Bauer and his good ol’ boy network (Knotts, Leatherman, etc.) are just scared because their boy is getting mopped up in the polls. I wasn’t planning on voting for Haley, but all this crap being pulled by these idiots is convincing me that she must be doing something right if they’re pulling out all of their big guns.

    I thought Larry Marchant was gay, or at least that’s how he comes off in interviews. But I’m just calling them like I see them, to quote Andre, “A spade is a spade”.

  3. Brad

    Well, folks, I almost didn’t approve that one from Michael. The only reason I did was that he illustrates the problem — the serious problem — with this situation. It’s driving “sympathy” voters to Nikki. And that’s very bad for South Carolina.

    While there are definitely some non-rocket scientists involved here, I find it hard to believe that anyone involved is so stupid as to believe that such an awkward set of circumstances as this, awkwardly handled by everyone involved, could possibly help Andre Bauer leapfrog to he head of the pack between now and Tuesday.

    If I were Andre I’d be royally ticked off at Larry right now. And if I were Nikki I’d be writing them both “thank you” notes. (I mean, you know, if I were a chick, like Nikki. They do stuff like that.)

    I’m not much of one for conspiracy theories. For instance, in Will Folks’ case, I fully believe his explanation that he came out with this stuff because he thought it was about to appear elsewhere. Seems to me like something he’d do. But if there IS a devious method in his madness, the only reasonable conspiracy theory is that he was trying to help his ally Nikki. You know, with voters like Michael, who might have gone with someone else otherwise.

    But with Larry — sorry, I’m just not able to come up with a credible explanation for that one.

  4. Kathryn Fenner

    Throw enough stuff and eventually something will stick?

    I have to say that the second allegation did make me stop and wonder–but I am not now, nor am I ever, a likely Nikki voter….

  5. David

    While there are definitely some non-rocket scientists involved here, I find it hard to believe that anyone involved is so stupid as to believe that such an awkward set of circumstances as this, awkwardly handled by everyone involved, could possibly help Andre Bauer leapfrog to he head of the pack between now and Tuesday.

    If I were Andre I’d be royally ticked off at Larry right now. And if I were Nikki I’d be writing them both “thank you” notes. (I mean, you know, if I were a chick, like Nikki. They do stuff like that.)

    I don’t know — seems like a risky move. I don’t know why’d you’d want that if you had a comfortable lead in the polls. Maybe you would if you were in last.

    At this point, I’m just glad no one’s accusing Robert Ford of having an affair. But then it would put some focus on the otherwise invisible Democratic gubernatorial primary…

  6. Michael P.

    So now I’m actually voting for Haley? Is that what you’re implying… because that’s what you wrote. Brad you’ve never met me, don’t know me, and are using me as an example. Mighty fine journalism Brad.

    So Brad, your feeling sympathetic toward Will Folks now? I guess you bloggers really do stick together. Too bad “The Geek Squad” name is taken.

  7. Brad

    Sorry, Michael; I guess I read too much into your “I wasn’t planning on voting for Haley, but…” Sounded to me like you were leaning that way.

    But if you find that insulting, good for you. And I’m sorry if I misunderstood.

  8. Matt

    Brad, you keep missing the boat on a lot of things. You’re letting your subjective opinion that “Nikki Haley is just another Mark Sanford” or whatever the soundbite is prevent you from providing better insight into all of this junk going on with the Governor’s race. As one of the more respectable bloggers in our state, you could be writing some meanignful posts about the underbelly of South Carolina politics, and maybe try sticking up for the honor of a mother of two young children for a change.

    You don’t have to continue to jab Nikki in everything you post. It comes across as callous. You say it’s bad if people are voting for Nikki out of sympathy. Look, people I’ve talked to following this thing are turned off from even considering Barrett and Bauer at this point because their people have their fingerprints all over these hits. Boling. Donehue. Shealy. Marchant. And more. Why not point out that it would be bad for South Carolina if people vote for a candidates who have such poor character that their campaigns are actually pushing these Haley stories as a way to get elected, true or not?

  9. Brad

    Matt, several points:
    — I don’t think this is being orchestrated by any of the campaigns. As I said, Andre’s no rocket scientist, but I don’t think even HE would think having Larry do this would help him. As for the others, let’s just talk about B.J. Boling for a moment. He’s a guy I trust. And what’s his involvement? Let’s see: The Free Times says that somebody else said that HE once said that Nikki told HIM there was an affair. But when you ask him directly, he won’t comment. And I don’t know what else you want him to do. Well, I guess you’d want him to deny it. But what if he can’t? Then what’s the decent thing for him to do.
    — I don’t know who’s telling the truth. As I’ve said before, if it’s a “he-said, she-said” between a lady and Will Folks, I side with the lady. And ditto with Larry Marchant. Only chivalrous thing to do, especially since neither of these guys is anybody’s notion of a knight. But then I have to ask myself what their motive is — and no; I don’t think Nikki’s explanation of their motive is credible. This doesn’t hurt her; it helps her. In a perverse way, but it helps. So if somebody’s lying, my nominees are Will and Larry. But I still can’t figure out WHY they would lie about this.
    — Finally, it would be very, very bad were Nikki Haley to become governor. Once, I thought she was merely naive, and would gain a greater understanding of public policy with time. So I endorsed her twice — enthusiastically the first time. But now, she has unequivocally positioned herself as the heiress of the Sanford legacy, and that is VERY bad. This is exacerbated by her embrace of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, courting a truly demagogic form of negative populism (something that I can’t see Sanford doing; I’ll say that much for him). Frankly, of the four candidates, were she to be elected after running this kind of campaign, she would have the potential to do the most harm of all.

  10. Michael P.

    So will we see the Brad Warthen vs. Mark Sanford saga sequel if Nikki Haley is elected? I’m just wondering if we need to prepare for daily Haley bashing in our future?

  11. Mab

    Michael P. — Nikki Haley won’t be elected. You can boot that one from your equation.

    She is Hypocrisy Walking. In heels and tight skirts/pants.

  12. Michael P.

    Mab – Too bad you didn’t have your crystal ball out last night before the Powerball drawing.

  13. Michael P.

    I wonder if Mab doesn’t like Nikki because he/she can’t pull off high heels and tight skirts/pants.

  14. Mab

    Michael P — Of course I could pull it off. I would look ridiculous at my age, but I have never let that stop me before.

  15. martin

    First, Michael P. = Bill.C.

    Why would the wives of Folks and Marchant go along with something that humiliates them and their families if it were not true?

    They could be particularly dim, but I just don’t see what potential rewards to their spouses
    could make up for them and their children becoming a part of this circus if they didn’t have to. Particularly, the Marchant wife who I read is pregnant with child #3.

    One can infer from Cindi Scoppe’s column about State House rumors that Haley has been among the numerous other members in that mill for quite a while.

  16. Burl Burlingame

    The final days before an election are generally amped up and turn emotional rather than logical. Weird, stupid things are said and done that wouldn’t be considered at any other time. Wouldn’t be genteel. And it gets worse if all the candidates are trying to out-negative each other. Crabs in a bucket.
    Generally, a newspaperman’s job is not to pitch one way or another for either team, but to look out for the interests of the citizens in the stands. As a blogger, Brad still has too much ink in his veins.

  17. Bart

    If Nikki Haley is the Republican nominee, she will win – period.

    If she can continue to survive the two accusations with a double digit lead, she can survive anything thrown are her in the campaign against the Democrat nominee.

    Not saying I agree, since I think all are a bunch of incompetents but this is still South Carolina.

    The last qualified governor who did the actual job of governing was Carroll Campbell. Well, forgot about Dick Riley. He was a good governor. But after these two, it has been incompetent after incompetent. Couldn’t chew gum and walk at the same time.

    Why do we keep driving in reverse and expect to finish first?

  18. Kathryn Fenner

    Mab and Michael P.– What a trollish comment thread!

    There are plenty of reasons to dislike Nikki Haley, as Brad has outlined for us, but denigrating her wardrobe choices is pretty low. No one does it to male candidates. Women have no magic uniform to choose from–from Hillary Clinton to Sarah Palin, every woman who gets high enough in the political firmament has to take grief about her hair and wardrobe choices….

  19. Pat

    IF Haley wins the nomination, I hope the democrats and the disenfranchised republicans and the independents will do what’s right for the state. And,I hope the Republicans win their suit to have closed primaries. Then they can have their kookiest kook, and we will see them for who they are.

  20. Brad

    Michael, fyi — I disallowed your comment that did nothing but call another commenter a “moron.” Very definition of an ad hominem attack, and therefore as clear a violation of the civility policy as one is likely to find..

    I tried to tell you this via e-mail, but that address you give is not functioning. And I go to this trouble because you recently seemed to express confusion about why another one of your comments was not allowed.

  21. Mab

    KF: Lighten up, Francis. It was half-joking as could be discerned from my next comment.

    I live in Lexington, have watched the shenanigans going on 18 years now, I will speak my mind about it.

    It is up to Brad to accept or deny the comment, thereby eliminating “trollishness.”

    No one wants to make a comment only to be rebuked by a “prig.”

  22. Brad

    OK, folks, I call your attention to my previous message to Michael. “Prig” is on the borderline.

    Come on, we can do this civility thing…

  23. Brad

    Sorry, I didn’t scroll back up that high.

    “Troll” is also on the cusp… even “trollish” for that matter.

  24. Kathryn Fenner

    Sorry that I came too close to the edge. I do decry the joking-or-not-or-sorta/kinda-joking discussions of female candidates’ attire for the reasons I stated. I withdraw any comments about the character of the commenters.

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