Category Archives: Nikki Haley

Panel clears Haley, again, of corruption charges

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This just in:

Gov. Nikki Haley did not use her office for personal gain while serving as a representative from Lexington County, the S.C. House Ethics Committee ruled Friday.

The committee weighed seven allegations against Haley that included illegally lobbying for her employers and using her office to pressure lobbyists and their clients for donations to a foundation where she worked.

All the charges were dismissed….

It’s good to know that Lexington Medical Center paid her $110,000 per annum, and Wilbur Smith paid her $48,000, because of sterling qualities of hers that had nothing, repeat nothing, to do with her influence as a legislator. Perhaps it was because she’s such an awesome accountant, or something like that.

Whew.

Of course, now we’re left with her as governor. We’re left with the woman who defended herself from these charges by getting all emotional and painting her accuser, John Rainey, as “a racist, sexist bigot.” From The State’s report:

Her voice shaking slightly, Gov. Nikki Haley told House members Thursday who are looking into whether she illegally used her office for personal gain that the GOP activist who filed the complaint against her is “a racist, sexist bigot who has tried everything in his power to hurt me and my family.”

Haley’s allegations of bias came after an executive testified that a Columbia engineering firm paid then-state Rep. Haley, a Lexington County Republican, $48,000 over almost two years as a “passive” consultant to scout out new business, but Haley turned up no new work…

Nothing like character assassination and innuendo for persuading people of the quality of your own character, eh?

I’m trying to think of the last time I spent any time with John Rainey. I think it years ago, the time he invited me to sit at his table at the annual NAACP banquet.

And the last time before that, years earlier, I had a lunch with him at the Capital City Club, in which he went on and on about his plans for the African-American Monument on the State House grounds. He left shortly before I did, and when I was heading back to the office, I saw him meandering about on the grounds, scouting out the place where the monument would eventually be placed. He was really passionate about getting that thing built…

But I digress.

Nikki to Mitt: Think “Indian-American.” Then think, “minority female.” Got that?

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Did y’all see this story yesterday?

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney may not yet know who will be his vice presidential pick, but S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley has some ideas for him.

“There are amazing candidates for VP and (I) believe whoever Gov. Romney chooses will be part of a dream team. My preference would be Bobby Jindal or Condi Rice,” Haley wrote Wednesday when asked her vice presidential favorites during a Facebook chat with South Carolinians.

I didn’t know Nikki was the subliminal-message type. I thought she was more direct than that.

It’s like she’s swinging a pocket watch in front of him, and saying Miiiiiitt… Miiiiitt… You’re getting sleepy… What do you want in a running mate?… You want an Indian-American… like Bobby Jindal… and you want a female minority… like Condi Rice… oh, nooooo… you can only pick onnnnne… how are you going to get everything you want in one personnnnnn?…

Abracadabra: Panel votes 6-0 to reopen Haley ethics probe

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Now get this:

Columbia, SC (WLTX) – The South Carolina House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to reconsider an ethics case against Gov. Nikki Haley.

“Hopefully it’ll be a fair and impartial review of facts and the testimony of witnesses so that we can determine, better determine, and be informed about the allegations against the Governor,” said Kershaw County Rep. Laurie Funderburk, a Democrat.  Hers was the only vote against the initial vote to dismiss the complaint against Haley.

The committee’s decision came after a meeting late Wednesday in which Haley’s lawyer argued that the case shouldn’t be revisited.

Earlier this month, the same committee voted to dismiss all charges against the first-term governor. At issue is her time as a fundraiser for Lexington Medical Center and as a consultant for Wilbur Smith Associates, a consulting firm.

Haley was still a member of the House of Representatives when she held those jobs…

I wish I’d been there to hear the discussion, but I couldn’t get away at that time this evening.

What I would have wanted to hear would have been an explanation of why every Republican on the panel voted to end the investigation so recently — earlier this very month — but has now voted to reopen.

Suddenly, the case has merit, it seems.

Let me say that again another way: Within the same month, every single GOP member of the committee has changed his or her mind from “no” to “yes.” One doesn’t know whether to say “Thanks be for miracles” or “Hey, wait a minute…” Here’s a thought: Do both.

What caused this? Could it be as simple as “there were some feelings out there that more investigation needed to be done,” as chairman Roland Smith put it? In other words, that the people of South Carolina sort of collectively said “B.S.” to the vote to dismiss the charges?

Or was it meddling by the mean ol’ speaker? Nope. I saw Bobby today and asked him why he keeps picking on poor Nikki. “I’m not,” he said. So there you have it.

Are you worried that the gov will be distracted by this from the sterling job she’s doing for us, the trembling masses who elected her? Fear not:

“It’s a shame that South Carolina’s political system is once again failing the people and that politics are trumping the law. The governor will do what she has done time and again throughout this process, before and after the claims were dismissed: be open and honest about her work as a legislator, and stay focused on the things that matter to South Carolinians – getting our economy moving and reforming the backwards, good old boy system of government that so clearly thrives in Columbia,” said Haley’s spokesman Rob Godfrey after the decison.[sic]

I’m sure that makes you feel better. Reading back over that statement, I’m reminded of something we used to say long ago when we were on the old mainframe system in The State‘s newsroom: “I think he’s got that on a SAVE/GET key.” If you don’t understand, that’s OK: It’s technical…

And that would make it less “political” HOW?

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I was a bit surprised by this move by Joan Brady:

A Midlands lawmaker says the investigation into Gov. Nikki Haley has gotten too political and is encouraging it be investigated by the state Attorney General’s Office instead of a legislative committee.

“The State Attorney General’s Office has the experienced investigators and staff necessary to address this matter in a fair and timely manner,” wrote Rep. Joan Brady, R-Richland, a member of the House Ethics Committee that is looking into charges that Haley illegally lobbied while a member of the House.

In a letter to the committee’s chairman, Brady continued the committee is “not positioned to hire the criminal investigators and lawyers necessary to fully investigate this complaint.”…

On the one hand, the attorney general should be someone who could credibly do this. That is the one great advantage, theoretically, to having the A.G. elected separately from the governor.

On the other hand, what’s our experience been? The A.G.’s office was much criticized for supposedly dragging its feet on the Ken Ard investigation. I’m not saying Alan Wilson DID delay dealing with that sticky wicket; I’m saying he was accused of it. And I think it fair to say that criticism was… political. In the end, the thing was handled properly, but along the way there were plenty of recriminations. Political recriminations.

Does an investigation by lawmakers of one of their own have a political dimension? You bet. But so does an investigation by an elected official from outside the General Assembly.

And as it happens, the way the law is set up, it’s the Legislature’s job to investigate this. Rep. Brady not wanting to do so comes across as little more than wanting to ditch a hot potato.

Maybe it is more than that. If so, Rep. Brady should present clear evidence that the process has been compromised. That is to say, more compromised than that party-line vote to dismiss the charges the first time around.

The innuendo here — raised by Nikki Haley (who would never seek to influence an investigation of herself — would she?) — is that Bobby Harrell has improperly influenced the investigation by urging the panel to DO something this time.

I suppose you could see that two ways — as Harrell out to get Nikki, or as the speaker wanting a trustworthy ethics panel that won’t punt at the first whiff of public scrutiny.

If Rep. Brady has evidence that Harrell has crossed a line, let’s hear it when the panel meets on Wednesday. If not, if it’s just that the members are in an uncomfortable position here — well, Alan Wilson would be, too, if you dumped it on him.

Organized labor hits back — again and again…

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Still have a lack of details regarding this video clip (which won’t let me embed it, so you have to follow the link). I don’t consider the text explanations one gets from YouTube as the most helpful or authoritative, but so far that’s all I have to go on here:

Gov. Nikki Haley has been vicious to organized labor, saying in her State of the State address that “unions are not needed, wanted or welcome in South Carolina.” After years of being treated like a union thug, Donna Dewitt gets sweet revenge at a retirement reception in her honor.

I just want to go on the record as saying, right here and now, that I do not believe that Nikki Haley should be bludgeoned with a baseball bat. Even symbolically.

Did anyone at this event go, “Umm… wait a minute…” and think it was excessive? Was anyone creeped out? One hopes so. But one doesn’t know…

The key quote: “Wait ’till her face comes around, and WHACK her… Give her another whack! Hit her again!”

Yep. We’ve sunk pretty low, folks.

This was brought to my attention by Bryan Caskey, who got it from CNN’s Peter Hamby:

South Carolina labor official beats a Nikki Haley pinata with a baseball bat –http://bit.ly/KQ70py

Some faves from the late, lamented @PhilBaileySC

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Just got around to seeing this…

On Sunday in The State, The Buzz (a descendant of a tidbits column I started in the ’80s called “Earsay”), lamented the cruel demise of @PhilBaileySC, and remembered some of his best Tweets:

• “Happy Confederate Memorial Day South Carolina. The rest of the country calls this day ‘Thursday’ ”

• “At what point do I freak out about Sharia Law coming to SC? Right after Bigfoot is proven real?”

• “Haley to send it to Georgia tomorrow. RT @WLTX: 30-foot-tall State Christmas Tree arrives in Columbia”

• “Happy Valentines Day, Ladies. The @scsenategop will be attempting to regulate your womb tomorrow.”

• “Besides the latest Winthrop Poll numbers having @NikkiHaley at 37%, Angies List gives the SC Guv a D-.”

• “ Mitt Romney and Nikki Haley settled on the endorsement in an email. Unfortunately, Haley pressed delete on the email out of habit.”

Not sure those are the exact ones I would have chosen (the fourth certainly doesn’t reflect my views), but they give you the idea. My fave of these is the first one. Very Phil.

Cindi cites Her Alleged Majesty for contempt

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As was anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the rule of law, Cindi Scoppe was aghast at our governor’s behavior last week, both when she goaded the state GOP to defy the law in order to help rid her of a troublesome senator, and when her office responded childishly to the State Election Commission’s refusal to play along.

But Cindi wasn’t struck speechless. From her column Sunday:

If the governor had been the one speaking, she might have added, L’etat, c’est moi.

At least when Louis XIV said it, he had a legal basis to do so. He was, after all, an absolute monarch.

When our founding fathers created this nation, they didn’t just reject the British monarch. They rejected the idea of a monarchy. They rejected imperial rule. And nowhere in the fledgling nation was that concept more thoroughly rejected than here in South Carolina.

The governor of South Carolina isn’t even a real governor. Yet this one fancies herself royalty. An autocrat. With the divine right of queens. L’etat, c’est moi.

She had already demonstrated that she was hypocritical. And careless with the truth. And imperious. Now add lawless. And contemptuous.

Actually, it’s the court that needs to add that last one.

Although the Election Commission blocked the party’s effort to defy a court order, that doesn’t change the fact that the party, at the urging of our governor, acted in a way that was “calculated to obstruct, degrade, and undermine the administration of justice.” That’s the definition of contempt of court, which our Supreme Court has said judges should punish in order to “preserve the authority and dignity of their courts.”

The court cannot ignore such blatant disregard for its orders. It needs to find the governor in contempt. And while it’s at it, it should do the same to the state Republican Party, and the Florence County Republican Party. This is about far more than the candidates who have been mistreated by our state. It’s about the authority of the court itself.

But Nikki Haley wouldn’t know anything about that.

Panel: Whatever Haley did for the money, it wasn’t ‘lobbying’

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We have this development today:

Haley cleared of illegal lobbying by House panel

In a five to one vote, a House panel cleared Gov. Nikki Haley on Wednesday of charges that she illegally lobbied while a House member.

The six members of the House Ethics Committee have been meeting behind closed doors for more than a month, looking into a complaint that Haley lobbied on behalf of two employers, Wilbur Smith, a Midlands engineering firm that has done state work, and the Lexington Medical Center Foundation.

“We found no evidence that she lobbied,” said Rep. Roland Smith, R-Aiken and chairman of the committee…

Which leaves us wondering: OK, so… what DID she do for the money? With the hospital, we are given to believe not much, at least not enough for the hospital to continue the relationship. And we’ve never been offered a clue on the Wilbur Smith thing, beyond “really nothing.”

The hospital was paying her six figures, and Wilbur Smith paid her $42,500.

For what?

And… does the governor have a former employer anywhere that will say it was happy it hired her, and got its money’s worth? Probably. Just not, apparently, either of these.

Oh, get over yourself, governor

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Again, our governor seems to have been Facebooking under the influence… of something. Strong emotion, perhaps.

Did you see this in the paper today?

The Senate approved a constitutional amendment that would have gubernatorial candidates and candidates for lieutenant governor elected on the same ticket, just as the president and vice president are elected now. Voters would have to approve the change in November.

But senators made sure the change would not take effect until 2018, when Haley’s term as governor, if she is re-elected in 2014, will expire.

Haley immediately took to her Facebook page to criticize the Senate, asking voters to call lawmakers and pressure them to change the effective date.

“I’m not the one taking it personally, they are,” Haley said Thursday in an interview with The State. “This is a reform I pushed for all through the campaign. … To have it go in front of the Senate, and then have them push it through, because they know it’s the will of the people, only to say, ‘Oh, no, we don’t want the girl to have it. We want to wait until 2018’ – they are the ones taking it personally.”…

Which raises a couple of points:

  • First, why would she care? What possible difference could it make to her whether this goes into effect in 2014 or 2018? Did she have some sort of grand scheme in mind, and this messes it up, or what? She’s going to have enough trouble gaining re-election (if she even seeks it) without worrying about who the lieutenant governor is.
  • Second… “This is a reform I pushed for all through the campaign…” Well, whoop-te-do. Some of us have been pushing it a lot longer than that — like since you were in school. I’ve been pushing this for more than 20 years. (As have a lot of other people.) But you don’t see me getting bent out of shape because I’m not given credit for it.

Maybe I should. Maybe this is what one does now. Maybe I should run over the Facebook and throw a total snit…

Rawl defends Georgia dredging decision

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South Carolina Chamber of Commerce President Otis Rawl — who two years ago led his organization to make the unprecedented move of endorsing Vincent Sheheen for governor — today stuck up for Nikki Haley for something virtually no one at the State House will defend her on.

Speaking to the Columbia Rotary Club, he said the DHEC decision allowing Georgia to deepen the way to the port of Savannah was not a game-changer, and not a problem, for South Carolina in the long term.

In saying this, he was partly reflecting the wishes of multistate members who like the idea of competition between ports to keep costs down. But he also said it was a competition that Charleston, and South Carolina, would win.

To start with, he said, the proposed work would only deepen the Georgia port to 48 feet, compared to Charleston’s 52 — and that those four feet made a big difference. Further, he said that if South Carolina makes the right moves (always a huge caveat, but he seemed optimistic) we are well-positioned to become the entry point for the world to the Southeast, and an ever-greater distribution hub. One of the things SC has to get right — opening up the “parking lot” that I-26 has become at key times between Charleston and Columbia.

Otis agreed with me that this stance makes him a lonely guy over at the State House, where both houses almost unanimously rebuked the governor for, as many members would have it, selling out South Carolina to Georgia. Aside from Otis, only Cindi Scoppe has raised questions that challenge that conventional wisdom.

Now, lest you think ol’ Otie has gone soft on the Sanford/Haley wing of the GOP, he went on to say that one of the things business and political leaders must do to help build the SC economy is to refute, challenge and combat the Big Lie that our public schools are among the worst in the country. Because who in the world would want to invest in a state like that?

Not that we’re where we want to be, but as Otie pointed out, on realistic measures of quality, SC is more likely to rank in the low 30s. Which may not be fantastic, but is a far cry from “Thank God for Mississippi.”

On the whole, a fine set of assumption-challenging points from today’s Rotary speaker…

Going Vogue

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The piece about Nikki Haley in Vogue, like most national media coverage we’ve seen of her, reliably hits all the wrong notes — and hits them hard. One wonders how the piece was typed, since the writer seems to be constantly hugging himself with delight to be in her presence. (A woman! An Indian-American Woman! A young, Indian American Woman, governor of backward South Carolina! Oh, the rapture!) The cognitive vacuum created by the utter lack of perspective and skepticism is deeply disturbing. But we’ve grown accustomed to that.

Some of the more gag-inducing bits:

  • “On a warm morning in early March, governor Nikki Haley calls three members of the South Carolina state legislature into her office. They look like truants sent in to see the principal: Haley is earnest and stern, smartly turned out in a black-and-white ruffled jacket, black pencil skirt, and platform stilettos, while the legislators, in baggy suits and cowboy boots, fidget and make excuses.”
  • “Since then, she’s routinely been called a rising star in the party, which, when you’re talking about a governor, is code for White House–bound.”
  • “But still, she continues, leaning forward confidingly, ‘it’s different for the guys upstairs. This is the first time they’ve had a female governor; it’s the first time they’ve had a minority governor.’”

In other words, she plays Mr. Christopher Cox like a tin whistle.

But bits of clarity do slip in. My favorite:

  • “Haley in person looks even younger than her age: fit and attractive, with a face free of worry lines.”

Indeed. That has long been one of Nikki’s most notable traits. She believes that everything she believes is true, and doesn’t doubt. And as I remember from years past when I would grumpily try to disabuse her of one of those bumper-sticker principles — say, “I want to see government run like a business” — she is impervious to reason, perspective or argument.

If I were like that, my face would be pretty free of lines, too.

As the NYT Magazine noted, “Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina, doesn’t care what you think.”

Sometimes, the national media get it just right, in spite of themselves.

Why does Nikki Haley want to unionize SC school bus drivers?

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Here’s one of the things that puzzles me about Nikki Haley. To hear her talk sometimes, you’d get the idea that unions are a bad thing.

And yet she keeps pushing and pushing and pushing to unionize the drivers who operate public school buses in South Carolina.

Oh, you didn’t know that? Well, she calls it something different. She calls it “privatizing” school buses.

But what’s the first thing that happens whenever a private entity takes over the school buses in a South Carolina district? The Teamsters (and folks, if unions are bad, you’d think Jimmy Hoffa‘s old outfit would be superbad) come in right behind it.

How do we know this? Experience. There are three districts in South Carolina where the buses are no longer operated by the state. Let’s run down the list, shall we?

  1. Charleston — the drivers are represented by the Teamsters.
  2. Beaufort — the drivers are also Teamsters.
  3. Dorchester 2 — As of Friday the 13th, Teamsters Local 509 is celebrating having won the right to represent bus drivers.

So thanks to Nikki Haley and her ilk, the Teamsters are batting 1.000 in South Carolina.

I don’t know why she keeps pushing this privatization thing, given this apparently inevitable result. Maybe the answer is in her book. If anyone out there actually reads it, let us know.

All irony aside, this is yet another example of what you get when you are governed by people who do not have a clue how the world actually works.

What Nikki’s privatization scheme does is provide a back-door way to unionize public employees – just make them private employees. Neat, huh?

Is Nikki Haley really in trouble, or is everyone just engaging in wishful thinking?

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All of a sudden, everywhere I go, people are speculating that Nikki Haley will not be governor much longer. But I haven’t run into anyone who can really back that up.

It’s difficult to pinpoint the source of this increasingly ubiquitous meme. It’s tempting to say that the fall of Glenn McConnell to the post of lieutenant governor has just caused everyone to rake back through all the scandals and demi-scandals and presque vu scandals that we already knew were drifting about the governor, and start speculating about them in a new way.

There have been, however, some new developments, even though they have to do with things we heard about way back before the 2010 election. There was the lawsuit by John Rainey, which was recently dismissed. Then, picking up on that, the Democrats in the Legislature called on the governor to waive any confidentiality if she is a target of an ethics investigation.

But what this post is about is the buzz, more than actual developments. People just keep on speculating. For instance, in the last couple of days:

  • I was having breakfast with James Smith yesterday, and he expressed the “concern” that Democrats might not have the opportunity to run against her in 2014. I suspect that if James himself runs, he’d prefer it be against Nikki.
  • At dinner last night, another Democrat — a former staffer to former Gov. Dick Riley — approached me to ask whether the governor would be long in office (the proximate cause for this conversation seemed to be nothing more than McConnell’s becoming the Gov Lite).
  • Then, Logan Smith posted, over at Palmetto Public Record, this document purporting to be from the IRS to the gov’s father, having to do with the Sikh Society of South Carolina. Again, something we’ve all heard murmurings about in the past.
  • One keeps hearing reports (James Smith spoke of it) that Nikki will have, as Will Folks put it, “a credible, well-funded Republican primary opponent in 2014.” Actually, it could be several. And she’s not well situated to survive such a challenge.
  • Libb posted on a previous thread, “Keep hearing from insiders at the Dome she will be Blagoviched soon…one can only hope.”

So far, this sounds like an echo chamber. I’ve seen virtually NO new information surface. The topic just seems suddenly to have a life of its own. But so far, I haven’t seen anything that indicates she is any closer to leaving office than she was a month ago, when this wasn’t (as much, anyway) the hot topic.

‘Gov. Transparency’ won’t waive confidentiality

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Harry Ott puts it pretty well in this release:

Columbia, SC – House Democratic Leader Harry Ott expressed disappointment on Wednesday after Governor Nikki Haley’s office told the media she would refuse to waive her confidentiality in the event of an ethics investigation. Representative Ott released the following statement in response:

“According to Governor Haley, ‘can’t’ is not an option, but apparently ‘wont’ is. She talks a great game, but when it’s time to turn her rhetoric into action, the ‘transparency governor’ hides behind a wall of secrecy. Unfortunately, this has become a pattern. The people of South Carolina deserve an open and honest government from their leaders. If the Governor is under investigation, the public deserves to know.”

####

But then, Nikki Haley keeps going out of her way to tee the ball up for her political opponents. If there’s an opportunity to be open and aboveboard — from her legislative emails to this — she can be relied upon to hide behind any cover that SC law provides. And SC law is chock-full of such protections for those who want to keep their business from the limelight.

Here’s what the gov’s mouthpiece had to say:

“If Mr. Ott and members of the House want to change the law and waive confidentiality for all of the ethics complaints filed against them – past and future – the governor would be happy to join them,” said Rob Godfrey, Haley’s spokesman. “Otherwise, we would ask that they get back to the people’s business, fund tax relief and pass restructuring.”

Godfrey said Haley already has answered all of the questions raised in Rainey’s lawsuit, adding further investigation is not needed.

“If there is an ethics complaint (filed) about matters that took place years ago and that have already been answered again and again, the regular procedures should be followed, and we’re confident that the Ethics Committee will come to the same conclusion as every other entity that Mr. Rainey has shopped this nonsense to – that it is entirely baseless,” Godfrey said…

Young Mr. Godfrey probably thinks that’s one heckuva slam-dunk answer, and indeed it does communicate volumes. Here’s my read on it: Hell, no, we don’t want to be transparent and aboveboard on this. Do YOU want to be transparent and aboveboard? Because we’re not going to be until everyone else does it first. Far be it from US to lead on such a thing; we prefer to be last in line when it comes to openness. Now, instead of asking us to do stuff we don’t want to do, just you shut up and go do what WE want YOU to do.

Or did I miss something?

Arguments heard in Haley ‘corruption lawsuit’

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If you didn’t read the Free Times last week, you may have missed this:

by Corey Hutchins, March 16th 02:53pm

A judge heard oral arguments on March 12 in a public corruption lawsuit brought on behalf of a prominent GOP fundraiser against Republican Gov. Nikki Haley.

Fifth Circuit Judge Casey Manning has yet to make an official ruling on whether the case will move forward.

Reached by phone, Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said the governor’s office had no immediate comment on the matter.

Former Board of Economic Advisors chairman John Rainey, who recruited Mark Sanford to run for governor in 2002, filed the lawsuit in November. It asks whether Haley broke any laws as a House member either by lobbying a state agency on behalf of her employer Lexington Medical Center or by doing secret consulting work for Wilbur Smith and failing to properly abstain from legislation benefitting the engineering firm. Both occurred during the time she represented Lexington County as a Republican in the S.C. House prior to becoming governor in 2010…

It continues to puzzle me that South Carolina went through such paroxysms over Ken Ard buying a few trinkets with campaign money, to the point of his resignation, while we’ve never had a satisfactory answer to the  question, What did Nikki Haley do for Wilbur Smith to earn that $42,500?

For that matter, we don’t know what she did for Lexington Medical to earn that $110,000 salary.

We’re still waiting. Nikki’s still silent on these matters. And no one is bothered by that, apparently, except John Rainey.

That’s not ALL that’s wrong with that picture, ladies

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When I saw the headline, “What’s wrong with this picture?” and noticed that it was from the “Southeastern Institute f…,” I didn’t have to open the email, or even see the picture, to know what the answer was.

When you see the full name of the Institute, you won’t wonder, either. Nor will you wonder if you look at the picture in question (at right). But knowing full well the point, I watched the video anyway, and was rewarded by seeing my old colleague Andy Haworth, who shot video for thestate.com when I was there (what does it say that the one person I knew in the video was the one male, eh?).

But ultimately, we get to the place where we knew we were going — the fact that there are no women in the S.C. Senate. And I’m totally with the makers of the video that this is weird, not to mention not good.

The problem is when you talk about what to do about it. My problem is with what one young woman says at the end: “When they do find the courage to run, make sure you vote for them.”

No can do. Not if you put it that way. I just can’t vote for anyone because of gender or race. Or political party, for that matter. Either someone is the better candidate (such as when Inez Tenenbaum was running for superintendent of education — or for the U.S. Senate) or not (such as when Nikki Haley was the only woman running for governor).

You vote for the woman in the first instance, and not in the second. And if you do anything else, you shouldn’t be voting. The Senate can be all male, or all female — I’m not going to suspend judgment to address the imbalance, either way. Let the best woman win, but otherwise not.

Besides, if you ask me what’s wrong with the SC Senate, gender wouldn’t be the first concern I’d mention. If you’d give me a Senate, and a House, that would truly reform our government and our tax system and institute policies that would make our state healthier, wealthier and wiser, I wouldn’t care if they were all little green hermaphrodites from Mars. Or Venus, if you prefer.

But when you start picking them based upon demographics, or party as Harvey Peeler would have it, then you’re going down that Nikki Haley road.

Will the Budget & Control Board really go away?

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It would be nice to think so. Senate Republicans are rightly touting that possibility:

Columbia, SC – February 16, 2012 – The South Carolina Senate today passed the most significant piece of restructuring legislation in the past two decades, passing a bill that completely eliminates the state Budget and Control Board.

The new bill puts most of the functions of the Board under a new, Cabinet-level Department of Administration, and devolves the rest of the Board’s functions elsewhere. The end result is a more efficient, accountable structure for the state’s administrative functions, rather than the current system of having a five-member board control those functions. The bill had been a top priority for Gov. Nikki Haley, and now goes back to the House for approval.

“There’s an old saying that when everybody is in charge, no one is in charge, and that’s been true for too long with too much of state government,” said Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler. “This bill will let the people of South Carolina hold their leaders accountable for the results of state government.”

The bill’s two primary Republican sponsors, Senators Tom Davis and Shane Massey, issued the following statements:

“This bill has been a long time coming, and it’s gratifying to now see it so close to the finish line,” Davis said. “Our government has been plagued by an unaccountable structure that breeds inefficiencies. Today, we took a significant step toward correcting that.”

“This bill strikes a good balance between giving the executive branch control and accountability over administrative functions, while requiring the legislature to perform critical oversight,” Massey said. “This bill is all about a better, more efficient government that allows voters to hold elected officials accountable.”

Of course, since it’s a party document, it conveniently ignores that the most insistent advocate of replacing the Board with a department of administration in recent years has been Democrat Vincent Sheheen.

Oh, well. It’s not like the idea was anyone’s personal property. The release says, “The bill had been a top priority for Gov. Nikki Haley.” Well, yeah. And Mark Sanford. And The State newspaper, since at least the point when I started writing about it in 1991. And Carroll Campbell. And anyone who respects the American concept of separation of powers, which the Board’s existence blatantly violates.

Arts advocates gearing up to fight again

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Based on the emails I get, one of the best-organized lobbies in South Carolina is the one that promotes the arts. Of course, they need to be if their favored programs are to survive, since it appears that each year that Nikki Haley is governor is going to be a battle for existence for the state Arts Commission and related recipients of state funding.

Following up on the governor’s State of the State address last night (which I missed — anyone have anything to share about that?), they’ve sent out the following release. There will be many more, of last year is any guide:

STATE ARTS FUNDING:

Governor Nikki Haley has now given her State of the State Address and presented her Executive Budget. She has once again recommended NO state appropriations for the South Carolina Arts Commission. However, the agency will continue to move through the budget process which is now in the S.C. House.

Sub-committees of the House Ways & Means (HWM) Committee – the budget writing committee – are holding budget hearings from the various agencies and will later make recommendations for state agency funding in their own version of the state budget. The Arts Commission is scheduled for a budget hearing on Thursday afternoon, January 26th. Their HWM sub-committee consists of:

Rep. Chip Limehouse (Charleston, Berkeley) 803-7342977 ChipLimehouse@schouse.gov

Rep. Joe Neal (Richland, Sumter) 803-734-2804 JoeNeal@schouse.gov

Rep. B.R. Skelton (Pickens) 803-734-3036 BRSkelton@schouse.gov

Rep. Garry Smith (Greenville) 803-734-3141 GarrySmith@schouse.gov

Arts supporters should continue to thank their legislators for their past support and request that they continue to support state funding for the Arts Commission – especially if your Representative serves on the above Subcommittee. Don’t forget that many legislators have their own web site, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. The state’s web site has been redesigned making it easier to locate and contact your legislator, follow the House and Senate meeting calendars and legislation at: www.scstatehouse.gov

ARTS EDUCATION FUNDING:

There is some GOOD news regarding arts education funding within the Governor’s Executive Budget. Governor Haley has reinstated approximately $1.2 million for the Arts Curricula Innovation Grants Program within the Department of Education’s budget, which Superintendent Mick Zais recommended for elimination.

Arts advocates should thank the Governor for her support of these critical funds that are not only used for initiatives that support innovative arts education programs that improve student achievement, but provide quality professional development for arts and classroom teachers.

Governor Nikki Haley

Office of the Governor 1205 Pendleton Street

Columbia, SC 29201

Ph: 803-734-2100

Fx: 803-734-5167

www.Facebook.com/NikkiHaley

www.Twitter.com/scgovoffice

www.governor.sc.gov

Email at:  www.governor.sc.gov/Pages/sendMessage.aspx

SCAA’s ARTS ADVOCACY DAY is Tuesday, February 7th!

Join us at the Statehouse in support of continued state funding for the arts and arts education. Attend the Legislative Appreciation Luncheon in honor of the Legislative Arts Caucus. Join your legislators over lunch and be informed about the latest issues affecting the arts in our schools and in our communities. Reservations are a must and please consider being an “underwriter” of the event! Registration information can be found below. A form is also attached for your convenience.

That’s all right, just as long as Nikki is enjoying herself

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And she is. She is having a high old time stumping for Mitt Romney. That’s because there are national news TV cameras on him all the time. And when she’s on the podium with him, guess what — she’s on national TV, too! Which is the end-all and be-all for her.

So let’s be happy for her.

Of course, it’s not doing Mitt Romney a bit of good. I wonder if he knows that? I wonder if he’s thinking, Here I am, stuck on the stage with her again, and she’s introducing me and introducing me and introducing me, and how much longer do I have to keep this phony grin on my face, the one I’ve patented, the one in which my teeth are smiling but my eyes look like I’m frightened?

Or, is he thinking, She’s the governor! Of this critical state! Her standing up with me here is good, right? Right!

Well, he doesn’t have to trust his gut any more, because the numbers are in:

The poll found 89 percent of likely primary voters knew Haley had endorsed Romney. Of those who did know of Haley’s endorsement, the overwhelming majority — 71 percent — said it made no difference in who they support. Of the rest, 21 percent said Haley’s endorsement made them less likely to vote for Romney; only 8 percent said it made them more likely to vote for the former Massachusetts governor…

So what’re you gonna do, Mitt? You’re kinda stuck, huh?

Here’s what he’s gonna do: Keep grinning that ungrin or his, and keep telling himself he’s far enough ahead in the polls that it doesn’t matter.

OK, THIS is the Harpootlian I know

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We didn’t have to wait long for a release that addressed MLK day more in the style of the Dick Harpootlian we all know:

Fellow Democrats,

On the day that the country and the state of South Carolina celebrate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Republican Governor Nikki Haley chose to break bread with Texas evangelist, David Burton, who has fought to take all reference to Dr. King out of the Texas public schools text books.

He not only disrespects Dr. King, but he uses Jesus Christ to justify every far right position that he can dream up.

Poor judgment and disrespect, two character traits we have come to expect from Republican Nikki Haley, and she has met our expectations once again.

Call her office at 803-734-2100, and tell her that her actions are disrespectful.

If you want to learn more about the man who Nikki Haley believes was worthy of celebrating her Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with, watch below…

I have to say that I watched that video and didn’t get out of it what Dick said was there. It was too incoherent. See what you think. But at least the world has resumed its normal shape.