Here’s an interesting (if unsavory) thing to contemplate…
First, it’s pretty much a given that Nikki Haley will win the GOP nomination — maybe even without a runoff. So what happens after that?
Well, one’s first instinct as a longtime observer of politics is to think, The allegations against her character aren’t going away. And while folks rallied around her at the last minute to give her the nomination, I’ve seen the way scandals wear away support for a political figure over time. Several months of such talk will erode a lot of her support.
But will that happen in this case? I don’t know. And the reason I say that is this: If Will Folks and Larry Marchant keep on maintaining that what they said is true — say, if Will Folks keeps raising the question of why Nikki, the transparency heroine, won’t release her phone records — then she’s in trouble over the course of several month. Scandal-weary independents, and maybe a few Republicans, will go with the squeaky-clean Vincent Sheheen as a way of putting it all behind them.
But would Folks and Marchant do that, or will they fade as quietly into the background as they can, to deal with their own personal demons? There’s reason to believe they would.
Here’s why: After primaries, Republicans close ranks. It’s what they do. Sure, there’s reason to think that some of them won’t do it this time — Nikki has run AGAINST the GOP establishment, talking about the need to elect “conservatives” rather than Republicans. But most likely their instincts will kick in, and they will swallow their pride and line up behind her.
And if they do that, what sort of future to Folks and Marchant have if they continue to try to trash her reputation? These guys may not have all that many friends — especially Folks — but the ones they have are all Republicans. And the school-choice, anti-gummint kind of Republicans at that. As I’ve noted before, the only GOP candidate I could imagine Folks supporting would be Nikki. In fact, one of the only two explanations of this scandal that makes sense is that Will’s doing it to help Nikki by drumming up sympathy for her (that’s if he’s lying; the other scenario that adds up is if everything he’s saying is true, but I recoil from believing that of Nikki).
All of that argues for these guys curling up into a ball and hoping not to get noticed any more. (Of course, the main thing that argues AGAINST that is Will “LOOK AT ME!” Folks’ natural propensity to make as much noise as possible. In which case we see whether there’s anyone who can still sit him down and persuade him to behave, which remains to be seen.)
Anyway, in a month or so the pattern will have emerged…
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Each other???
“And if they do that, what sort of future to Folks and Marchant have if they continue to try to trash her reputation?”
Look what happened to the guy who did the same thing to Sanford.
What’s the journalistic position just beneath blogging?
Folks and Marchant, Jr. will be untouchables in SC. Having anything to do publicly with a candidate’s campaign would doom the candidate.
One asks why Lee Atwater did not become untouchable in SC after employing similarly hard edged tactics. Obviously, by the time the public was aware of Atwater he had become a successful political consultant in the national arena.
His success and fact that he was a lawyer earned him a spot as an in the Reagan administration. Atwater moved to Washington D.C.
Folks and Marchant, however, are not lawyers and neither of them could claim Atwater’s national campaign success.
My guess is they have been promised employment in a blue state government like Florida, New Mexico, Colorado, or Virginia.
Both will continue to live in SC until January 2011, however, to write the book few will want to buy. Good riddance!
Well, I and a lot of other people still believe the affair allegations are true. Never heard about the Marchant one before he came out, but the rest is well-known. And there’s big reasons why these guys won’t back down. First, Folks loves himself more than any candidate or policy. But he did accuse Jake Knotts of having an affair that resulted in a child, and never backed it up. Second, Larry Marchant went forward with this while he is married and his wife is pregnant. Both of these guys should have just shut it down and said, “No,” then spun it if evidence came forward. And they didn’t. That says a lot right there.
Very well, Wes Wolfe, why do you omit BJ’s e-mail assertion that Haley told him of her affair with Folks?
You must believe that not only is Nikki a common whore, but that she is totally indiscrete. Are you kidding, man?
You must never have had a working relationship with East Indians.
It is much easier for “a lot of other people” to believe that a confessed woman abuser and opportunist (Will Folks, of course) just continued his lifelong pattern of female victimization as regards
a woman with chutzpah.
Haven’t they gone all in already? If so, they can’t back down.
Reporters will continue to ask them and Haley questions. The snooping will continue for the big scoop – a gold mine for a blogger. Some democratic surrogate or Harpootlian will dredge it up.
Either these two guys had a deal with Bauer or the allegations are true. Why else would they do this? Going on a limb for Bauer seems so far fetched, I am leaning towards truth.
BTW, I thought I was getting out of the SC political debate but I keep reading about you guys on the national news!
“Either these two guys had a deal with Bauer or the allegations are true.”
Why only a deal with Bauer?
Besides, if true it would mean promiscuity has been Nikki Haley’s lifelong, adult habit, which would in all likelihood continue à la Bill Clinton.
Other than lawyers, career politicians, and highly suspect political consultants average citizens are loath to believe Haley has had such a habit.