Cindi Scoppe and Warren Bolton are making good use of their new blog — as a timely supplement to what appears on the opinion pages, which is what I originally intended my own blog to be. You should check it out from time to time — not as often as you should check this blog, of course (let’s keep our perspective here), but from time to time.
For instance, check it today, and see where Cindi provides the full statement that former attorneys general McMaster, Condon and Medlock made to the court last week regarding the bizarre idea, proposed by the judge, that the AG lacks authority to investigate lawmakers without special permission:
STATEMENT FROM S.C.’s THREE LIVING FORMER ATTORNEYS GENERAL
Friday May 2, 2014The three of us listed below are attending the hearing before Judge Casey Manning today to offer our support for the time-tested authority of the Attorney General to prosecute crime and enforce the laws of South Carolina equally, with no privileges or special terms or conditions for any citizen, including elected officials.
We served consecutively as South Carolina Attorneys General for nearly 30 years, from 1983 to 2011. During his term in office, Travis Medlock successfully advocated the passage of the State Grand Jury, which is a critically important tool all subsequent attorneys general have used in the public interest to investigate allegations of public corruption and, when appropriate, to bring forward criminal indictments.
Over the past thirty years, not one of us ever imagined the Attorney General needed authorization from a legislative committee or political body in order to investigate or prosecute alleged criminal behavior by an elected official. Such a restriction would undercut the core Constitutional authority of the Attorney General. And even more importantly, it would violate the fundamental basis of our system of government that all people should be treated equally under the law.
We are here today because we believe these principles must be upheld to preserve our State’s founding ideal that no one should be above the law.
TRAVIS MEDLOCK, Attorney General 1983-1995
CHARLIE CONDON, Attorney General 1995-2003
HENRY McMASTER, Attorney General 2003-2011
This whole mess deserves all the attention Cindi is giving it and more. This is an important moment in South Carolina’s life as a place ruled by law.
Beyond that, I’m pleased to see the way both Warren and Cindi are embracing social media. The last few headlines on their blog all provide important perspective on the issues of the day:
- Legislature is inches away from total failure on ethics reform (Cindi)
- Once temporary homeless shelter taking on an air of permanence (Warren)
- Update on the legislative emasculate-the-attorney-general effort (Cindi)
Which reminds me… I need to go ahead and put a link to “And another thing…” in my blogroll…
And I urge you to check out both of their Twitter feeds as well. They’ve gone from an almost grudging use of the medium to using it more dynamically to maintain a public conversation. Here’s Warren’s, and here’s Cindi’s.
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Since none of y’all had comments, I’ll say something…
One of the things I love about the four most recent AGs getting together this way is that it appeals so much to my own communitarian, respect-for-institutions brand of conservatism. What they are standing up for is the very essence of our civilization, the thing that holds us together in spite of all the forces that try to drive us apart, something that transcends parties or personalities. They’re standing up for the rule of law, as it is clearly understood regardless of such distractions as ideology.
Their doing that made me feel good about the society in which I live, which is something that doesn’t happen often enough…
Dude, some of us eat lunch and stuff.
I think they are spot on, and I have no idea, well I have an idea, actually, why Judge Manning too it upon himself to raise the subject matter jurisdictional issue. Harrell has top trial lawyers, and they did not raise the issue, because, I suspect, it is so far-fetched they could not have signed the pleadings in good conscience had they raised it.
Something very rotten is going on!
See, I can change my point of view. I am no longer nearly as idealistic or prone to give the benefit of the doubt as I was, say, before Randy Scott’s true issues were revealed.
I just don’t have much to say on this. I haven’t been following the story that closely, so I only have a loose understanding of the facts. At this point, I’m waiting to read Judge Manning’s order, and I’ll probably only read it if he rules for Harrell. Until then, talking about it feels useless to me….kind of like CNN talking about the missing flight even though there is no new information.
But yeah, it was nice to see the former AG’s all together on this.