Bad craziness in and around the SC Senate

26 Replies

For some time, I had been hearing about how “toxic” the atmosphere was lately in the State House. And when I asked which of several things the person saying that might be referring to, it would turn out to be about the atmosphere in a House whose speaker is being investigated, and who is locked in an increasingly freaky legal battle with the state attorney general of his own party regarding that investigation.

But you knew about that.

Then, in the last couple of weeks of the legislative session, suddenly things got just as weird and uncomfortable in the Senate — which, you know, likes to fancy itself as above such things.

This situation has more aspects than a cat has hair, so let’s discuss it in chunks.

  • First, Glenn McConnell surprised everybody a couple of years back by falling on his sword and becoming lieutenant governor when Ken Ard resigned. Everyone, including yours truly, went on and on about how selfless that was — going from being the most powerful of senators to a job that is only slightly better than a bucket of warm “spit” because several years ago lawmakers gave the gov lite the Office on Aging so he’d have something to do. But eventually, everybody got used to that, and got used to McConnell friend John Courson being the new president pro tem, largely due to the support of Democrats in that body.
  • Then, McConnell decided that he wanted to become president of the College of Charleston, and the trustees chose him for that position. Which caused a whole lot of fuss, but mostly down in Charleston. McConnell served notice initially that he’d quit at the end of June, so somebody would have to become Gov Lite in his place. Courson indicated he was not interested.
  • Then, Courson and others held up a bill that would have somehow magically transformed the College of Charleston into a research institution.
  • Then, McConnell indicated he would leave office before the end of June, which meant there would be no Gov Lite to ratify bills so they could go to the governor, which is the like one thing we need a Gov Lite for, other than to take a governor’s place in a pinch.
  • Then, McConnell, started impugning the honor of John Courson for not being at all willing to fall on his sword and become lieutenant governor. Courson announced plans to step down as president pro tem, with a barrage of self-righteousness from McConnell coming down around his ears. Meanwhile, Majority Leader Harvey Peeler was suggesting that McConnell himself was less than fully honorable in trying to get a CofC bill passed while he was still in the State House.
  • After a moment in which it looked like no one was interested in becoming pro tem, and therefore lt. gov., Democrat Yancey McGill raised his hand — which would give Democrats, however briefly, their first statewide elective office since Jim Rex left the position of superintendent of education.
  • Then, Sens. Hugh Leatherman and Larry Martin expressed interest in the pro tem position — but only (if I’m following this correctly), after Yancey McGill has already held the post and become temporary lieutenant governor. I mean, they’re not crazy or anything.

You see why I hadn’t written about this? It takes awhile even to set out the bare bones.

The wildest part of it all for me is seeing McConnell and Courson split the blanket this way. They were always as tight as any pair of senators in that most collegial body. Back when I had trouble getting McConnell on the phone (which was pretty much any time I wanted to get him on the phone), I would go to Courson and he would ask McConnell to call me, and he would, against his inclinations.

What happens next? Well, if you made me take a wild guess, I’d predict that Leatherman comes out on top at the end of it all, because I find it easy to imagine the Democrats (who elected Courson) backing him than backing Martin. Leatherman, after all, used to be a Democrat, and Martin is believed to be Nikki Haley’s preference.

But hey, in a world in which John Courson and Glenn McConnell are bad-mouthing each other, anything can happen.

 

26 thoughts on “Bad craziness in and around the SC Senate”

  2. bud

    In the words of Rick Perry, Whoops. Meant to post the above in the preceding post. But perhaps the subject of streamlining is relevant in politics. Why do we need a lt gov? Or for that matter what is the point of a House AND Senate in a state general assembly? Seems like we could get more accomplished with less.

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  3. Doug Ross

    Grumpy old self-serving men acting like grumpy old self-serving babies. South Carolina is what it is because of all the names mentioned in your post. It’s not the fault of new legislators or Libertarians.

    What we need is term limits to send them all out to pasture where they belong.

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  4. Karen Pearson

    Will some adult please go in there and restore order. Maybe then folks can kiss and make up, or at least go stand in a corner and stop raising cane.

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    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      There’s nothing wrong with raising cane; in fact, it can be rather sweet. And better for you than producing high-fructose corn syrup.

      The problem comes when one starts raising Cain…

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      1. Mark Stewart

        SC politicians have been known to raise cane as well; see US Rep Preston S. Brooks’ beatdown on the US Senant floor…

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        2. Brad Warthen Post author

          But what South Carolinian (at the time) said there was anything wrong with that? Brooks was practically canonized for the episode…

          In any case, the harm wasn’t in raising the cane; it was in lowering it, suddenly and repeatedly…

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            1. Bryan Caskey

              And I see that Burlingame chose rifles as the weapon of choice. Damn, that isn’t playing around. He wasn’t going in for those smooth-bore duelling pistols that were not so accurate. He was out for some blood.

              Protip from Caskey: Anyone who chooses rifles in a duel is not to be trifled with.

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            3. Brad Warthen Post author

              Yeah, I’d never heard of such a thing. Swords or pistols are the usual way in the Code Duello. I mean, rifles — that’s so… intentional. Purposeful. Unsporting. That’s an assassin’s weapon…

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  5. Brad Warthen Post author

    Y’all should definitely read Cindi Scoppe’s column this morning. She deals with this in passing, then goes on to the larger point that the CofC research bill wasn’t the only thing being fast-tracked to the point of not receiving proper scrutiny. Not by a long shot.

    Possibly most alarming was the way the chairmen of Ways and Means and Finance worked out a budget compromise between the two of them, in the dark, without the relative openness of a conference committee:

    Normally, after the House passes the budget and the Senate passes the budget, a conference committee negotiates a compromise. Not this year.

    This year, House Ways and Means Chairman Brian White and Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman worked it all out in secret. And unlike the one other time in our state’s history that this happened, they were not at all coy about it. Everybody knew what was going on, and nobody seemed to mind. What a great deal; no messy conference committee.

    Indeed. No messy negotiating in public, which allows legislators, and voters, to get a sense of what deals are being considered, when there’s still a chance to change them. Admittedly, the conferees play games with the open meetings law, but they do hold public meetings to talk about their differences, to announce where things stand and, eventually, to adopt the agreements they have negotiated in secret. And that final deal generally is in the public domain for at least a few hours before a vote.

    This year, on the final Wednesday of the regular session — just hours before Sen. Peeler brought the Research University of Charleston bill to a screeching halt — Messrs. Leatherman and White presented their fait-accompli budget to their colleagues, for immediate votes. Actually, they presented their oral explanation of the budget, and answered legislators’ questions. And since the negotiations had been secret, with no progress reports, people didn’t really know what to ask….

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    1. Doug Ross

      Wonder when wannabe Governor Sheheen will weigh in on this? I won’t hold my breath. Imagine if he acted like a leader and tried to change the system he’s been part of for so long…

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  6. Ralph Hightower

    What if McGill decides “Nah, I don’t want Pro Tem. Leatherman and Martin, you can have it.”

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  7. Burl Burlingame

    Anson was one of the Ohio Burlingames, like my folks, but then went off to live in the howling wilderness of Michigan. (Burlingame, BTW, is a border name, and a corruption of Birmingham. My folks landed in Massachusetts in the 1600s, one step ahead of the law.) That sniveling weasel Preston Brooks savagely beat another senator into unconsciousness simply for being anti-slavery, and when Anson called him out on it, Brooks challenged Anson to a duel. Anson accepted eagerly, and Brooks burst into tears and ran away.

    Lincoln appointed Anson as our envoy to China, and he successfully introduced the “Burlingame Treaty” that normalized relations with China. It would have passed quicker, but Anson Burlingame insisted on language that recognized Chinese as human beings.

    It is Yankees that keep civilization going.

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    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Not to stick up for Brooks, who I believe was contemptible, but he didn’t thrash Sumner “simply for being anti-slavery.” Yes, it was in retaliation for an anti-slavery speech, but one that contained what Brooks perceived as a slight against his uncle, Senator Andrew Butler.

      Going by this picture, I’m guessing Sumner said something about the senator’s hair…

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