McGill becomes lieutenant governor, Massey cries “coup!”, Leatherman becomes president pro tem

6 Replies

That was a busy, fairly intense hour or so I just spent over at the State House. Since I’ve already written it all out in Tweets, here’s my feed, with a few reTweets and replies thrown in for seasoning.

I’ll set the scene by saying no one emerged to oppose Sen. Yancey McGill for the office of Senate president pro tempore, despite the hand-wringing of some Republicans over the idea of a Democrat holding a practically powerless statewide office for a mere seven months) the horror!). Then:

So, you see, lots o’ drama, but not much suspense. You could have heard a pin drop while Massey was talking, but it was all over.

I like that Sen. Massey joined the thread. One of the cool things about Twitter is you get that kind of back-and-forth. Not just a monologue.

By the way, when I wrote that “the battle for pro tem is joined on the Senate floor,” I didn’t realize there wasn’t going to be a battle, other than Massey’s speech. I didn’t realize Martin had dropped out.

Also, that SRO crowd — I think it was all one group, having to do with the Farm Bureau or some such. They were later recognized from the floor. They just happened to enter as things got interesting.

And I wasn’t looking at Tom Davis when he voted no — even though he was seated right below me — but someone in the gallery near me noted that he had seemed really conflicted, and apparently disgusted, at the time of his vote. I’ll see if I can get ahold of him to elaborate.

And so you see the limitations of social media. It’s immediate, but stuff you find out moments later (and would have known before writing your story for old media) gets left out…

6 thoughts on “McGill becomes lieutenant governor, Massey cries “coup!”, Leatherman becomes president pro tem”

  1. Doug Ross

    Another day in Good Old Boy’s Town…

    Any word from soon-to-be twice defeated Vincent Sheheen? Or is his position as the leader of the Democratic Party in South Carolina a sham?

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    2. Barry

      It’s been in interesting 2 days

      Metts indicted yesterday.

      Today we find out Steve Benjamin invites strippers back to the hotel after visiting them at their club.

      As Casey himself would have said “keep reaching for the stars”

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  2. bud

    Brad, I guess I’m just not enough of a political junky to get too worked up about all this. After all doesn’t the general assembly dismiss until January soon? So how much power does the Senate pro-tem even have at this point, let alone the Lt. Gov? Still I guess it’s good theater.

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  3. Brad Warthen

    Had an exchange via Twitter with Tom Davis. He explained his vote by saying, “Your series on Power Failure. Everything wrong with SC gov distilled in that vote. People say they want reform but they fear power more… Just way too much power for one person to have.”

    I asked whether there was anything else; he said, “No, that’s it.”

    Tom’s a straight shooter, so I expect that’s it…

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  4. Kevin Dietrich

    Just a hunch, but methinks Shane Massey won’t be in line for any plum committee leadership positions in the near future. Still, I respect him for being willing to speak the truth, no matter what the cost.

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