This broke earlier today:
House Speaker Bobby Harrell suspended himself Thursday from the House of Representatives and transferred his duties as speaker to his next in command.
The suspension came the day after the Charleston Republican was indicted on nine charges, including illegally using campaign money for his personal expenses, filing false campaign disclosure reports and misconduct in office….
Harrell’s suspension, he said in the letter, is effective immediately. He transferred his duties to speaker pro tempore Jay Lucas during his suspension.
But an advisory opinion by Solicitor General Robert D. Cook, requested by two Democratic House members, said Harrell cannot suspend himself because the indictments disqualify him from participating in business of public office.
Instead, the indictments require the speaker pro tempore to act immediately to suspend Harrell…
A good deal of confusion, no doubt arising in part from the fact that this is pretty much a new situation for everyone involved.
Meanwhile, I ran across this webpage from just a fortnight ago, when Harrell’s prospects for hanging on looked excellent. What a difference an aggressive prosecutor and a grand jury can make…
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Are you, like Vincent Sheheen, waiting for the process to play out before offering an opinion on Harrell? That’s the way I am reading it.
Makes sense that he can’t suspend himself because that would presume he could also reinstate himself.
I’d love to see it go to a vote for the members to go on record. That would be fun to see them squirm.
I thought I’d offered some opinions already. I mean, I was pretty appalled by the attempts to short-circuit the investigation, both through secret motions and legislation. Maybe I didn’t state it overtly enough; I don’t remember.
As to the allegations in the indictment — well, I don’t know whether he’s guilty. All I know is that he seemed to pull out all the stops in an effort to avoid getting to this point.
That’s always been the unknown here. He engaged in some pretty unseemly behavior with the attacks on Wilson and the attempts to wriggle out of the investigation. But I’ve never known one way or the other whether the underlying allegations were true or not.
Apparently, there’s smoke, and it’s highly visible smoke, according to SLED and Wilson and the solicitor and the grand jury. I just can’t tell you whether there’s a fire or not.
You have to remember that I spent a lot of years as a newspaperman, and it is deeply ingrained in me that an allegation, highly credible or not, is just an allegation until a conviction is obtained.
I’m like a Fair Witness in Stranger in a Strange Land, if you’re familiar with that concept. In the book, to demonstrate what Fair Witnesses are like, a character asks one, “That house on the hilltop — can you see what color they’ve painted it?” The Fair Witness looks and says, “It’s white on this side.” Because she’s not about to ASSUME it’s white on the other sides.
Y’all think of me as a guy who has opinions about everything. But there are some things that put me in Fair Witness mode, and criminal allegations are one of those things…
Aw, c’mon. There’s a fire. The question is whether you can PROVE there’s a fire.
Actually, I don’t know there’s a fire. If the word “know” has the usual meaning…
Nor do I know that O.J. Simpson killed his wife. Even though it looked a lot like he did…
I move to strike this juror for cause.
Your definition of a reasonable doubt and mine diverge quite a bit.
Yeah, they never want me on juries…
Actually, I got picked for one once, in federal court, but they settled before the trial began…
How about if I put it this way…
As a South Carolinian and a believer in the Rule of Law, I feel a sense of satisfaction that the grand jury has handed down this indictment.
This is a serious matter, and it’s very important that the sometimes outrageous efforts by Harrell and his supporters to bury this investigation have now failed. This needs to be tried. And the fact that it will is a good thing for South Carolina.
Because he figures suspending himself will defuse enough that we don’t notice he’s supposed to be suspended from holding public office altogether….as we see some Democrats point out.
I think that Harrell will likely remain as Speaker if he does not get convicted. He must have some powerful box of blackmail a la The Shield or something…
Isn’t the real question whether the house will hold a vote to elect a new speaker in January?
If they are just going to let his second-in-command hold down the fort, then Harrell in effect remains the jail-house mob boss. If a vote is taken to empower someone else, naturally they will move to consolidate their own control in ways that may not assure Harrell a return to his position should he win his court case and be able to hold onto his seat in the house.
Well, according to The State this morning, Jay Lucas isn’t just the guy who would be acting speaker. He’s seen as the leading candidate to replace Harrell if it comes to that.