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.