This is both a follow-up on this Tuesday post, and a preview of tomorrow’s column. Here we have members of the unanimous Lexington/Richland District 5 school board talking about what’s different about this referendum proposal, and why they think the community Irmo/Chapin community will support it.
With my wife back in town, and what with her missing buying fresh local produce from the Amish up in PA, we took Emile DeFelice up on his invitation to head downtown for the alternative farmer’s market at Gervais and Vine.
We got there sort of late, and some of the vendors were shutting down, but we bought some pork chops, Italian sausage and breakfast links from Emile, and some okra from somebody else — nice little tender ones, too, none of your stringy gigantic pods you tend to get late in the growth cycle. Oh, yeah — and a couple of pounds of ground Angus beef.
It was a little pricey — to which my wife, an organic gardener since college days, says it’s better this way because when she goes to the supermarket she’s tempted to buy stuff she doesn’t need. I also find it hard to reconcile the ideas of "local" and "fresh" with frozen meat. But as Juanita says, if you’re not going to do hormones and preservatives and all that garbage, you have to freeze it. She says that with one of those looks and tones like she can’t believe she married, and bore 5 children for, such an idiot.
Hey, but I’m down with the whole Mr. Natural thing, and always have been. When she and I were first married, and living in what had been her grandparents’ house in Jackson, TN, we were really into that stuff. So much so, in fact, that right after we started living there, a natural-foods store called The Pumpkin Seed opened in a tiny space at the back of what had been her grandfather’s drug store across the little side street the house was on. It was run by a couple a little older than we were who had dropped out and had a dairy farm up in Carroll County. They would give us free manure for our garden — which was about 30 feet from the door of their shop. Since dairy products are deadly to me, I never had any of their milk, but they said it was really good except for the taste of the onion grass the cows ate.
Which sort of brings us back to Emile’s farm, where the hogs graze on whatever they want, and lie around and do whatever they want, except, presumably, watch TV, because that would make them get all flabby.
Emile’s a political guy and sure enough, there’s a political statement in this farmer’s market, which is a deliberate alternative to the State Farmers Market, which caters to a lot of out-of-state vendors and products, and which is subsidized by a lot of tax money, which Emile is against. (So are we, for that matter — we’ve fought unsuccessfully to keep state money from being wasted on the new one out at the end of Shop Road.)
And seeing as how it’s such a political farmer’s market and all, it was fitting that Emile said our own Doug Ross had dropped by earlier, which sort of blew his mind, meeting somebody he’d previously known only virtually in the flesh. And while we were there, Bud Ferillo came by and got himself a late breakfast of fresh strawberry crepes. So it was a happening place.
Emile says he’s going to send us some more info on where to buy local and natural on a regular basis, and I’ll post it here when I get it.
I ain’t gonna work on Emile’s farm no more… hang on, I gotta get my ax, cuz I’ve got another one comin’ on…
Here’s today’s contact report:
First, I had breakfast with our own Doug Ross, frequent commenter on this blog. How this meeting developed is complicated. It went sort of like this — Doug filed a comment that I did NOT publish, but meant to turn it and my reply into a separate post, until Doug complained (as a guy who has the common decency and courage to use his real name — note him holding up his picture ID — and who therefore has certain rights on this blog) that his comment hadn’t been posted, and I e-mailed him with my phone number so I could explain, and he suggested coffee instead, and next thing your know, it evolved into him meeting me at my habitual morning spot, the Capital City Club. Anyway, I learned that Doug lives out in Blythewood, he works in software, and he’s a Red Sox fan. Everything else you need to know about Doug you can find out from reading his comments on the blog. Oh, one other thing — we chatted briefly about his long-ago suggestion that we have a get-together of regular commenters sometime. Maybe that would be a good way to mark my millionth page view, which I estimate we’ll hit probably sometime in the next year. What do y’all think?
Oh, one last thing — Doug said I recently ran video of someone who Doug’s family said looked a lot like him, only younger. I’m guessing that was B.J. Boling of John McCain’s S.C. staff — don’t you think?
Calling your attention to the new Web site launched by S.C. Rep. Nathan Ballentine, who has created a fairly spiffy interface between himself and constituents:
“Always accessible” is the theme I had in mind when I chose to launch a new website September 5, 2007!
For the past three years, I’ve constantly kept my constituents informed via monthly COMMUNITY UPDATE emails, annual surveys, important mailings (tax free holidays, elections, referendums, etc), civic organization talks, as well as Open Office Hours and Constituent Service Nights. Now, I want to take it even further into the “21st century” with regular blog entries, videos, and updates on what’s going on inside the State House as well as in our community.
Please visit often – especially during the January through June session – to read my “live from the floor” blog posts of what’s going on with your tax dollars and what bills are being debated that will impact the lives of all South Carolinians….
If you have a question/concern/advice or you would like me to speak with your neighborhood association, church, school, or civic group, please email me through the site or directly at [email protected].
It’s an honor and privilege for me to represent you in Columbia!
It’s worth checking out, and — if you happen to be an elected public servant type — emulating. I call your attention in particular to the first of what he says will be monthly reports from the State House. I read this passage with particular interest as it came from someone who recently imagined himself in the Treasurer’s seat:
In the past month, we’ve seen a new Treasurer elected as well as a new Executive Director of the Budget and Control Board. Many may not know just how significant these changes are in the political landscape but it will be very interesting to see how things progress when we return in January with this new dynamic. As you know, there is a constant battle between the Governor and the House/Senate. You may have read my comment in The State last Sunday which, I think summed it up quite well, “If I’m sick of it, I know the people of South Carolina must be too.” Let’s hope we can all work together to move our state forward. Thanks for your continued prayers and support. Change does not come easy but I am one that is willing to work towards that objective for the betterment of South Carolina…
OK, so it’s not all that fascinating, but compared to graft and scandal (made you look!), good government seldom is. That’s one reason you don’t read or hear more about such in the MSM — because when you do, it bores you and you quickly forget about it.
Praise the Lord, for this day I have been a witness to one of his Wonders.
Today, Sept. 4, 2007, the entire, unanimous 7-member board of Richland-Lexington School District 5 came in to visit with our editorial board to express its support for the proposed bond referendum to build new schools and renovate and expand old ones.
Yes, I had read the news that they had voted unanimously to support this effort to deal with the district’s growth while maintaining excellence and meeting new educational challenges. But reading it in black and white and seeing it, in real-life, up-close and personal in 3D — well, that’s a miracle.
The entire board sat and met with us for over ninety minutes, and there wasn’t a single firefight during the entire time. Total harmony. The above photograph, taken just minutes before this post, stands as proof. (Left to right, that’s Roberta Ferrell, Paula Hite, Jerry Fowler, Carol Sloop, Ellen Baumgardner, Ed White, Supt. Scott Andersen and Robert Gantt.)
Don’t tell me the cause is lost in Iraq. Don’t tell me John McCain can’t get back his momentum. Don’t tell me the Cubs can’t go all the way. I know better. I have been witness to a miracle.
There’s some deluded software out there (and I’m probably the guy who deluded it) that thinks I’m going to give money to the McCain campaign (which I can’t because it would violate a list of rules I have to sign every year to keep my job), so it keeps sending me messages that go out to donors and those the software’s creators hope will become donors.
So I get messages like this one:
Dear Brad,
Senator McCain appeared on WIS-TV’s Newswatch with David
Stanton last week. Just in case you missed it, here’s your chance to catch the
interview in its entirety, watch part one here
and part two
here.And, as always, thanks for your hard work to keep building our
strong team here in South Carolina! Please encourage your friends and neighbors
to join our team at http://southcarolina.johnmccain.com!
… which I am happy to receive, and just as happy to share with you.
Rudy Giuliani was playing to a very small crowd — the seats immediately behind him were (as often the case with such events) stacked with some of his best-known local supporters, such as Rusty DePass and Gayle Averyt, hardly "faces in the crowd" in this town — but he was in fine form as he addressed his "town-hall" meeting at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
On both immigration and health care, he managed to slip in the idea that America is one heck of a great place (which it is). On immigration, that’s why all those bothersome illegals want to come here. On health care, the fact that folks who have a choice come to this country for health care rather than vice versa is in his book (but not in mine) evidence that we do, too have the best system among advanced countries.
Anyway, enjoy my rough videos from this afternoon’s session. (By the way, with regard to what I said about it being a "small crowd" — note that in the second clip, many of the seats in the not-so-well-lit sections were empty. I should add that at least a couple of those that were not empty were taken up by those lazy freeloaders in the working press.)
This is obviously not going to be of interesting to my burgeoning national audience (which is a good thing, as maybe this, combined with my lack of posts the last couple of days, will make those folks go away), but I was wondering whether any of you in the Columbia area have been subjected to a rather lengthy phone poll regarding city electoral politics. Have you?
A colleague’s wife received such a call last week, and was asked a whole lot of questions (thereby implying the expenditure of vast sums) about prospective candidates for city office. One of the scenarios: Mayor Bob vs. Daniel Rickenmann.
It was the sort of poll you don’t usually get during a by-election in such a local political sphere. It makes you wonder whose it was. It makes you wonder who paid for it. It particularly makes you wonder in light of this story this morning.
Anyone have any intel on this, or observations to relate?
By Brad Warthen
Editorial Page Editor
SEVERAL MONTHS ago, I observed on my blog that I think John
Edwards is a phony — a make-believe Man of The People.
It’s not so much that he’s lying
when he says he wants to help One America -– the Deserving Poor, whom he wants
to vote for him -– get what it has coming to it from the Other America (that of
the Really Rich, to which he disarmingly admits he belongs).
He’s a pro at this, and at some point, pros can’t be liars. On
some level, they have to believe in themselves, whether it’s stepping to the
plate to beat the home run record or striding to the podium to drip pure,
sincere concern upon the people. Mr. Edwards has a sufficiently plausible
background story to convince himself that he is, deep-down, that dirt-poor,
mill-town child he invokes in his personal anecdotes. So he is persuaded, even if I am not.
Why am I not? Well, I
hadn’t ever planned to get into that; I’ve just devoted more attention to other
candidates of both parties. I kept hoping that maybe Mr. Edwards would just
drop out. But he’s still in it, or trying to be. As The State’s Aaron Sheinin wrote in a piece headlined “Edwards
staying positive,” the former senator is “betting he can come from behind again
in 2008, as he did in 2004.”
Sigh. So I guess I’d
better “put up” and explain why I called him, on Feb. 8 on my blog, “one of the
phoniest faux populists ever to get his name in the papers.” The
impression is mainly the result of three encounters:
Strike One: Sept. 16, 2003.
The candidate was supposed to appear on a makeshift stage on Greene Street in
front of the Russell House. The stage was on the south side, with seating
before it in the street, and bleachers to both left and right. I stood on
higher ground on the north side with, as it would turn out, an unflattering
angle of view.
He was supposed to arrive at 4 p.m. but it was at least 5 before
he showed; I can no longer cite the exact time. When his appearance was
imminent, his wife appeared on the stage and built expectation in a manner I
found appealing and sincere. As either she or another introducer was speaking,
I saw Mr. Edwards step to an offstage position just behind the bleachers to my
left (toward the east). None of the folks in the “good” seats could see him.
His face was impassive, slack, bored: Another crowd, another
show. Nothing wrong with that, thought I -– just a professional at work.
But then, I saw the thing that stuck with me: In the last seconds
as his introduction reached its climax, he straightened, and turned on a
thousand-watt smile as easily and artificially as flipping a switch. He assumed
the look of a man who had just, quite unexpectedly, run into a long-lost best
friend. Then he stepped into view of the crowd at large, and worked his way, Bill Clinton-like, from the back of the
crowd toward the stage -– a man of the
people, coming out from among the
people -– shaking hands with the humble,
grateful enthusiasm of a poor soul who had just won the Irish Sweepstakes.
It was so well done, but so obviously a thing of art, that I was
taken aback despite three decades of seeing politicians at work, both on-stage
and off. Not enough for you? OK.
Strike Two: Jan. 23, 2004.
Seeking our support in the primary contest he would win 11 days later, he came to an interview with The
State’s editorial board.
He was all ersatz-cracker bonhomie, beginning the session by swinging
his salt-encrusted left snowboot onto the polished boardroom table, booming,
“How do y’all like my boots?” He had
not, it seemed, had time to change footwear since leaving New Hampshire.
The interview proceeded according to script, a lot of
aw-shucking, much smiling, consistent shows of genuine concern, and warm
expressions of determination to close the gap between the Two Americas. Then he
left, and I didn’t think much more about it, until a week later.
On the 30th, Howard Dean came in to see us for the second time.
Once again, I was struck by how personable he was, so unlike the screamer of
Web fame. I happened to ride down on the elevator with him afterward, along
with my administrative assistant and another staffer who was a real Dean fan
(but, worse luck for Gov. Dean, not a member of our board). After he took his
leave, I paused to watch him take his time to greet everyone in our foyer -–
treating each person who wanted to shake his hand as every bit as important as
any editorial board member, if not more so. I remarked upon it.
“Isn’t he a nice man?” said our copy editor (the fan). I agreed.
Then came the revelation: “Unlike John Edwards,” observed the administrative
assistant. What’s that, I asked? It seems that when she alone had met then-Sen.
Edwards at the reception desk, she had been struck by the way he utterly
ignored the folks in our customer service department and others who had hoped
for a handshake or a word from the Great Man. He had saved all his amiability,
all his professionally entertaining energy and talent, for the folks upstairs
who would have a say in the paper’s endorsement. He had no time for anyone
else.
At that moment, my impression acquired stony bulwarks of Gothic
dimensions.
Strike Three: Sept. 22,
2004. I decided to drop by a reception held for then-vice-presidential
nominee Edwards at the Capital City Club that afternoon. I had stuffed my press
credentials into my pocket after arrival so as to mix freely with the
high-rollers and hear what they had to say. (They knew who I was, but the
stuffy types who want writers to stand like cattle behind barriers did not.)
Good thing, too, because there was plenty of time to kill, and there’s no more
informative way to kill it than with the sort of folks whom candidates want to
meet at such receptions.
It was well past the candidate’s alleged time of arrival, but no
one seemed to mind. Then a prominent Democrat who lives in a fashionable
downtown neighborhood confided we’d be waiting even longer. We all knew the
candidate had a more public appearance at Martin Luther King Park before this
one, and no one begrudged him such face time with real voters. But this
particular insider knew something else: He had bided his own time because he
had seen Sen. Edwards go jogging in front of his house, along with his security
detail, after the time that the MLK
event was to have started.
As reported in The State the next day, “Edwards was running late, and the throng waiting to rally with
him at Martin Luther King Jr. Park took notice. They sat for two hours in the
sweltering heat inside the community center, a block off Five Points.”
We were cool at the Cap City Club, drinking, schmoozing,
snacking, hardly taking notice. So he’s late? What are these folks going to do –- write checks for the Republicans?
But my impression had been reinforced with steel girders: John
Edwards, Man of The People, is a phony. And until I see an awful lot of
stunning evidence to the contrary, that impression is not likely to change.
Did you see this item in the paper Thursday?
Here’s the release, which is to be found on the Richland County Web site:
Rep. Jimmy Bales Presents $50,000 Grant
To The Bernice G. Scott Health Facility
Representative Jimmy Bales will present a $50,000 check to representatives of The Bernice G. Scott Health and Human Services Facility on Friday, May 11th, 2:00 pm, at 120 Clarkston Street in Eastover.The $50,000 grant award is being presented by Representative Bales on behalf of South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. Representative Bales was instrumental in securing the funds. The funds will go towards improving the health care of rural residents living in Lower Richland community.
According to Rep. Bales "The people in Lower Richland need medical care and services, and as their Representative it is my duty to help ensure they receive adequate medical care."
Did it ring any bells? The last time we saw these two names together, Ms. Scott was trying to get Willow Wind Road paved, even though it was behind dozens of other roads on the county paving list. She was building a home on the road. She had bought the property from Rep. Bales. It was part of a larger piece of land he owned, and the road would run through it.
Anyway, he had sold his interest in the land after she bumped the road up to the top of the list, but long before the rest of County Council decided not to let Ms. Scott get away with her egregious abuse of power.
Both officeholders, longtime friends, have said the land deals and the attempted paving were unrelated. But that might be why the names seemed connected in your mind.
Here’s an e-mail Marvin Chernoff sent out giving his assessment of how his Columbia Festival of the Arts went:
Here’s my take on the festival.
It was a great success.
The two bookends, the gala at the beginning and the closing concert at
the end, were treasures. Ask anyone who was there (besides, Jeffrey Day), and they will
tell you that this town has never seen anything quite like them, and probably
won’t, for a long while.Artista Vista this year was a success with good attendance, especially on
Saturday, according to most of the gallery owners.There were a couple of mistakes that were made because this was the first
year. The biggest was the
timing. It probably should have
been held during the regular season for performance companies so they wouldn’t
have had to expend big dollars for an additional show and could have depended on
subscription attendees to build the audiences.Nonetheless, As
You Like It, at Theatre USC was an outstanding performance and general
admission sales, that is tickets sold to people outside the university, increased over normal by over 100%!
Opera USC’s Postcard from Morocco was wonderful,
however, attendance was normal.Palmetto Opera’s Marriage of
Figaro was an outstanding success, including attendance, considering that it
was a new venture without a large following.Attendance at Marionette Theatre was outstanding.
The three theatres, Trustus, Workshop and Town virtually
sold out during the festival. But more importantly, each of them told
us that there were lots of new attendees, people who were
unaware of the theatres and what they could perform. And all those new people were impressed
with the really fine performances of Nunsense Amen, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Cats.USC Dance performed magnificently to a good house.
Attendance at the USC Symphony pops concert with Marvin Hamlisch was a
disappointment. Don’t ask me
why. Sol Hurok once said, “If
they’re not coming, you can’t hold them back.”The Philharmonic concert was wonderful and, considering that it was not a
subscription part of the season, sold to a good house of 1,400.Barry, from Mac’s on Main, told me it may have been the best
10 days he ever had.We’re proud that the Columbia Arts Hall of Fame is now on permanent
display at the Koger Center.Marina Lamozov, Joseph Rackers, The Capital City Chorale and Skipp
Pearson rocked the Brookland Baptist Church at their free concert. It was a real treat.First Thursday Jazz Concert at the Zoo
during the festival more than tripled its usual
attendance and the artists who showed their work, virtually, sold out. The
people at the Zoo were "blown
away."The Columbia City Jazz Dance Group and the Columbia City Ballet both did
amazing performances to moderate houses.Washington Street Methodist Church’s schedule of events was
outstanding for them, and they are delighted with the
attendance. So was the
Jewish Cultural Arts group who presented Tel Aviv Café to a good audience at the
Jewish Community Center.Then there was the Open Studio Tour. Every artist I’ve encountered in this town
has thanked me profusely for helping make the Open Studio Tour
happen. We think that the
artists had over 8,000 visits and that they sold between $35,000 and $40,000 in
art, much of it to people who came in from out of town to visit their
studios. And the people, who
attended, from all over the region, loved it.Our web site had over 15,000 visits. And we sold over 450 tickets to events
on line during the festival amounting to over $11,000 in sales. We think those are mostly sales to
people who would not have
otherwise gone to the individual box offices or sites to purchase their
tickets. Experts told
us that this was an excellent result for a first time
event.The bottom line…our goal was to make people in and around
Columbia more
aware and proud of the arts scene here.DOES ANYONE WHO WAS ALIVE AND BREATHING IN THIS TOWN OVER
THE PAST FEW WEEKS DOUBT THAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED?Marvin
Mayor Bob Coble paused en route to Deutschland to post these thoughts on my recent post on the flag issue:
Brad, I am on a plane from Atlanta to Frankfurt for an economic
development mission with S.C. Commerce. (This email address will reach
me on my blackberry until Thursday). One focus of the trip is fuel
cells. Neil McLean of Engenuity is also on the trip. I quickly read
your blog about the flag, and responded, before we left Atlanta.It seems that a number of factors have converged that warrant another
concerted effort to move the flag to an appropriate location.
- South Carolina and Columbia really are entering the knowledge
economy. The State’s hydrogen series two weeks ago, the Horizon and
Discovery Buildings actually coming
out of the ground, the hiring of
John Parks as the Innovista’s executive director, and the announcement
of Innovista’s first tenant, Duck Creek, all confirm that the
potential for success is real. The Confederate flag represents the
antithesis of these efforts, and is always the first or second question
about what kind of place South Carolina really is.- The Presidential Primaries are enormous opportunities to
re-introduce South Carolina and Columbia to the nation. Columbia is
doing a Presidential Primary Committee to present our positive message
to the national media. (I will be personally standing at our kiosk at
the airport). In reality the purpose of this effort is to present an
alternate view to the confederate flag. What a perfect time to try to
just move the flag. The eyes of the nation, for good or bad, would be
on us as we try.- The Don Imus matter is causing the nation to review the issues of
race, sexism etc. Why shouldn’t the appropriateness of the flag on the
Statehouse grounds be reviewed as well.- The statement of Coach Spurrier adds a new perspective to the
debate. The story by Joe Persons online said that Spurrier was not
trying to be a politician and that the flag was not impacting
recruiting. He just wanted South Carolina to do better and be more
progressive. That is powerful.
I agree with you. We should form an organization and move forward now. Maybe just call a meeting and see who shows up.
I think we should do just that. I’m going to try to get started on that Monday.
Here’s what Marvin Chernoff, father of the Columbia Festival of the Arts, had to say in a memo to the festival’s "advisory committee" in response to our editorial this morning:
Three things.
1. If you saw this morning’s State newspaper editorial it would be pretty obvious that they feel strongly that festivals like ours should be paid for by "private donations not public money".
Well guess what? I agree. And, unless I’m missing something, that’s exactly what we did. You see, aside from the sponsor money, the in kind contributions from media, the contributions to Friends of the Festival and sales of gala tickets, the money we got from the city and the county was from hospitality and accommodations taxes.
Those are "private donations" made by people like you and me whenever we eat some prepared food or stay in a hotel. It just goes to the city for them to hold and then turn around to pay for things like festivals that bring people to those restaurants and hotels.
What would the State editorial board have the city do with that money, pave roads? I think that might make the restaurateurs and hoteliers who collect it upset. And the people who pay it too.
2. Joint ticketing is now available on our web site. It’s really neat. You can go to www.columbiafestivalofthearts.com click on the ticketing icon and pick out your tickets for up to 17 different events. And miracle of miracles your etickets are printed out on your printer.
3. Tickets to the Gala are going fact. If you are going to the gala, I would buy my ticket now. There will be nothing any one can do for you after they are all gone.Less than three weeks.
To see what the editorial board would "have the city do with that money," read the editorial. As we said, this is money that could be going straight to arts groups, and could also come out of direct funding they might want in the near future.
I‘m having lunch at a LongHorn Steakhouse in Savannah. It smells better than our LongHorn in the Vista.
Here’s why:
When I walked in, I asked for a table in nonsmoking. The hostess dismissed my request with the finest words I’ve ever heard in a restaurant:
"There’s no smoking in Georgia."
AND SHE WASN’T KIDDING!
I am stunned. This is so fantastic. I’m just sitting here, breathing freely and deeply, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Which, if you actually THINK about it for a change, it actually IS, even though it is a departure from what I’ve experienced my whole life up to now.
Why, in the name of God and all that makes any kind of sense, did I have to wait 53 years for this? Why will I NOT be able to experience it when I go home?
I can think of no reason.
Well, I went to give blood last night, and this time they allowed me to do so. My iron was good, and for once I wasn’t taking an antibiotic for a sinus infection.
Since it had been so long, and they didn’t know when they’d get me back in good shape, they took twice as much — or rather, twice as many red cells. It’s an interesting process. They pump out a lot of your blood, running it through a machine that removes the red cells, then pumps back your plasma along with a little salt water to make up for any volume lost in the process. It’s pretty weird.
But I recommend it. This way, it’s twice as long before they expect you to be back. Also, counterintuitively, the needle is smaller — even though it has two channels in it, one for taking and one for putting back.
That’s not all that’s surprising about it. I made the higher iron requirement, and I made the weight fairly easily. But if I had been a woman, I would not have. Here’s the rule:
To qualify as a donor on the ALYX System, males must be at least 5’ 1 and weigh at least 150 pounds, and women must be at least 5’ 5 and weigh at least 175 pounds.
Why is that? I don’t know. I asked, and was told it had something to do with body density.
Now that I think about it, it’s probably ungallant of me to point this out, since there were two ladies in front of me giving double red cells — both of whom we now know weigh more than I do. Hey, I didn’t make the rules.
No, this is not another movie reference. I’m serious.
It turns out that prominent Columbia attorney Jim Leventis is the godfather of the youngest of Nancy Pelosi’s five children, Alexandra. The Leventises and the Pelosis have been good friends for 40 years. Here’s how that happened:
After he graduated from USC law school, someone said, "Go north, young man," or something along those lines, so the Columbia
native went to New York for a stint with Citibank. The guy at the desk next to his was Paul Pelosi, who had married a Baltimore girl name of Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro. (Her father had been mayor of that city, as her brother would later be.)
The couples became close friends, and the Leventises, who at that time had no kids of their own, felt a bond with the Pelosi children. When the youngest came along, Jim was asked to stand as godfather.
"She was just a good mom," is the way Mr. Leventis remembers the lady the Republicans just did so much to demonize (unsuccessfully, as it turns out).
Paul Pelosi was from California, and eventually the family moved back to his home in San Francisco, where his brother was on the local council. Mrs. Pelosi got involved in politics, but on a part-time, peripheral, grass-roots kind of way. That was the extent of her involvement because, as Mr. Leventis recalls, she "had too many children to raise."
Eventually, they grew up. (Goddaughter Alexandra, who is a brand-new mom herself as of this week, is a filmmaker known, ironically enough, for a documentary about George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign, "Journeys with George.") From then on, Mrs. Pelosi went at politics full-bore.
Jim Leventis, you may recall, has had his own foray into electoral politics. He was the Democratic nominee for the 2nd Congressional District in 1988. He did pretty well, too. He won in every county in the district save one. Unfortunately for him, that one was Lexington, incumbent Floyd Spence‘s home turf. It went so big for its homeboy that it overcame the Democrat’s advantage elsewhere.
Speaker-to-be Pelosi actually came down and helped with that campaign, which was Mr. Spence’s toughest re-election fight to date.
Mr. Leventis remains involved — more peripherally, as Mrs. Pelosi once was — in politics. He helped Jim Rex in his (apparently) successful bid for S.C. superintendent of education. But he acknowledges, in the nicest possible way, that his politics are somewhat different from those of his long-time friend. "I think hers are more extreme, so to speak," he said. "My style is more, let’s get together and get things done." But he hastens to add that she "does a good job at what she does."
The Leventises and the Pelosis remain friends. "Paul and I talk pretty frequently," he said. As for Paul’s wife, this is the bottom line for Jim Leventis: "As a person, she’s just a wonderful mom and just a wonderful friend."
Thus spake the godfather.
Roll out the red carpet! You are invited to be among the first to view a brand-new, ground-breaking documentary from the studios of bradwarthensblog productions.
The facade is ripped away from a mediocre election, as your host reveals shockingly low turnouts and stunning personal stories from the mean streets of Rosewood.
Enjoy…
Up close, even the most clear-cut,
polarizing issue turns gray
By Brad Warthen
Editorial Page Editor
LET’S SET aside all the partisanship and polarization and stupid name-calling for a moment to remind ourselves that when you dig into them deeply enough, things aren’t nearly as bad in our politics as they tend to seem. Or at least, not always.
That’s because you have people involved. And people are more complicated, and therefore better, than the boxes we would put them in. God bless them for it.
Look, for instance, at the S.C. House District 75 race in which Richland County Democrat and political newcomer Boyd Summers is challenging Jim Harrison, a 17-year veteran Republican representative and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
In his recent endorsement interview, Mr. Summers said one of the main reasons he was running
was that Rep. Harrison had swung to the “hard right” on such issues as support for public education. The incumbent has been a prime pusher of the “Put Parents in Charge” bill, which would use tax credits to pay parents to abandon public schools.
The challenger is adamantly against PPIC because “I am firmly in favor of public education,” and he doesn’t want to see finite public resources diverted away from our schools to the private sector.
Mr. Summers brags that he’s supported by the S.C. Education Association, while the Republican is on the side of “South Carolinians for Responsible Government,” an organization that exists only to push PPIC. It doesn’t get more black-and-white than that.
But it does get less so. Mr. Harrison chafes at being painted as anti-public school. “I think you’ve got to look at 17 years, and not just one bill,” he says. And he’s right. Besides, he says, his two children went to public schools all the way through — Rosewood Elementary, Hand Middle and Dreher High.
In fact, Mr. Harrison began his interview by aggressively challenging Mr. Summers’ support of public education, pointing out that his challengers’ two young children do not attend public schools. Of course, one of them is only 3 years old. But the older one, Mr. Harrison says he has heard, is in first grade at Hammond School.
Not true, Mr. Summers says: The older child is in 5-year-old kindergarten at Hammond.
“What my wife and I have made,” he said, “is the decisions we think are best for each child.” OK, so what about the future? “We evaluate it on a year-by-year basis,” he said, and “we haven’t made any decisions yet” about next year.
But, he insists, he is a firm believer in the importance of public education, and voters can rely on him to make policy on that basis — a confidence he says they cannot place in the incumbent in light of his advocacy of an extremely destructive idea.
Has Mr. Harrison caught his opponent in a fatal contradiction? Maybe, maybe not. I understand him. I have always believed in public schools, yet our oldest children started their educations in a Catholic school in Tennessee. We switched to public in 1988.
Still, I wasn’t running for public office on a platform of “I’m for public schools and he isn’t.” The issue is relevant. It gives voters in the district reason to question Mr. Summers’ level of commitment. He may have a good answer, but it gives them a good question.
Mr. Harrison says it’s especially relevant because parents who live in Mr. Summers’ neighborhood behind the VA hospital worry that the local school, Meadowfield Elementary, hasn’t been doing well on the PACT.
They believe, he says, that if parents in the community would “stick together to work to improve their school rather than bailing out,” it would show improvement.
He said they felt parents turning to the private option were “not giving Meadowfield a chance.”
Not good news for Mr. Summers. But it also complicates things for Rep. Harrison. I couldn’t help pointing out that he had just described very well what was wrong with PPIC — that it would entice the most motivated, most involved parents to leave troubled schools behind, and those schools would only get worse as a result.
He didn’t disagree. In fact, he reminded me that he had talked in his earlier interview about how he had been motivated to champion “choice” only for children “below a certain income level.”
“I could live very easily without that provision in the last bill that gave a thousand-dollar tax credit, no matter where you lived and no matter what your income was,” he had said. “It ought to be focused on failing schools and low-income families.”
Of course, PPIC had included the tax credit for the affluent, which was politically necessary to generate the bill’s only in-state constituency: those who already home-school or send their kids to private schools. And Mr. Harrison had pushed it in that form.
Still, I had to sympathize with his lament that it was unfair to use that as an excuse to call him “hard right,” or anti-education, in light of his record otherwise. He said there was something wrong with a system in which “people in the middle that are trying to find some viable options get labeled as extremists.”
I couldn’t agree more. Of course, I think his advocacy of PPIC is quite a bit more relevant to his public education credentials than where a Summers 5-year-old attends kindergarten.
But I don’t think the issue is as up-or-down as the likes of SCEA and SCRG would have us believe.
Fortunately, they don’t decide elections. In this case, the voters of District 75 do. And they have a lot to consider.
Jimmy Derrick, president/owner of Century 21 Bob Capes Realtors (that’s a mouthful of a name, which you would think one might have trouble saying over and over, but Jimmy manages it very well) had Health and Happiness duty today at Columbia Rotary.
For you nonRotarians out there, that’s when some poor sap has to stand up before the 300-some members of the club and a) talk about the health of members and their loved ones and b) be funny. I know all about it, because about once a quarter, that poor sap is me (so any clean jokes you know would be appreciated).
Anyway, Jimmy used part of his time to talk about the health of his industry. "Is there a bubble in real estate?" he and his folks are asked constantly. He coaches Realtors to respond, "Thank you, but that’s not part of my vision."
Some of the bad-news-seekers get more specific, asking whether developers haven’t gotten a little carried away and saturated the market for condos near Williams-Brice Stadium. "All I know is," said Jimmy, "they’re selling like crazy."
The real estate business in his part of the world — the South, a little bit inland from the coast — is very good, he said. "If you want to say anything negative, don’t talk to me."
That might sound like salesman bravado, whistling past a graveyard, etc. But actually is seems like a good, practical response to news of bubbles popping (or at least, deflating). The "pop" isn’t anything physical; it’s about mass psychology. If everyone agrees that property in the Midlands is retaining value and appreciating, it will continue to do so. They may be panicking up north and along the coast, and therefore driving their prices down further, but why should we? I don’t see any advantage in it. I don’t how anyone who owns a home (or, like most of us, a mortgage) would.
I can sort of understand why doubters would dismiss my protestations that the newspaper industry is healthier than Wall Street thinks it is. I have a stake in it, so they take what I say with a grain of salt. But most of us have a stake — a pretty big one — in property retaining its value.
So keep thinking lovely thoughts, people. You’ll thank yourself when you go to sell your house.
"I want to be a leader in something that is extremely important," says Bill Dukes.
Well, he is — and God bless him for it.
The local business leader’s decision to ban smoking from his distinctive Vista restaurant, The Blue Marlin, will at the very least provide a healthy haven for workers and patrons. Beyond that, there’s good reason to believe that customers will flood his establishment in a grateful rush, in order to be able to breathe freely while they eat and drink.
And the food’s good, too.
Better yet, it seems inevitable that other bistros and bars will follow.
Given that I have my doubts that state law will let Columbia ban smoking in public accommodations by ordinance, this is particularly encouraging.
You go, Bill.
