Category Archives: Nikki Haley

Anyone have anything to say about the Ports thing?

Perhaps I’ve been remiss by not commenting on hearings the Senate Medical Affairs Committee has been having regarding the recent DHEC decision to allow the state of Georgia to dredge.

It’s just that I haven’t been sure what to say about it.

The panel itself has absolved the governor and her staff of having exerted undue influence in the decision:

A panel of state senators cleared Gov. Nikki Haley’s staff Thursday of charges that they exerted undue influence in a controversial decision to allow the expansion of a Georgia port.

By a 7-3 vote, the senators, who are investigating the port decision, agreed no evidence exists the that governor’s office unfairly influenced the process….

But frankly, I was never convinced that the panel was asking the right question.

The governor’s political opponents have seemed very concerned with trying to find a smoking gun — some specific instance in which the governor, or someone on her staff, said to the DHEC board, “Do this.”

And as far as most of the Democrats on the panel are concerned, they found it. “Boom! That was it,” says Joel Lourie of an Oct. 4 meeting at which the governor promised her Georgia counterpart a rehearing. “That lit the fire.”

Haley staffer Ted Pitts confirmed that the conversation with Gov. Nathan Deal took place. The governor subsequently “called Allen Amsler, the DHEC chairman, into her office and asked him to grant the hearing.”

But Pitts says there was no promise of an approval the second time around.

So put whatever spin on that you like. Vincent Sheheen is so convinced that this inculpates the governor that he’s including the Post and Courier story in its entirety in fund-raising emails, saying “I urge you to read the article below so that you can tell your friends what a travesty is occurring in Columbia. We need your help to keep fighting to expose the dishonesty and self interest that has infected our state at the highest levels. Our state’s future is at stake!”

But here’s the thing for me: I don’t need to know who said what to whom on what date. The governor appointed this board. This board made this decision. The governor says she supports the decision. None of this is in dispute.

No voter needs to know more than that in order to hold Nikki Haley responsible for the decision. The rest — hearings and such — is political theater.

There’s no question that it is fair and right to identify Nikki Haley with this decision. That’s not in dispute. The reason why I’m not as up in arms about it as Sheheen and Lourie and others, including such Republicans as Larry Grooms, are is that I don’t know enough to know whether it was a bad decision.

Maybe I’ve missed it in the coverage I’ve seen, but I’ve not encountered a clear answer to this question: Was the board — which is entirely Nikki Haley’s creation — overruling the considered judgment of DHEC staff? At first, I assumed that was the case, and was duly outraged. But I haven’t seen that stated overtly anywhere. If staff concurred in this reassessment, that puts everything in a different light.

So what I’d like to see a Senate panel dig into — if it is indeed inclined to dig — is the extent to which staff and board diverged. That would help me know what to think.

Staff people aren’t going to come forward and dispute their political masters on this. Are you kidding? But perhaps the Legislature could compel testimony not otherwise available…

Column I: Cindi Scoppe puts Georgia port dredging issue into perspective

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Today, I think I’ll use some columns I read in the papers this morning as conversation-starters. We’ll begin with Cindi Scoppe’s balanced, thoughtful approach to DHEC’s granting of a dredging permit to Georgia.

As is her wont, she skewers weak arguments on all sides:

To those who ask, “Did Gov. Haley pressure her appointees to the DHEC board to approve the permit?,” she explains that it doesn’t matter. The governor says she fully supports the decision. She takes ownership of it. It doesn’t matter whether she pressured anyone. And what pressure can she exert? She appointed these people, but she lacks power to remove them. Who cares? She appointed them, she in no way distances herself from the decision.
Then there’s this red herring: “Why did the DHEC commissioners put Georgia’s economic interests above the economic interests of the state of South Carolina?” It’s not DHEC’s job to decide on the basis of economic interests. It’s their job to protect the environment, which is a separate question.

Here’s the question Cindi urges lawmakers to concentrate on: Did the Corps of Engineers and Georgia grant enough concessions to meet our state’s environmental requirements?

She continues with a discussion of various aspects of that consideration.

Then, in the end, she offers this bit of simple clarity:

We probably wouldn’t have to worry so much about cozying up to our competitors if our own Sen. Jim DeMint hadn’t helped put the Port of Charleston even further behind the Savannah Port, by delaying efforts to dredge Charleston Harbor. But the sad truth is that he has done far more to damage the Port of Charleston than anything DHEC could ever do. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much the Legislature can do about that.

All around, a good, solid column on a difficult issue.

Video of the governor’s announcement that Occupy Columbia must go

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I left the above video uploading to YouTube while I ran back over to be there in time for the arrests.

Not much to report about that, beyond describing what I saw after dark… which I’ll do in a separate post.

Occupy Columbia getting booted at 6 p.m.

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Waiting for the governor to make her move.

See update to this post in this comment below.

The buzz has been out there for a couple of hours. When I got wind of it, I walked down to the State House to see what was up.

The first person I ran into was Wesley Donehue, on his way back to his office at Donehue Direct across Gervais St.

“I guess I really stirred something up,” he said. I said something brilliant like, “Huh?”

Turns out Wesley’s the guy who sent out this letter from Sen. Harvey Peeler to Gov. Nikki Haley, in which he said,

I would like to know what the Budget and Control Board will be doing about the Occupy Columbia group…

If you drive past the State House you will see tables, sleeping bags, coolers, folding chairs and even a port-o-john. I do not know how these items do not invade the public health, safety and welfare of our citizens and visitors to our State House.

He said that “at the very least,” the group needs to complete an application for use of the State House grounds.

This stirred up the protesters considerably, and when I left them a few minutes ago, they were bracing themselves to be tossed out after the governor’s press conference at 4.

Walid Hakim, the only “99 percenter” I know, said his group would behave themselves peaceably.

But he also said, “I’m going to stay as long as I possibly can.”

I’m gonna run back down yonder and see what happens next.

Walid Hakim: "I'm going to stay as long as I possibly can."

Entire DHEC board elected by Haley

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OK, here’s a piece of the puzzle that was missing for me when I read Vincent Sheheen’s release demanding that the whole DHEC board resign for having approved a permit for Georgia…

The whole board was appointed by Nikki Haley:

Chairman and Member-at-large — Allen Amsler

1st District — Mark Lutz

2nd District — Robert Kenyon Wells

4th District — L. Clarence Batts, Jr.

5th District — Ann B. Kirol, DDS

6th District — John O. Hutto, Sr., MD

Make of that what you will, but you can begin to see why the senator just might be holding the governor responsible for what he regards as a sellout of South Carolina’s environment and its economy.

Nikki Haley vs. Occupy Columbia: Pick your side

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Because I can’t. An excerpt from a release that just came in from Occupy Columbia:

On Thursday, Governor Nikki Haley said that unions are behind the Occupy Wall Street movement. We contest that accusation. This is a leaderless movement that welcomes participation from all groups, but neither bows down nor endorses any. We’ve publicly invited all people or organizations, whether they be Unions or the Tea Party, to come take part in a conversation about economic injustice and a system that is rigged to benefit the 1% at the direct expense of the 99%.

We challenge Governor Haley to produce evidence to back up her claim. If she would attend one of our General Assemblies (held every day at 10:00am and 7:00pm), she would realize that all decicions made by Occupy Columbia are voted on by those in attendence. We require a 90% threshold for consensus, and no group, Union or otherwise, has the ability to control that.

Whom should I back here? This is a toughie…

Seriously, though — I don’t think the gov should have said that about them, without justification. Shades of her tale about the drug-addled unemployed.

But then, I don’t agree with OC that Nephron locating here is a bad idea. The rest of the release:

On the other hand, it was the Governor herself who said, earlier this morning, that she is the “number one employee” of a pharmaceutical company and that their success is her “number one goal.” This company, Nephron Pharmaceuticals is the same company whose private jet she used to fly to a fundraiser in Dallas, TX last month, according to Fits News.

We had members in attendance for this morning’s announcement, one holding a sign reading “Who owns you?” Her number one priority should be the success of the people of South Carolina, not the non-body person that is a major pharmaceutical company.

By her statement, she is the personification of the merger of state and corporate interests. We applaud her bold honesty, but find it hard to believe that she can be expected to be accountable after such a declaritive pledge of allegiance to the highest bidder.

So I’m where I started, without a side. But that’s my usual position…

USC connection brings 707 jobs to Midlands

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First, for the overview, I’ll give you the press release from today’s event (provided by the SC Commerce Department):

Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation Announces New Operations in Lexington County

$313 million investment expected to create 707 new jobs

COLUMBIA, S.C. – October 28, 2011 – Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation today announced that the company will locate its new operations in Lexington County. The $313 million investment is expected to generate 707 new jobs.

“We are excited to expand our company by locating our new manufacturing facility in Lexington County. This is a big step for our firm and will help us meet increased demand, expand our market share and develop our pipeline of products. South Carolina has an excellent business environment and we look forward to our expansion into the Palmetto State,” said Lou Kennedy, CEO of Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation.

Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation will establish a new pharmaceutical manufacturing campus and offices in Lexington County. The company is based in Orlando where it currently operates 250,000 square feet of manufacturing, distribution and packaging facilities. Additionally, the company has distribution centers in Kentucky and Arizona.

“It’s another great day in South Carolina with today’s announcement. We celebrate Nephron Pharmaceuticals’ decision to locate its new manufacturing facility in the Midlands and create hundreds of well-paying new jobs. This is a big win for our state,” said Gov. Nikki Haley.

In June, William and Lou Kennedy were awarded the Order of the Palmetto for their philanthropy in founding the Kennedy School of Pharmacy at the University of South Carolina. Both are South Carolinians and alumni of the University of South Carolina. Discussions between the Governor and the Kennedys during the Order of the Palmetto visit led the company to consider South Carolina for the new facility.

“I am gratified that Lou and Bill Kennedy, who have already established the Kennedy Pharmacy Innovation Center at Innovista, see the University of South Carolina and our state as locations to further their commitment to pharmaceutical manufacturing with world class quality and efficiency. Their vision and keen business acumen have led to an important second step in increasing innovation and the knowledge economy in South Carolina,” said Dr. Harris Pastides, USC president.

“Nephron Pharmaceuticals’ investment and new jobs will have a huge positive impact on our state. This new facility will be a major boost for our pharmaceutical manufacturing sector. Today’s announcement is the largest one in the state’s life sciences industry this year,” said Bobby Hitt, Secretary of Commerce.

The new facility will be located on a 60-acre parcel of land near the Amazon facility in Lexington. It is expected to be up and running in the next couple of years.

“I would like to take this opportunity to publically recognize and celebrate the remarkable achievements of Nephron Pharmaceuticals and to hail their decision to expand their operations into their ‘home’ state. This expansion will bring over $313 million dollars into our local economy and will generate more than 700 jobs for the citizens of Lexington County, the Midlands and South Carolina. Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a

renowned leader in its field, and through the years has grown to manufacture over one billion units of medication. What an accomplishment,” said Lexington County Council Chairman Jim Kinard.

Central SC Alliance Chairman Jim Apple said, “Today’s significant capital investment and high-wage job creation announcement by Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a game changer in our quest to recruit international life science/biotechnology industries to the Central South Carolina region. This company is a market leader that produces millions of units of life-saving medications every year right here in the United States and shortly, product will be coming out of Lexington County. We want to recognize and thank the Kennedys for coming back home to South Carolina in making this announcement. The Central SC Alliance is proud to represent a dynamic nine-county region and we value the outstanding working relationship with the University of South Carolina and the S.C. Department of Commerce as we collectively grow our region.”

The S.C. Department of Commerce has committed a set aside grant of $4.5 million for site preparation and infrastructure. The company was also approved for job development credits, which will be available when hiring targets are met. The company will receive training support from the state’s ReadySCprogram.

Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a global leader in manufacturing generic respiratory medications. The company’s products are available to retail pharmacies, hospitals, home care companies, long term care facilities, mail order pharmacies, and various other customers. For more information about Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation, please visit www.nephronpharm.com.

About S.C. Department of Commerce

As South Carolina’s leading economic development agency, the Department of Commerce works to recruit new businesses and help existing businesses grow. This year, Commerce won the Gold Shovel Award and the Deal of Year Award from Area Development magazine. Commerce has been part of recruiting world-class companies to South Carolina such as Boeing, Bridgestone, Continental, Monster.com, Heinz, ZF Group, BMW and Google Inc. Commerce also supports small and existing business, rural development initiatives and offers grants for community development. For more information, visit www.SCcommerce.com.

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This was a big day for all concerned, as you can tell from the basic facts, but the pics below will help confirm. Everybody wanted to get in on the act — the governor, Harris Pastides and a large array of USC honchos, Lexington County Council, the Lexington legislative delegation, Steve Benjamin and his folks, and of course the whole economic development community, from Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt (who was sort of the master of ceremonies) through all the local and regional recruiters. Walid Hakim and others from Occupy Columbia were there, which really confirmed what a big deal it was.

There was enough glory to go around for all, especially for USC. Hence the Horseshoe venue. Lou and Bill Kennedy got their start at USC, and they have a child who is a freshman at the university. More to the point, they had already set up the Kennedy Pharmacy Innovation Center as part of Innovista. This is what Innovista is to look like, folks. Not White Elephant parking garages, but industries getting a foothold here through a research relationship with the university, then expanding into good jobs for South Carolinians.

After the formal ceremony, Lou Kennedy said the jobs they’ve produced in Orlando pay an average of about $70,000. And at this point, they don’t plan on bringing any of their Orlando personnel here.

So, very good news. And very little controversy — so far. House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham was given a chance to compare this to the fight Lexington County lawmakers had with the governor over Amazon (which will be this plant’s neighbor), and he declined. This one was nothing but cooperation.

Part of that may be that the industry itself wanted to come here, rather than having to be enticed. (There apparently were incentives, but no one — aside from those involved in the deal — knows what they were yet. I ran into my friend Kevin Dietrich of The Nerve, the scourge of incentives, there, and he didn’t seem on the scent of any yet.) But whatever the reason they’re here. And I don’t feel like I’m going out on a limb when I say that’s a very good thing. Congratulations to all involved, from the governor on down.

: Lou and William Kennedy being interviewed after the announcement. That’s USC lobbyist Trey Walker in the background.

: Bobby Hitt, William Hubbard, and Bud Ferillo.

: Sen. Nikki Setzler and Rep. Kenny Bingham, both of Lexington, being interviewed by SC Radio Network.

: More media mobbing. Even Rep. Rick Quinn, bottom right, gets in on it.

: Top officials get mobbed.

: After the money shot. I like to get candids.

: The gov and the Kennedys pose with Lexco Council: Todd Cullum, Debbie Summers, Johnny Jeffcoat, Bill Banning (w/ arms around ladies) Kinard, Brad Matthews, Smokey Davis, Frank Townsend

: When I noticed a TV camera shooting the sign (not the one you see, another one), I shot it, too.

: Occupy Columbia made an appearance. That’s Walid Hakim with the sign. (Sorry about the focus, but I liked the shot anyway.)

: The governor has her turn, as Lexington County Councilman Jim Kinard (seated behind Hitt and Pastides) leans forward to listen.

: Nephron CEO Lou Kennedy addresses the assemblage. That’s Dave King sitting next to Steve Benjamin in the foreground.

: The announcement is made. That’s Bobby Hitt at the lectern in the distance, and Kevin Dietrich (white shirt) in the foreground.

Perry’s SC visit turns up one key endorsement at least — SC House Speaker Bobby Harrell’s

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This morning, I saw some speculation out there that Rick Perry — who met with Nikki Haley today — was trying to get the endorsement of the fellow governor with who he shares one key friend: Eleanor Kitzman.

Well, I haven’t seen anything out of that yet, but he did come up with an announcement that might mean more to the more establishment types in the GOP: Speaker Bobby Harrell. Here’s the release:

House Speaker Bobby Harrell Joins South Carolina Legislators
Endorsing Rick Perry for President

AUSTIN – South Carolina House of Representatives Speaker Bobby Harrell today joined more than 20 other prominent South Carolina GOP leaders in endorsing Texas Gov. Rick Perry for president.

“Speaker Harrell is a proven conservative and respected leader,” said Gov. Perry. “His endorsement speaks to the growing support of our campaign and my conservative record, and I look forward to working with him and the rest of our South Carolina team as I continue to travel the nation sharing my vision for how we will get America working again.”

Gov. Perry has previously been endorsed by the following South Carolina GOP leaders:

U.S. Congressman Mick Mulvaney

State Commissioner Hugh Weathers

Ambassador David Wilkins

State Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, Cherokee

State Senator Paul Campbell, Berkeley

State Senator Ronnie Cromer, Newberry

State Senator Larry Grooms, Berkeley

State Senator Mike Rose, Dorchester

State Rep. Todd Atwater, Lexington

State Rep. Liston Barfield, Horry

State Rep. Eric Bedingfield, Greenville

State Rep. Alan Clemmons, Horry

State Rep. Marion Frye, Saluda

State Rep. Dan Hamilton, Greenville

State Rep. Bill Hixon, Aiken

State Rep. Chip Limehouse, Charleston

State Rep. Philip Lowe, Florence

State Rep. Chris Murphy, Charleston

State Rep. Bill Sandifer, Oconee

State Rep. Gary Simrill, Rock Hill

State Rep. Tommy Stringer, Greenville

State Rep. Bill Taylor, Aiken

State Rep. Mark Willis, Greenville

For more information about Gov. Rick Perry’s record, presidential campaign and plan to get America working again, please visit: www.rickperry.org.

Interesting. Last time around, Harrell and Henry McMaster were among the few who stuck with John McCain through thick and thin, even when everybody was saying he was out of it and would never get the nomination.

This time, McMaster (and John Courson, who is also accustomed to seeing his candidates win in SC) are supporting Jon Huntsman. But Harrell’s taking a separate path…

More on continuing friendship of Haley, Kitzman

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I missed this a couple of days ago — a freelance piece, apparently, by Corey Hutchins of the Free Times. It elaborates on a piece about Nikki Haley’s secretive out-of-state fundraising that ran in The State Oct. 11. An excerpt:

Texas Insurance Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman has been on the job less than three months, but it appears she already has an affinity for the pay-to-play political culture of Gov. Rick Perry’s administration.

On Sept. 20, Kitzman headlined a political fund-raiser where she helped tap the insurance industry—the very companies she’s charged with regulating—on behalf of long-time friend and former boss, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, according to a copy of an invitation obtained by The Texas Observer.

The event—held at the corporate headquarters of the auto insurer Ethos Group in Irving, Texas—attracted a number of insurance executives ready to open their checkbooks, according to Gov. Haley’s campaign records. It also included Barry Goldwater Jr., president of a Washington, D.C., consulting firm that represents the insurance industry, according to the invitation. It’s rare for a political appointee—Kitzman was appointed by Perry in late July—to participate in raising campaign money from the industry he or she regulates.

“It stinks. There’s no doubt about it,” says Alex Winslow, director of Texas Watch, a consumer protection watchdog group that has advocated for tighter regulation on the insurance industry in Texas. “It is completely inappropriate for the insurance commissioner to be headlining a fundraiser hosted at an insurance company headquarters.” He likened it to a shakedown operation.

Kitzman didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment. She was out of state on Friday, Oct. 14, according to her assistant, Laverne Chase. When asked where, Chase said, “I’d rather not say.”

The Kitzman event raised money for Haley, but it may have benefited Perry as well.

Haley, the nation’s youngest governor, has yet to make an endorsement in the South Carolina’s critical first-in-the-South presidential primary. She has said that she will. A Haley endorsement would be a major boost for Perry’s sagging presidential campaign. As she ponders it, the insurance commissioner—who Perry appointed just three weeks before launching his presidential bid —is helping make Haley comfortable in the Lone Star state…

Ms. Kitzman just can’t do enough for Nikki Haley, can she?

Yep, they’re laughing at us in the UK, too…

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Rick Noble shared this with me today at Rotary, from The Economist:

IT’S a great day in South Carolina, and if you don’t believe it, ask Governor Nikki Haley. On September 27th the governor ordered the 16 directors of cabinet agencies under her direct control to change the way their employees answer the telephone. So now when phoning, say, the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services or the Department of Employment and Workforce, callers are supposed to hear this cheery greeting: “It’s a great day in South Carolina. How may I help you?”

Ms Haley says the new greeting will boost the morale of state workers and help her to sell the state. “It’s part of who I am,” she declares. “As hokey as some people may think it is, I’m selling South Carolina as this great, new, positive state that everybody needs to look at.”

The blogosphere has been inundated with people mocking the new salutation and proposing alternative greetings. One suggestion: “It’s still better here than Mississippi. How can I help you?” Another was more explicit: “Thank you for calling South Carolina where unemployment is high, morale is low and political leaders are very busy wasting your resources. How may I direct your call?”…

Man, I miss reading The Economist. I used to get it at the paper. But I’m already paying for too much other stuff that used to be covered by the paper, so that’s fallen by the wayside. (Man what DID I spend my salary on back when my club memberships and subscriptions were paid for?)

I used to know the South Carolina writer who wrote for The Economist. I sort of see (or imagine I see — “That blame media is SO bah-ussed!”) her political views in the particular facts chosen in this brief piece — and they are not views that are consistent with those of the editors of The Economist. But I’m not going to name her, because it might be somebody else by now, and then I’d look stupid. Or rather, stupidER.

Kevin says I ‘attacked’ Free Times. News to me…

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Perhaps you should go back and read my original post. Not much to see, really — a lightweight stream-of-consciousness thing in which I started out joking about something I’d read on Twitter, teasing everyone involved… and then decided, near the end, that that was too much levity and that I should play the grownup and harrumph a bit over the Decline of Western Civilization. So I did. And down below, I will again.

My award-wining colleague Kevin Fisher seems to have taken it quite seriously:

Brad Warthen, local blogger and former editorial page editor of The State, is someone I know, like and read regularly. But it seems he needs a trip back to the newsroom at his old haunt on Shop Road, or to sit in on a Journalism 101 class at USC, or to reflect on the wisdom of shooting the messenger.

In a post on bradwarthen.com that surprised me (and I bet others who know and respect him), Warthen attacked Free Times staff writer Corey Hutchins for accurately reporting a comment made by Rep. Boyd Brown (D-Fairfield) about Gov. Nikki Haley…

He was even offended by the joshing part, before I got around to the harrumphing:

Yet Warthen seemed unable to differentiate between the message and the messenger in his Oct. 5 post on the subject, writing: “And Corey and Boyd — what are you boys doing using language like that …”

“You boys.” Tsk, tsk. Yeah, that sounds like me rolling out the big guns, all right. Kevin should refresh his memory regarding the way I write when I’m being critical. This, for instance, is me criticizing someone:

Mark Sanford approaches elective office with the detachment of a dilettante, as though it simply does not matter whether anything is accomplished. His six years in Congress are remembered for a futon and a voting record replete with empty, ideological gestures. As governor, he has proven himself utterly unable — or perhaps worse, unwilling — to lead even within his own majority party. He is easily the most politically isolated governor we can recall. He is startlingly content to toss out marginal ideas and move on, unruffled by the fact that most of his seeds fall on rocky ground.

I guess I should have sensed a foreshadowing of this. Initially, Corey Hutchins and Eva Moore seemed a bit put out with me, but then I decided they were being ironic, too. A day or two later, I worried that I’d misread that situation when Corey Tweeted another mention of me. But all was well, he assured me when I inquired: “All in good fun, friend!”

Maybe THAT was ironic. But I don’t think so.

Originally, the headline of that post was something like, “Don’t use that language around Amanda!” or something similarly silly. Me being the avuncular old guy, protecting the young lady’s sensitive ears: “(W)hat are you boys doing using language like that around Amanda?” See what a corrupting influence this has had upon the poor lass?

But just before I published it, my rather slow mental processes finally penetrated down a couple of layers and realized what I was looking at. So I began the “Seriously, folks…” part, and then changed the headline. (I dig alliteration.)

Why did I do that? What did I see that I hadn’t seen when I started out being facetious?

First, consider that on a superficial level there was nothing original in what Boyd had said. It’s become a bit of tired joke in politics to say something like, “Oh, he’s only doing to her what he’s been doing to the rest of the country for four years.” The reference is a bit salacious, but refers obviously to what the speaker believes as harmful policies. (I say “old.” The earliest references that I find in a quick search — such as here — refer to Bill Clinton. I found some to Bush and Obama, too. But I actually think the device is older than that, a bit of a chestnut.)

But this was said with reference, specifically, to Nikki Haley. Who is not only the first woman ever to be governor. but the only candidate I can recall to have been accused, repeatedly and VERY publicly, of marital infidelity in the course of a political campaign.

Which takes on something different from the meaning of that joke in the normal course of political waggery. And which is, as I said, “grossly inappropriate” in the public sphere, whoever says it and whoever passes it on — particularly when one cutely plays around with the coarsest word we have in the language for such activity.

I shouldn’t have to explain all that. Our sense of propriety should not be so far gone that such an explanation should be necessary. But what should be and what is are not always the same.

A ‘C’ was just about right for Courson

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At an event Wednesday night, the first two people I ran into were the senators pictured above, Nikki Setzler and John Courson.

Courson was bragging on the grade Nikki Haley had given him earlier in the week — a “C.” And of course, as he kept telling everyone, it was “a strong C.”

For him, he told me and others, that was perfect. An “A” would have gotten him into trouble with the rather large number of Democrats in his Shandon district. An “F” would have sent the Tea Party out for blood in a primary next year. It was a Goldilocks grade — just right.

So there was at least one happy pupil in Haley School.

Nikki — Setzler, not Haley — wasn’t complaining about his, either. But of course, in his Lexington County district, it probably would have been nice to get a grade a little higher than his “D.”

And he could have done that, too, if he had done the governor’s bidding more. But what sensible man would actually decide whether to vote yea or nay on actual legislation — laws we would all have to live by — in hope of a meaningless “grade” from this governor?

And Nikki Setzler is a sensible man.

Defining deviancy down in our discourse

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Corey Hutchins started this rolling on Twitter this morning, but what shocked me was that Amanda Alpert Loveday reTweeted it:

Best @nikkihaley quote ever! “She’s been busy F-ing the rest of the state. I’m not surprised that she F-ed me.”@HBoydBrown @CoreyHutchins

My shock arises partly from Amanda being the… well, something over at the SC Democratic Party (apparently they’re too democratic at party HQ for titles, but she recently appeared on Pub Politics as the counterpart of Matt Moore, the GOP executive director). I know that her Twitter feed says “My tweets reflect my personal opinions…..,” but still…

The second is that, well, Amanda just seems like such a sweet “little girl” (to use our governor’s term) to an alter cocker like me. I mean, look at her; I ask you.

Amanda, Amanda, Amanda…

And Corey, and Boyd — what are you boys doing using language like that around Amanda?

Seriously, folks… This is not only grossly inappropriate language to be used when referring to the governor of our state, it’s not an appropriate topic, even if you used euphemisms.

And why am I writing about it? Well, I wouldn’t have if this had come from one of the usual sources for such. But this was said (apparently on the record) by a state representative, repeated by a representative of the Fourth Estate, and picked up by a party official.

And that’s wrong, on all counts. Daniel Patrick Moynihan had a term for it, or at least one that can be adapted to this purpose: Defining deviancy down.

We don’t need to be on this downward spiral, people.

Off-the-top-of-my-head list of top lawmakers

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I wasn’t going to pay attention to Nikki Haley’s presumptuous grading of legislators, but I did. And I was going to say something about it, but what is there to say, really? I can’t blame her for giving some of the state’s very best, most dedicated and thoughtful lawmakers Ds and Fs, because she herself doesn’t pretend to be exercising any sort of judgment.

She just picked some bills — some OK bills, some not-so-OK bills — and then scored people according to whether they voted for them or not. Which, if you look at the world as simply as Nikki does, makes sense.

Mind you, this application of a very simple set of stats is nothing like Moneyball, which was based on emphasizing little-respected stats that contribute to the overall success of the team. Not if the team is South Carolina. Maybe if it’s Team Nikki. I don’t know.

So I thought I’d respond by looking at lawmakers another way. I decided to compile a list of Top Lawmakers in each chamber — but one based on no rational criteria whatsoever. I did it like somebody who won one of those prizes where you’re the millionth customer to walk through a store’s doors and you get a three-minute shopping spree, and you just run through and grab stuff.

But even when you do that, you know you’re exercising criteria. It’s sort of like the NCAA basketball tournament bracket I filled out in the early 90s. Someone talked me into doing it, and I did it as a non-sports fan who knew nothing about such things. I didn’t even know what the numbers showing how they were seeded meant. I had not followed any of the teams that season, or in any season in recent memory.

Here was my “system.” I put a team down as winning a matchup if it met one or more of the following criteria and opposing team met fewer or none of them:

Colleges with which I had some personal connection (such as my alma mater, Memphis State).
Colleges that had been really good in basketball when I was in college many years before, back when I paid attention to such things (Duke)
Catholic colleges (Georgetown)

And I won. Partly because almost no one picked Duke to go all the way and they did, but I led all through the process, across the board. Which really infuriated the guy who had talked me into joining in, because he was a real sports fan.

So this is kind of like that. Here are my criteria for “Top Lawmakers.” I’m picking ones who:

I like them. Whether I agree with them on anything or they’re good at their jobs or not, if I just went “I like him (or her),” they got leverage to make the list.
I agree with them frequently. There’s no one I agree with all the time. If there were, I suppose I’d join a political party. But I find myself agreeing with some more often than not, and that’s a criterion.
I respect them. I may not like them, I may almost never agree with them, but damn, they are good at this. Or… they are really dedicated representatives of their constituents and of their own concept of serving SC. And it would be self-centered and arbitrary and unfair of me to leave them off a “Top Lawmakers” list. (OK, so this is sort of two criteria, but I really wanted to limit the list to three, to parallel the basketball thing.)

Some will fit all categories. Some will fit 1 and 3 or some other combination. Some will fit 4 only. But here are the lists. Each lawmaker is followed by the grade the governor gave him or her:

SENATE

John Courson — C

Tom Davis — A

Wes Hayes — B

Hugh Leatherman — B

Joel Lourie — F

Gerald Malloy — F

Glenn McConnell — D

Greg Ryberg — A

Nikki Setzler — D

Vincent Sheheen — F

HOUSE

Nathan Ballentine — A

Kenny Bingham — A

Joan Brady — A

Gilda Cobb-Hunter — F

Laurie Funderburk — B

Jim Harrison — A

Walt McLeod — D

Joe Neal — F

Rick Quinn — A

James Smith — F

Note that they are alphabetical. Hey, this took enough time for a useless exercise. I’m not going to spend hours debating with myself how to rank them.

Ask me to do this again an hour from now, or tomorrow, and some of the names would be different. But some would stay.

What’s the value of lists like these? Search me. What’s the value of Nikki’s grading system? I actually think my lists are every bit as useful to the voters who elect these people as her grades are. So there.

Basically, the governor’s list told us what her agenda is. Which we already knew. The Democrats’ response showed us what they think of her. Which we knew.

So, nothing was added. Certainly nothing about the quality of service provided by those legislators.

Guess who topped this list of dumb governor tricks? Yep, ‘Gov. Sunshine’…

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I’m beginning to suspect that when people go to compile such things as this piece on Salon, “Why are the governors of America saying such dumb things?,” they look at South Carolina first. The very first example given was:

According to the Associated Press, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that forthwith, state employees are to answer official phones with a cheery, “It’s a great day in South Carolina!”

Gee whiz, that should solve everything! As AP noted, “Never mind the state’s 11.1 percent jobless rate and the fact that one in five residents are on Medicaid.” Great day, indeed. Presumably, Gov. Sunshine plans to accompany the next set of her state’s unemployment figures with a chorus of “We’re in the Money.”

Which frankly isn’t even fair. It’s not even something Nikki said; it’s something she made everybody else say, which therefore goes into the category of dumb things governors do.

If they wanted something she said, they could have gone to the thing Cindi was writing about — the one about all the drug fiends applying to work at SRS. She apparently said that one over and over, which should have qualified for extra points.

But I’m really tired of national media, and comedians, looking first to South Carolina for material (as Jon Stewart keeps saying, “THANK YOU, South Carolina!”).

I’m even more tired with our politicians giving them reason to.

Cindi’s good column about Haley’s naivete

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On Tuesday, while still eating breakfast, I sent Cindi Scoppe an email telling her what a good column she had written about Nikki Haley’s ridiculous claim (later retracted) that half the job applicants at SRS had failed drug tests.

I was proud of the fine job she had done. I was also proud of myself, because I told her it was good without any caveats or “yes, buts” or any qualifications of any kind. I mean, I didn’t even tell her that I thought the headline could have been stronger. I was unusually nice, for me. (Dave Moniz, who worked for me as a reporter in the early 90s, used to say the highest praise anyone ever got from me was “pretty good.”)

But was she grateful? No. She complained later that I hadn’t said how good the column was on the blog.

So here goes. Actually, I think I’ll just quote from the piece:

THE EXTRAORDINARY thing about Gov. Nikki Haley’s discredited claim that half the job applicants at the Savannah River Site had failed drug tests — the actual number was less than 1 percent — wasn’t her acknowledgement that she couldn’t back it up. It was her explanation for why she ever would have parroted such an absurd claim to begin with.

Some unidentified someone she talked to told her that during the campaign, she told The Associated Press’ Jim Davenport last week, and she took it at face value and ran with it. “I’ve never felt like I had to back up what people tell me,” she said. “You assume that you’re given good information.”

I used to think the same thing about elected officials.

I don’t mean I believed everything they said. Quite the contrary. As a reporter, the most fun I had — and some of my most important work — was writing “fact check” articles that explained what was untrue or misleading about the claims politicians made in their political ads, speeches and debates.

Typically, this involved sins of omission: Candidates take their opponents’ votes or comments out of context to create an incorrect and unfair impression. And it tended to be confined to the campaign trail. The overwhelming majority of elected officials I’ve dealt with in a quarter century of covering politics could be trusted with the basic facts once the campaign was ended and they were talking about policy instead of their opponents. They didn’t fabricate “facts”; even Mark Sanford just manipulated numbers in convoluted and misleading ways — although he did it more purposefully and masterfully than any of his predecessors.

I took note before last year’s GOP primary of several misleading claims Ms. Haley had made during a meeting with our editorial board. What was striking was that she would stretch the truth so far in a setting where most candidates go out of their way to be extra careful. More striking was that there was no need for any of it. Although it might have meant a bit more work, she could have made legitimate arguments if she had stuck to the facts.

What has remained notable since she took office is that her demonstrably inaccurate claims continue to be unnecessary…

She goes on to give examples. It’s a good piece. You should go read it.

Wait, here’s another good bit:

That sort of carelessness is fairly common among people who aren’t used to being in the public spotlight. But most elected officials I know are actually quite careful about getting the facts right. They footnote their claims. They say they’ll have to get back to you before answering a question — not because they want to figure out how to spin it but because they want to make sure that they know what they’re talking about…

And here’s another:

Now that she has been forced to back off the drug-testing claim that she says convinced her that we need to make laid-off workers pass drug tests before they receive unemployment checks, I’m struck by the fact that she’s still pushing for the mandatory tests.

I don’t find it objectionable to require the tests. Wasteful, yes — since taxpayers would have to foot the bill, and indications are that fewer than 5 percent of applicants would test positive — but not philosophically objectionable.

What I find objectionable is basing an expensive policy position on an unbelievable anecdote that you didn’t even bother to question because it fits so comfortably with your preconceived notions. And then clinging to that position even after the anecdote has been so utterly discredited…

But you should still go read the whole thing.

The worst thing about Haley’s chirpy greeting order is the insulting assumption that underlies it

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The worst thing about the “It’s a great day in South Carolina!” order isn’t the fact that it is so grating and insulting to the caller. Callers can shrug that off; if they really need to do business with the state, they’ll take a breath and go ahead (even while filing a mental note that they now think less of SC government than they did before).

The worst thing is the attitude that underlies the order, which was ably set out in the newspaper this morning by Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey:

“While the press focuses on the negative, the governor is changing the culture of our state.. She is proud of South Carolina, and while we have challenges, we are making great progress every day. The focus of this greeting is to have state employees pass along a positive attitude and ask the caller, ‘How can I help you?’ so that they remember – and the people know – that they work for the taxpayers. The governor has always said that it’s time for government to work for the people, and this is the first step.”

She’s changing the culture of our state…. It’s time for government to work for the people…

This is the first step.

Because, you see, that never happened before. It’s never occurred to any state employee that they serve the people of South Carolina. Ever. Nikki Haley invented it. Thank God for Nikki Haley, because not one single state employee in the history of South Carolina has ever considered serving the public, even for a moment. If any had, this would not be the “first step” in implementing this wonderful new day. And this is the first step.

Again, we are seeing what we get when a person who does not have a clue about an organization — what it’s for, whom it serves, what its personnel are like, how it works, how it should work — is placed in charge of that organization.

Tragically for all of us, that organization is our state government — an institution that the people of our state, perhaps more than the people of any other state in the union, badly need to be well-led.

But there’s more to it than that. Nikki Haley is merely a symptom of a sickness in the politics of our state. The sickness is a nasty attitude of despising those who serve the public — and despising them more and more as their jobs become more difficult.

She is now engaged in the process of tearing down that workforce. And the first step is humiliation.

Apparently, THIS is what Nikki Haley meant by “running government like a business”

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I was surprised that, on my previous post, nobody had anything to say about Nikki Haley’s directive to state employees to answer the phone by saying, “‘It’s a great day in South Carolina!”

Wait… the news stories didn’t say anything about an exclamation point. But how else could you say that? The content demands such punctuational excess.

For years, I’ve been hearing Nikki (along with a few million other thoughtless people who understand neither business nor government, how they are essentially different, or how they are supposed to be essentially different), say she wants to “run government like a business.” Somewhere, there’s video of me sternly expressing to her why she is wrong to say that, and her smiling back sweetly, obliviously.

This directive is not only as vapid as that phrase, it gives me an idea that perhaps this is what she meant. Perhaps this is the kind of business she wants government run like. A particularly off-putting, phony, soul-eroding (for employees) kind of business. The kind that makes you want to turn on your heel and walk out as soon as you encounter the reception desk.

Up to now, I have only run into this kind of chafing chipperness in the private sector, in the mouths of receptionists and others who are force to say it like so many galley slaves (keep rowing; keep saying the phrase). Not any more, thanks to Nikki Haley, and the voters’ unmitigated foolishness in electing her to this office.

Nikki has something legit to brag on today

If she’s learned a lesson, that will be wonderful

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KP brings our attention to this breaking news:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Monday she can’t back up claims that half of the people wanting work at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site failed drug tests and half of the remainder couldn’t pass reading and writing tests.

Haley said in an interview with The Associated Press that she’s learned a lesson and is going to be more careful.

“I’ve never felt like I had to back up what people tell me. You assume that you’re given good information,” Haley said. “And now I’m learning through you guys that I have to be careful before I say something.”

Haley said she’d probably repeated “a million times” the story that about the test failures before being questioned about the assertions after a Lexington Rotary Club on Sept. 8. Her spokesman has been asked almost daily since then whether the claim could be substantiated…

Hey, if she has truly “learned a lesson,” I think that’s wonderful. And if she’s going to be more careful (and, dare we hope, thoughtful), that would be even better.

Hurray for the governor for admitting her error.

bradwarthen.com

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