Category Archives: Democrats

It’s OK, Mr. President; you don’t have to have a position on this — in fact, please don’t

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Just got this little email update from the WashPost:

—————————————-
Politics News Alert: White House calls Rep. Weiner’s actions a ‘distraction’
June 13, 2011 11:32:22 AM
—————————————-

The White House says President Obama believes Rep. Anthony Weiner’s actions have been “inappropriate” and a “distraction.”

But spokesman Jay Carney wouldn’t say whether the president thinks the New York Democrat should resign — something other Democratic leaders have called for.

Wow…

I’ve been bemoaning for years the degradation of the presidency to the point where we expect the president to take a position on EVERYTHING that happens, whether it bears on his job responsibilities or not. I think the moment where it first hit me how bad it got was when I was watching a guy on a cable news station standing outside the White House with a microphone on the night of the Columbine shootings. This guy kept coming back on to assure us that the president would soon have a statement. And I’m like WTF? In what sense is a shooting at a high school in Colorado the responsibility of the president of the United States? Why on Earth would I expect him to say anything about it, or care what he said? I wrote a column about this at the time.

By comparison, though, Bill Clinton making sure to vibrate to the correct emotions over Columbine was the height of relevant leadership, compared to the White House being expected to have a position on some wanker who sends dirty pictures to women. We’ve really sunk low now.

If you have trouble seeing this, try for just a moment to look at the world the way I do, instead of the way the Beltway media does. To me, being the “leader of his party” is NOT a role I expect or want my president to play. To me, playing that role is actually inimical to the one that he is paid to perform.

So please, Mr. President: Don’t have an opinion on this. Ignore it. It’s beneath you personally, and certainly beneath the dignity of your office. Stick with the “inappropriate” and “distraction” thing, if you must say anything. Those characterizations are at least accurate.

Recalling the national overreaction to that Edwards column

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A few days ago, Mike Fitts posted this on Facebook:

This seems like a good day to re-post my former boss’ column, written not all that long ago in the summer of 2007, about his gut feeling that John Edwards was “a big phony.” Got Brad Warthen national attention then, but all too obvious now.

Which I thought was nice of him to remember. I suppose it was because a certain person was back in the news…

Mike linked to the version at thestate.com, which is appropriate because that’s the one that got all the page views — 190,000 the first day, as I recall. Totally screwed up the stats for the paper’s website for the next year. Whenever the online folks presented stats at senior staff meetings, they had to explain, “We’re actually doing well, it’s just that is looks down because we’re up against that Edwards column of Brad’s…”

I was jealous of that traffic; it certainly would have been cool if it had gone to my blog. That would have been a huge hit — like months worth in a day. (Back then, I only got about 20,000 or 30,000 page views a month. You may be surprised to know that today, my traffic is closer to 200,000 a month — sometimes more, sometimes less.) Also, the version I had posted on my blog was better. I had written the column at home on my laptop and didn’t realize how long it was, and had to chop it down much more than I would have liked to get it into the paper. The version on my blog — the “director’s cut” — was shorter than the original, but quite a bit longer than the paper version. My point came across better in the blog version, because the anecdotes weren’t quite as truncated.

But still, the lesser version created a weird sort of splash. Still does. I got a letter just a week or two ago from a reader who says that he was an Edwards supporter and gave me grief in a letter at the time (I don’t recall), and is sorry now. But a lot of smart people didn’t see the problems with this guy at the time. In fact… I’ve told y’all before how I talked myself hoarse in a three-hour meeting to get the board to endorse Lieberman in the 2004 primary, right? What I may not have mentioned was that a couple of my colleagues wanted to back Edwards, and I was determined not to let that happen — so determined that I just won my point by exhausting everyone. I’m very glad not to have an Edwards endorsement on my record. (By the way, when people give me a hard time for how horribly Joe did in that primary, I have a ready answer: “Yeah, the voters went with Edwards. I’m more satisfied than ever that I was right.”)

I was shocked at the reaction the column got. It was just something I had had on a back burner for months. I had said something on my old blog about Edwards being a phony, and readers demanded to know what I meant, and when I realized how many words it would take to explain (being based on several encounters with the guy), I told them I would do a column sometime. I had been on vacation the week before I wrote this, and for one reason or another decided to take one more day — the following Monday — off as well. Feeling guilty, I told my colleagues that to make up for it, I’d whip out a column over the weekend, so nobody else would have to write one for Tuesday. This was an easy one to do, the “legwork” for it having been done inadvertently years before. So I dropped by the office Sunday just to check my memory on a couple of dates and such, wrote it that night at home, and turned it in on Monday morning — and didn’t think about it any more.

Then, the next morning, two people stopped me on the way into the building to talk about the column, and the reaction that was already manifest. I think Drudge had already picked it up. Later in the day, the column — or rather, the Edwards campaign’s reaction to it — was the LEDE political story on the Fox News site. As the week wore on, I was about worn out with media interview requests. I did as many as I could, including Dennis Miller’s show, which was fun. It was a day or so before I had any actual contact with the Edwards campaign (it led to no more than a lunch with the lovely Teresa Wells, in which she told me how wrong I was and I told her that no, I wasn’t). But I had heard that Mrs. Edwards, among others, had gone somewhat ballistic.

The media reaction surprised me. I hadn’t thought much of the column myself, and it was some time later before I figured out why the reaction was so much bigger than anything I could have imagined: The thing is, I had SO completely dismissed Edwards in my mind by that time. I had decided years earlier that I didn’t take him seriously, in spite of his having won the primary here in 2004. So who cared what I thought of him at that point, right? I mean, the column was still worth doing on a day when I just needed a column because he WAS still in the news. But I was convinced the nominee was going to be Obama or Clinton. And I just wasn’t seeing the enthusiasm for him in SC that had so alarmed me in 2004.

But a lot of folks, including national media, were very much taking him seriously still. Hence the reaction… And when I saw how the news stories about it were written, I realized: Oh. Everybody’s thinking, the editorial page editor of the largest newspaper in a state where Edwards HAS to win has just totally dismissed him. That’s the deal. The situation reminded me of that Mark Twain quote: “I was born modest; not all over, but in spots; and this was one of the spots.” It was one of those rare occasions when other people thought my opinion was a bigger deal than I thought it was. Doesn’t happen much.

I was reminded of this when the Mark Sanford Argentina thing broke. Sure it was a big story here, and pretty big nationally as well. I got that. But there’s a difference between a big story that everybody talks about, and something important enough to be the lede story in The New York Times. I’ve written before how the NYT has a VERY conservative, old school idea about its lede position — which I respect. As a front-page editor back in the 80s, I’m kind of old-school myself. There is a huge difference between the most interesting story of the day and  the most important. Sometimes, the same story is both. This was not one of those times. I expected it to be a big story above the fold in The Times — maybe with a picture. But no, it was a simple, sober, one-column lede story. Which startled me.

Remember, I was helping out The New York Post on that one. (By the way, my first interaction with the Post had been when they asked to reprint the Edwards column. Dig the headline they put on it.) A story under my byline led that paper. But that was to be expected. That was the Post. I thought the NYT would have a greater sense of perspective — yes, interesting scandal, but not that earth-shattering, I thought they’d harrumph.

Here’s why I was wrong: Again, the national media were overestimating a South Carolina political figure. Since I knew Mark Sanford well, I didn’t take any of that “presidential contender” garbage seriously. The NYT did. Hence this wasn’t just a juicy scandal to them. It was a contender’s White House chances being dashed.

It’s interesting when you suddenly see things from another editor’s perspective…

Meanwhile, some comic relief from the party out of power…

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Dick Harpootlian put out this video today with regard to the dispute between Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Glenn McConnell chronicled back here…

Here’s what the Democratic Party chair had to say about his video:

“It’s time to send adults to the Statehouse and get rid of the whiny children.  Instead of the Governor worrying about her four pet projects, maybe she would be concerned with bringing news jobs to South Carolina and funding the education that will mold the true children of this state.”

A word about that, in the gov’s defense… what she was seeking was not the passage of “pet projects,” but substantive reforms. However, passing them was not an emergency worth overstepping constitutional bounds, or even exercising legitimate-but-extraordinary power…

Yet ANOTHER video from Harpootlian

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Dick Harpootlian is really into video as an attack medium. This is like, what — one a week? I guess that’s what he’s spending that money he was so eager to raise on.

Can’t say I really agree with what he’s saying, though. I don’t think it an awful thing that the governor pays her staff decently. I DO have a question or two about her decision to essentially copy and paste her campaign staff into the governor’s office. It’s one thing to hire a guy like Trey Walker, who knows a thing or two about elective service in SC. But her chief of staff isn’t even from here, with his main SC experience being running her campaign. Her campaign that was, if you recall, NOT about SC, but about Barack Obama.

I realize that some of y’all — such as Doug — think lack of experience is a GOOD thing. I do not. If your elected official is not much more than a “fresh face,” you definitely need some experienced people running the staff. If you’re serious about doing the job, that is.

The salaries, though, don’t bother me. But I realize they make for an easy target for the Dems under the circumstances…

Say what you mean; mean what you say…

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Just got another one of those frothing fund-raising emails from the Democratic Party, this one signed by somebody named Jackie Speier:

Last night House Republicans voted in favor of an appalling piece of anti-choice legislation that could force victims of rape and incest to relive their trauma during an IRS audit and deny millions of American women access to life-saving reproductive health care.

Their assault on women has nothing to do with saving money and everything to do with forcing extremist beliefs into the tax code of the United States of America.

And they didn’t stop there. They used the occasion to sneak in a provision restricting the definition of rape to deny victims access to reproductive health care — even after they claimed to have removed the language in the face of overwhelming public opposition.

We must take immediate, decisive action against this attack on women’s health and reproductive freedom.

Hey, sign me up! I’m all about some “anti-choice” legislation — that is, when it’s about limiting the “right to choose” abortion, or the “right to choose” to force me to underwrite someone’s private education. Or anything else that’s such an appalling idea that the only way you think you can sell it is in terms of “choice.” As though we lack freedom if we’re not totally free to do anything and everything.

Notice how advocates of “choice” have trouble saying what it is that they’re actually for? They have a jargon that is unself-consciously comical in its aversion to plain speaking.

I mean hey, I wish you the best of “health.” As for “reproductive freedom” — go ahead, reproduce all you want; no one’s stopping you.

I think we need a constitutional amendment limiting the 1st Amendment so that it doesn’t protect political speech that mangles the language.

OK, not really. But one does grow tired of such abuses.

The Harpootlian offensive begins

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I told you over the weekend that Dick Harpootlian said he was going to run right out and start raising money.

It seems he’s already spending it. The above video was just released. Not sure why NOW exactly, except that Dick couldn’t wait. Maybe it’s timed for the GOP debate tonight, or the convention this weekend. Regarding that debate, Harpootlian said,

The only candidates Republicans can get to show up for their debate tonight are a bunch of no-names and crazies.

Not so sure about THAT. But it’s definitely a B-team lineup. Maybe C-team. But hey, there will be a big crowd. After all, Ron Paul will be there, and you know how his fans are…

And no, I’m not going. I intend to go to the convention this weekend, though.

The once and future Democratic chairman

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I went to my very first ever state Democratic convention today. (You have to understand I spent most of my career as an editor, and going to conventions was reporters’ work.) It started at 10 a.m., but I didn’t arrive at the Carolina Coliseum until about 12:20, having had errands to run this morning. I wasn’t too worried about missing anything, though. After all, this was an event run by Democrats, rather than by Republicans. Or Germans. I refer you to Will Rogers.

Near as I can tell, I was right. I did apparently arrive too late to get press credentials — the table that I think was for that purpose was no longer manned — but it didn’t matter. I went down and wandered about on the floor without being challenged.

The headline: Dick Harpootlian won the party chairmanship on the first ballot, with 624 votes to Phil Noble‘s 331 and 68 for the third candidate whom, throughout this competition, was always referred to as that nice guy from Marion County. It still took a while for that first ballot to happen. After having rejected a proposal to vote merely by standing up (a most UN-Nikki Haley voting method that would have been), which would have dealt with the matter quickly since it was so lopsided, paper ballots were decided up. Then they were distributed, and… there was no place on the ballot to indicate which candidate one preferred for chairman. (Disclaimer — I’m describing this as it was described to me by delegates; that minor fiasco was one thing I DID miss by being late. Which still tells me I didn’t miss much.)

They were in the midst of voting again when I arrived, as speeches continued. So I settled in and listened, and mingled and gabbed, and waited for a result.

Here are some of the things I saw and heard over the next couple of hours before I left:

  • Upon my entrance, Steve Benjamin was giving the key to the city to former Rep. John Spratt. Spratt looked pretty good, and had no trouble speaking to the crowd. It was the first time I’d seen him since his defeat, or since his illness was announced, for that matter.
  • As I sat at an empty chair at the small press table, Jay Parmley was telling the crowd what an awesome job the party had done

    Twitter wag @brookbristow termed this "The best political sticker OF ALL TIME."

    of organizing in 2010. “So,” thought I, “how come y’all got so totally creamed?” Well, he explained, the party did well on the county level.

  • Of 289 county offices that were up last year, Democrats contested 190 and won 167. Yeah, OK. But when you lose every office that anyone is paying attention to, that doesn’t exactly add up to Big Mo, does it? He went on to say that 47 percent of the first-time voters of 2008 (remember the Obama Effect?) turned out in 2010, which was much higher than turnout in the general population. This made me think about baseball statistics. I sort of felt like I was listening to a manager brag on his losing pitcher for having thrown so many great pitches during the game.
  • One speaker, later in the program, said “I want to thank our next governor, Vincent Sheheen,” and got a big cheer. I’m not sure what the cheer meant: Were the assembled Dems giving him an attaboy for having almost won as their standard-bearer last year, or were they endorsing him to be the nominee next time as well? That’s the trouble with crowds cheering. You’d have to interview everybody to know what they were thinking.
  • I learned that the chairman’s race was over from Phil Noble. I ran into him on the floor and, not having any other questions on my mind, asked him how he thought it was going. He said not so well: He had already lost, on the first ballot, and it would be announced from the podium momentarily. Oh. OK. And yes, I felt like an idiot. I excused myself, and Tweeted it out.
  • After that announcement was made, Mr. Noble got up to make a concession speech. I whipped out my camera to try to shoot video, and less than three seconds after I hit the button to start recording, he was leaving the podium. He had pledged his support to the winner and to the party, and that was it. He was off that stage.
  • As it happened, Mr. Harpootlian didn’t speak all that long, either. I won’t trouble you with quoting from his acceptance speech, because I have the whole thing on video above. I recognize that the sound quality isn’t good (and the video itself is shaky, because I was busy looking around the room), so if you have trouble hearing it say so, and I’ll give you some quotes. But beyond quoting Harry Truman and promising to give Nikki Haley and her party a hard time, there wasn’t much to it.
  • Afterwards, Dick told me that he was anxious to get out of there and start raising money. He said he could raise more money in the next two hours than he ever could at any other time — flush of victory, I suppose he meant. I looked around for him not long afterward, and I guess he had left to do just that.
  • John Spratt got up again to address the crowd, and announced that he wanted to be the very first to contribute to the party under its new regime — giving a check for $5,000.
  • After staying maybe an hour after Harpootlian’s acceptance, talking with various sources about other stuff while 17th vice chairmen and such were being elected, I decided to split. A lot of people already had. As I left the hall, I heard behind me a speaker saying, “Whereas, according to rule 6.2….” Yeah, I think I found the right time to leave.

There had never been a lot of doubt among observers that Dick Harpootlian would win this, once he got in. And media types are positively looking forward to having The Mouth generate good copy over the next couple of years. So I could hardly blame Phil Noble for seeming a bit put-upon when I interviewed him earlier in the week, seeming resentful that after all those months of work, this would be taken from him so easily. Today, after his concession speech, he said to me something along the lines of “That’s life.” It’s certainly politics. But I wouldn’t blame him a bit for feeling kind of alone at that moment.

Not entirely alone, though — he did get 331 votes. And I had the opportunity to speak to as couple of those 331 during the convention. The ones I heard from were more anti-Harpootlian than pro-Noble, and their reasons ranged from their sincere belief in political correctness — which the new chairman definitely does not share — to their conviction that Harpootlian is all talk, and the party needs more than that.

But you know, if I were a Democrat, I’d have been concerned about something else. Dick is way more than talk; he had a lot to do with the party’s success in 1998. I think he’ll pull out all the stops to reverse momentum and win victories over the Republicans. And if I were a Democrat, I’d wonder, “At what cost?” In 1998, he brought video poker money to the table, and helped Jim Hodges (who had been a staunch opponent of both video poker and a state lottery) win on a lottery-based campaign. If you’re a Democrat and you’re OK with such things, you’re bound to be happy with your new chairman. If you worry about such tactics, you might be concerned at what lengths he’ll go to to win.

But there’s no question that for media types, it’s going to be more fun to write about the Democrats over the next couple of years.

Phil Noble on ‘The Brad Show (Guerrilla Edition)’

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Welcome to the cinéma vérité version of “The Brad Show.” Just to give it a fancy name.

Scheduling time with Phil Noble, candidate for SC Democratic Party chair, wasn’t quite as easy as getting together with Dick Harpootlian. Dick’s office is right down the street and around the corner, whereas Phil is based in Charleston.

So we went back and forth, back and forth, via email and phone, trying to get together. On Good Friday (while I was taking a three-day break from the laptop), Phil wrote to tell me he’d be in town on Monday. So when I got that on Monday, I got back to him and left a message. He called me back during Monday’s Rotary meeting, proposing to meet me in a couple of hours. I checked with Gene and Jay, and that we too short notice for a full studio session.

So I improvised. I asked Phil to come by the office anyway, and interviewed him with my little Canon A1100 set on my cheap little tripod I got from Walmart.

The video quality really isn’t all that bad, considering the gonzo, guerrilla way in which it was shot. Of course, to get that kind of resolution, you’re talking about a freaking HUGE file — like, 770 MB. Transferring it from the camera to the laptop was an hour. Converting the format was another hour. Uploading it to blip.tv was more like four or five hours (I don’t know how long, because I finally went home and left it running).

And now, to you.

Why couldn’t we wait for studio time? Because the state Democratic convention is Saturday. Which reminds me — if I’m going, I need to see about whether I need credentials or something.

As for what Phil had to say — what, you think I’m going to sit here and type it out for you? I went to enough trouble getting it to you; the least you can do is watch it.

Warning — it’s the longest Brad Show ever, at more than 34 minutes. Another drawback from not having a pro like Jay handle it (and boy, do I appreciate him more than ever now) was that there was nobody to give me significant looks that meant “wrap it up!”

If you’re interested at all in who should be the chairman of the state Dems, you should find this interesting. So WATCH it. (And go back and watch the Harpootlian one, too, if you haven’t — as Kevin Fisher recommended…)

Thanks for the shout-out, Kevin!

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Couple of days ago, Kevin Fisher left a phone message for me to let me know that he would be citing “The Brad Show” in his column in the Free Times, to wit:

Speaking in a video interview on Brad Warthen’s blog on April 20 (Warthen is the former editorial page editor of The State), Harpootlian showed he has learned nothing from his prior mistakes and proceeded to once more insult both African-Americans and gays.

On the matter of Alvin Greene, Harpootlian said when the Manning resident showed up at Democratic Party headquarters trying to pay his filing fee with a personal check (rather than a campaign check), “I would have taken his paperwork and then disqualified him.”

Harpootlian went on to criticize current Democratic Chairwoman Carol Fowler for telling Greene what he needed to do to file properly. Such is equality in Harpo’s world.

Next, Harpootlian offered this year’s version of “light in the loafers,” ridiculing GOP state Sen. Glenn McConnell. When Warthen noted that McConnell has “17 Confederate costumes,” Harpootlian quickly interjected “and one of them has hoops,” while gesturing to indicate a skirt. Earlier in the interview, Harpootlian said “the girly boy thing didn’t work” for the Democrats. Such is inclusiveness in Harpo’s world.

But if you’re a delegate to the state Democratic convention, don’t take my word for it. Go to bradwarthen.com, watch and decide — for yourself and your party…

Thanks for the mention, Kevin. See you at D’s…

He said/he said: Hard to keep up with this Dem chair race

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I’m really busy today with Mad Man stuff, but if I don’t go ahead and share some of this stuff with y’all I’ll never catch up again.

Since my last post on the subject last night, SC Democratic Party chairman candidate Phil Noble has sent out TWO more releases in his war of words with opponent Dick Harpootlian. Here’s one:

Noble: Harpootlian’s Response Inadequate – Contributions to GOP
are Insider Politics as Usual

Yesterday, I called on Dick Harpootlian to withdraw from the race for South Carolina Democratic Chair after it was revealed on a political blog that he contributed more than $15,000 dollars to Republicans like Jake Knotts and Henry McMaster.

I was very disappointed he didn’t seem to take this seriously. He essentially dismissed the issue by saying he’d given much more to Democrats than Republicans, and Democrats should be happy about that. He didn’t even say that he regretted what he did, or that he wouldn’t continue to do it in the future.

This is not a trivial concern.

How does a party chairman go out and recruit Democratic candidates to run against Republican incumbents to whom he has personally made substantial financial contributions?

How does the leader of a party recruit volunteers and donors to support a Democratic candidate who is trying to unseat those Republicans he apparently admires enough to write them a big check?

I believe the Democratic party in South Carolina needs to set a new course. We need to show the people of this state that we do have a fresh vision for the future that does not include good ole boy politics, backroom deals, and an I’ll-scratch-your-back-you-scratch mine mentality.

I was particularly disappointed that Dick’s response to this matter was to resort to the old politics of half-truths and misinformation to discredit me.

Here are the facts:

Fact 1: I gave money to Barack Obama via his website within an hour of his announcement. Early in 2007, long before he was a popular candidate in South Carolina, I was organizing lit drops, and precinct activities to help his campaign get off the ground. I was proud of my support for him then, just as I am now.

Fact 2: I am a member of the board of the South Carolina Archives and History Foundation. As a board member, I was asked to contribute to the mounting of an official state historical marker designating the site of the signing of the Ordinance of Secession. It had nothing to do with supporting the idea of secession of the civil war. The same evening the marker was dedicated, a “Secession Ball” was held in Charleston. While that event was underway, I was speaking at an NAACP rally protesting the Ball.

Fact 3: My opponent claims that in 2002 I contributed $900 to a conservative Illinois Republican by the name of Phil Crane. This is simply not true. I don’t support his far-right politics, and I certainly have never given him any money. Period, full stop. As I said in my original statement, I have never given money to a Republican candidate and I never will. Any records that would appear to contradict this are obviously in error or fraudulent, and I’ll be happy to release my check register or bank records from that year or any year to verify that I don’t give money to Republicans.

We need to have a debate on the future of our party and how we can change and win. Let’s move forward and have that conversation now.

###

And here’s the other:

Former FEC Commissioner: Harpootlian Charge Rests On Fraudulent Documents From Convicted Felon

Yesterday, I called on Dick Harpootlian to withdraw from the race for South Carolina Democratic Party chair after it was revealed that he has contributed more than $15,000 to Republican candidates for office in South Carolina.

To my surprise, Dick responded to this news by actually trying to justify these donations to right-wing Republicans like Jake Knotts and Henry McMaster, and by accusing me of having given a $900 donation to an Illinois Republican named Phil Crane in 2002. As I immediately made clear in a statement last night, I have never given money to Phil Crane or any other Republican and I never will. “Any records” I said, “that would appear to contradict this are obviously in error or fraudulent.”

Today, former Federal Election Commissioner Scott Thomas has come forward to tell us it was the later.

“Christopher Ward was treasurer of the Phil Crane campaign when this fraudulent donation was allegedly made by Phil Noble,” Thomas said in a statement issued today. “Ward was a crook and he pled guilty in 2010 to massive embezzlement from several political committees. Ward committed multiple scams, frauds and forgeries affecting many party and candidate committees where he served as treasurer. One of his tricks apparently, was to move money from a party committee account to a candidate committee under false names so he could then embezzle the funds more easily. This would explain why Noble’s name was fraudulently used by Ward and the Crane campaign.”

Commissioner Thomas was a Federal Election Commissioner from 1986 – 2006 during the time that the fraud was perpetrated. He is available for comment by phone at 202 420 2601 or email at [email protected].

Statements and Stories detailing Chris Ward’s Fraudulent Campaign Finance Activity:
http://www.justice.gov/usao/md/Public-Affairs/press_releases/press08/FormerTreasurerofNationalRepublicanCongressionalCommitteePleadsGuiltytoEmbezzling844718.html
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/09/03/former-gop-committee-treasurer-christopher-ward-pleads-guilty-to/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/03/christopher-ward-nrcc-embezzlement-guilty_n_705533.html

I suppose I need to step out of the way before I get hit in the head by another one from Harpootlian…

Harpootlian fires back at Noble

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Well, that didn’t take long. Dick “Tough Guy” Harpootlian just fired back a full broadside at Phil Noble in response to his earlier shot:

HARPOOTLIAN: “NOBLE DAZED AND CONFUSED”

Harpootlian given over $500,000 to Dems; Noble didn’t give a dime to President Obama; Lied in his press release

For immediate release:

Monday, April 20, 2011

Contact:

Amanda Alpert Loveday

Columbia, SC — This afternoon Dick Harpootlian responded to an attack by Phil Noble that misleadingly highlighted a handful of Harpootlian’s contributions to the exclusion of well over $500,000 given to Democrats during the same period.

Harpootlian said:

“I gave money to Jake Knotts because, like me, he has supported the last three Democratic candidates for governor.

If Phil wants to talk about money, lets talk about why he gave money to erect a Confederate Monument in Charleston but didn’t give a single dime to Barack Obama. Phil claims to be a big Obama supporter, but it’s just not true.

While I’m attacking Republicans, like Nikki Haley and her corrupt administration, Phil is spending his time attacking me with misstatements and untruths.  The South Carolina Democratic Party needs someone who will spend their time building the party, not tearing it down.”

The December 27, 2010 edition of the Charleston Post and Courier reported that Noble, a former member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, contributed money to erect a monument commemorating the signing of the Ordinance of Secession.

“Phil’s not telling the truth in his press release either. He claims never to have given or raised ‘one red cent’ to a Republican, but he clearly gave $900 to an Illinois Republican in 2002,” said Harpootlian. “That’s $900 more than he gave Vincent Sheheen or Barack Obama.”
# # #

I’d say more, but I’m listening to Harpootlian on Pub Politics right now…

Phil Noble comes out swinging against Harpo

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On the same day that Dick Harpootlian appears on The Brad Show, his opponent in the SC Democratic Party chairman race, Phil Noble, comes out of his corner swinging at him:

Statement by Phil Noble, Candidate for Chair of the SC Democratic Party

Harpootlian Gave Over $15,000 to
SC Republican Candidates

Noble Calls on Harpootlian to Withdraw

In public he gives them Hell; in private he gives them money.’

Over the past few years, I have been encouraging people in South Carolina to look at where money for the Republican Party and its candidates is coming from. But even I am amazed to learn that my opponent – Dick Harpootlian – is actually the source of some of that money.

According to public records published this morning on a well-regarded South Carolina political blog, the Politics of Jamie Sanderson, Dick Harpootlian has given over $15,000 in campaign funds to Republican candidates and elected officials across South Carolina.

If this is true, as it appears to be, he should immediately withdraw from the race for SC Democratic Party Chair. After all, how can he credibly lead the Democratic Party if he’s giving money to the other side?

When I announced that I was running for Chair, I did so because I believe we have to set a new course. If we want to convince voters that we deserve the chance to lead again, we have to stop doing what we have always done and expecting the outcome to be different.

Many Democrats around the state think of our party –- their party — as being run by a club of well-meaning insiders in Columbia without a clear strategy for winning or even moving forward. Of course, they have great sound bites for the media and put clever things on their websites… but in the evening it’s back to the politics of you-scratch-my back-I’ll-scratch yours.

And apparently we are not just talking about any Republicans. We’re talking about those whose politics are diametrically opposed to those of mainstream Democrats, and most likely the mainstream of people of our state.

In public he gives them Hell, in private he gives them money.

Jake Knotts is loose cannon whose public statements often echo our state’s racist past. He routinely embarrasses himself and South Carolina in the national news media – including making racial slurs about President Obama. What in heck is Harpootlian doing writing him campaign checks?

Henry McMaster could not be more of a partisan right-wing Republican. Why in the world would Dick be giving him money?

So far, we have only heard about $15,000 in direct contributions from Dick to SC Republicans running for office. However, I imagine that is only a partial list. The truth is, we have no idea how much he might have raised for any of these Republican campaigns from among his family, friends, and associates.

This year we got Nikki Haley to finally start paying her taxes. Now, apparently, we need to make the same kind of effort to convince the leaders of the Democratic Party in Columbia to stop giving money to our Republican opponents.

Therefore, I am calling on Dick to end his campaign for party chair and apologize to Democrats for his support of our opponents. I especially think he owes an apology to those Democratic candidates who have run against these Republican friends of his, and the rank-and-file campaign people who walked precincts and made phone calls for them.

I have never given or raised money for a Republican candidate – ever – not one red cent. And neither has my wife, my children nor any of my businesses – and I make a commitment that I never will. Now I challenge Dick to make the same commitment.

This whole episode represents precisely the kind of cozy, insider politics that Democrats in this state are sick and tired of. And if I am elected Chair of the Democratic Party, we’re going to start putting a stop to it on Day One.

Shocked? Well, I’m not. I knew Dick had given to Jake. (Actually, “knew” may be too strong a word. It sounded really familiar when I read it.) Dick and Jake are pretty tight, ever since Dick forgave Jake for throwing him over a counter at the solicitor’s office. As the story goes, Dick was mouthing off to him, which is entirely believable. And of course, a lot of folks who wanted to stop Mark Sanford from stacking the Legislature in his favor were giving to Jake in the last election.

The others I don’t know about. But I’m not shocked. In fact, as you know, I like people who will support candidates across party lines, because I don’t think there should BE party lines to start with.

But I’m not your typical Democratic Party convention voter, am I? So with some, this is likely to do Phil some good. We’ll see.

“The Brad Show” 2011 season premiere! Starring Dick Harpootlian!

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Heh-heh.

I saw that Pub Politics was going to have Dick Harpootlian as their guest tonight, and decided to scoop ’em. It wasn’t hard, since I had already interviewed Dick last week.

Anyway, here’s the video.

Were there any bombshells during the show, along the lines of wanting to rent the black vote, or opposition pols being light in their loafers? Well, there WAS a comment about a certain GOP senator and hoop skirts. But I wasn’t actually trying to elicit such. It’s just that Mr. Harpootlian is rather irrepressible.

I’m involved in negotiations with his opponent in the race for state Democratic Party chair, Phil Noble — negotiations that consist of trying to find time when he’s in town and the studio is available (Dick’s office is just a few blocks away, and that made it easier) — but no dice yet. In a pinch, we may have to fall back on a phone interview, but I hope it doesn’t come to that. There’s also the possibility of Skype, which would be an innovation for the show.

But we’re all about innovation here at “The Brad Show.” That, and in-depth discussion of the issues of the day. Who knows what we may get up to in this new season? I certainly don’t. We just sort of make it up from episode to episode…

Quick! You have anything you want to ask Dick Harpootlian?

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He’s going to be here in a few minutes to tape “The Brad Show” (the first one of the new season!). This should be fun. But I’m thinking I should have some questions ready for him. I’ve got at least one ready, from this release he put out yesterday:

Fellow Democrats —

If we want to win elections, we have to fight.

The Democratic Party is a “big tent” of people committed to caring for those who are most vulnerable.  Our party attracts many kind, compassionate people who are not inclined to “go for the jugular” — and that’s a good thing.

Republicans, on the other hand, are motivated by self-interest and a willingness to do anything to win.  They’ll continue to win for years to come if we don’t change our ways.

I have earned a reputation as a tough guy, and while that may be unsettling to some of you, it’s exactly what our party needs right now.  We don’t need a nice guy or gal at the helm.  We need someone who can and will throw a punch at every opportunity.  It’s how we will hold our elected leaders accountable, and it’s how we will allow our candidates to focus on sharing positive plans for the future rather than defending themselves from “mudslinging.”
I’ve included a web video in this message that I think you’ll enjoy.  It’s an example of the sort of aggressive accountability that I will bring to the office every day as your next party chair.

I hope you’ll take a moment to watch it and share it with your friends.

If we work together and fight hard we will beat Republicans in South Carolina and usher in a new era of progress in the state we all love.

Dick

Dick Harpootlian

Of course, it’s not much of a question. I’m just going to say, “How’s it going, ‘Tough Guy’?” I’m going to say it all scornful, like one gangster to another.

But that’s not going to fill much airtime. So do you have any ideas for questions? Hurry up. He’ll be here in less than 15 minutes.

Harpootlian moves toward inevitability

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The other day, a former Democratic Party executive committee member warned me not to speak as though Dick “The Once and Future Chairman” Harpootian’s candidacy was a sure thing — because, after all, Phil Noble and that other guy were running, too.

Well, first, I don’t think I said it WAS a sure thing (I said Dick returning to this arena should be fun). And second… well, now that you mention it, maybe it IS. This just in, from Jim Clyburn and Vincent Sheheen:

Harpootlian for SCDP Chair
Dear Fellow Democrats,

Please join us in supporting Dick Harpootlian’s candidacy as the next chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party.

We believe Dick is who and what the party needs right now — a proven leader. He’s tough. He’s articulate. He’s a proven fundraiser. He has the experience to get our party back on track and start winning elections again. We can’t afford to wait until the next campaign season to hold Republicans accountable for their failures. We must start immediately, and Dick shares our sense of urgency.

We believe Dick is uniquely suited to ensure that our party secures the resources not just to compete, but to win. Under his prior leadership as chairman of the state party, South Carolina Democrats had a very successful coordinated campaign, and Jim Hodges was elected governor by defeating the sitting Republican governor.

We hope you will join us in supporting Dick Harpoolian for Chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party at the State Convention on April 30th.

Thank you for your commitment to our party and to our state.

Sincerely,

Congressman James Clyburn
Sen. Vincent Sheheen, 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nominee
Former Gov. Jim Hodges
Sen. John Land, Minority Leader
Sen. Darrell Jackson
Sen. Gerald Malloy
Sen. John Matthews
Rep. Harry Ott, Minority Leader
Rep. Jimmy Bales
Rep. Boyd Brown
Rep. Bill Clyburn
Rep. Todd Rutherford
Rep. John Scott
Rep. Bakari Sellers
Rep. James Smith
Rep. Leon Stavrinakis
Richland County Councilwoman Bernice Scott
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin
Former SCDP Chairman Joe Erwin

And the fact is, Dick had most Democrats at “Jim Clyburn and Vincent Sheheen.” Personally, I’m impressed by the last name on the list. While I hate to praise ANY party official, as party chairs go, Joe Erwin was a good one. He’s the guy who managed to stop his own party, at the last minute, from having an effectively closed presidential primary in 2004. My kind of partisan, that Joe Erwin.

Anyway, in endorsement terms, this is looking like the state political equivalent of Blitzkrieg.

Harpootlian’s back! (THIS should be fun…)

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That look he gets when he's fully aware that he's being a wise guy -- in other words, his usual look. / Screen shot from 2007 video by Brad Warthen

Just got this email confirming what we’ve been hearing the last day or so:

Harpootlian for SCDP Chair
Dear Friends,

I’m writing to ask you to support my candidacy for Chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party. I’ve decided to run for two reasons.

First, I’m outraged that Republicans like Nikki Haley and Ken Ard continue to get away with not telling the truth and breaking the law. It’s time for this to stop.

Democrats must hold Republicans accountable constantly — not just during election season. As your party chair, I won’t give them a moment’s rest by demanding real transparency and accountability.

Second, I’m ready to win. I have a record of success in holding Republicans accountable for their policy and political failures, and with your help, we can do it again.

Here’s how:

·  Raise enough money for us to have the resources to fight and WIN.

·  Force Republicans to defend their record of failure.

·  Start organizing our grassroots machine for the next election now.

·  Deepen our bench by recruiting strong candidates.
These are my objectives as the next Chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party. I know that we can do this because we have done it before. I had the honor of serving as your party chair from 1998 to 2003. During that time we unseated an incumbent Republican governor and elected Governor Jim Hodges. We successfully reelected Senator Fritz Hollings, Congressman Jim Clyburn, Congressman John Spratt, and others. We also raised the money to win.

I am writing to ask for your support as our next Democratic Party Chair. Click here to declare your support. Let’s wage a relentless campaign to hold Haley, Ard, and the Republican establishment accountable, and let’s start NOW.  It’s time to put the Democratic Party in South Carolina back on the path to success.

I’m honored to have many of our party’s strongest leaders supporting my candidacy, including Congressman Jim Clyburn and our 2010 gubernatorial nominee, State Senator Vincent Sheheen.

Finally, I believe I can accomplish these goals in a single two-year term. At the end of my two-year term, I hope to help elect a new Chair who shares my vision as described above.

I would be honored to have your support for South Carolina Democratic Party Chair, and I look forward to working with you to take back the state we love.  Thank you.

Respectfully yours,

Dick Harpootlian

PS – You can help spread the word by showing your support on Facebook and encouraging your friends to do so as well.

This should be fun. Notice that I’m not saying it will be edifying or uplifting or anything. I just said it will be fun. Dick usually is.

SC Dems are whistling ‘Dixie’ past own graveyard

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The headline in the paper over the weekend said, “S.C. Democrats: ‘We’re coming back'”:

S.C. Democrats still are smarting from a brutal November that stripped them of one of their two congressional seats, their only statewide office and a handful of General Assembly seats.

But, after some serious post-election number crunching, the state party contends Palmetto State Democrats fared better than Democrats in other states — whose candidates were clobbered by wide margins, too — and actually grew their ranks, laying the groundwork for a comeback.

“We’ve grown our base. These new numbers show we’re not dead and done like some people say,” said Jay Parmley, director of the S.C. Democratic Party. “Yes, we lost everything, but we’re coming back.”…

And what that headline tells us is, SC Democrats are delusional.

Oh, I’m not saying that it’s impossible that some new megatrend that has not yet been spotted by anyone could begin a reversal of the process that started in 1964, when Strom Thurmond joined the Republican Party, and white folks across the state started following him — first in a trickle, then in an accelerating flood.

What I’m saying is that there is no evidence extant at this time to believe that the Democrats are reversing nearly five decades of history trending against them in this state.

Certainly not the main “evidence” the optimists, whistling past their own partisan political graveyard, cite.

Vincent Sheheen’s strong showing is by no means a good sign for Democrats. Vincent Sheheen didn’t do that well because he was a Democrat. He did that well in spite of being a Democrat.

Vincent Sheheen was obviously a stronger candidate, who would clearly have been a better governor, than Nikki Haley. This could not be hidden from SC voters. They liked him better. But he lost, barely, because there are so many white folks in this state who would rather poke themselves in the eye with a sharp stick than pull the lever for a Democrat. His being a Democrat was therefore a huge liability.

If he had NOT been a Democrat — if he and Nikki had both run as Republicans, or if voters had somehow been kept ignorant of the party identification of the two candidates or, if you’ll allow me to dream (and Lord, hasten the day!), no candidate had had ANY party label — then he would have won.

This was obvious. Other statewide Republican candidates, in this huge year for Republicans nationally (and if you will recall, Nikki did everything she could to make the campaign national, running against Barack Obama instead of Vincent Sheheen, who was more likable than she) won in landslides. We’re talking double-digit margins. As I wrote right after the election:

It was so evident that Nikki was the voters’ least favorite statewide Republican (yes, Mick Zais got a smaller percentage, but there were several “third party” candidates; Frank Holleman still got fewer votes than Vincent). I look at it this way: Mark Hammond sort of stands as the generic Republican. Nobody knows who he is or what he does, so he serves as a sort of laboratory specimen of what a Republican should have expected to get on Nov. 2, 2010, given the prevailing political winds. He got 62 percent of the vote.

Even Rich Eckstrom — and this is truly remarkable given his baggage, and the witheringly negative campaign that Robert Barber ran against him — got 58 percent…

Oh, for those of you who don’t know, Mark Hammond is the secretary of state. Voters, by and large, don’t know that. All they knew was that he was labeled “Republican.”

That Nikki Haley, with her 51 percent, didn’t come anywhere close to their margins testified to voter discomfort with her (as opposed to a generic Republican like Hammond), and to the strength of her opponent (because SOME of those voters who went for the GOP in every other race voted for Vincent).

If she hadn’t had an R after her name, and he hadn’t had a D, he would be governor now.

And Democrats who say otherwise are fooling themselves.

Watch out! Nancy’s had enough

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As accustomed as I am to the familiar tone of these appeals from the parties — you know, the ones that are all about whipping you up and making you really, REALLY hate the opposition, so that you’ll be angry enough to give money — I was still taken aback when I looked at my Blackberry and saw that I had an e-mail from Nancy Pelosi beginning, “Brad, I’ve had enough…”

First, I didn’t know we were such intimates. Second, whatever did I do to upset her? That concerns me, seeing as how we’re so close. Apparently.

Anyway, here’s the message:

Brad —

Do you know what House Republicans have done to create jobs since claiming the Majority three months ago? Nothing.

However, they’ve found time for votes to restrict access to reproductive health care, take teachers out of our classrooms, nurses out of our hospitals, and even to defund NPR. All told, Republican cuts would destroy 700,000 jobs.

I’ve had enough of the Republicans’ extremist anti-jobs agenda and I think you have too.

On March 31st, we’ll hit the first FEC quarterly filing deadline since the outrageous GOP power play in Wisconsin and Republicans took the reins in the House. The eyes of the nation will be on our fundraising numbers to judge our grassroots determination to fight back against the radical Republican agenda. We must have a strong showing.

Contribute $5 or more to the DCCC’s Million Dollar Matching Gift Campaign right now. This deadline is so important that if you contribute today, my fellow House Democrats and I will match every dollar you give with two of our own up to our $1 Million goal.

Fight Back

An extreme Republican majority has launched an all out assault on middle class America. It began in Wisconsin, but has spread to Congress and state houses across the country.

Secretive groups like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS are already up on the air running vicious attack ads against House Democrats who are standing up against the Republican assault and fighting for middle class working families.

I’ve set a goal of $1 million before the March FEC deadline to show the world that we have the grassroots strength to fight radical Republican budget cuts and to stand up for middle class American families.

Contribute $5 or more to the DCCC’s Million Dollar Matching Gift Campaign right now. This deadline is so important that if you contribute today, my fellow House Democrats and I will match every dollar you give with two of our own — tripling the impact of your gift.

The DCCC counts on individual donors like you for 75% of their funding. Together, we can turn back this Republican attack on the middle class and move America forward. Please contribute today.

Thank you.

Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader

P.S. The first FEC quarterly deadline of the year is just 10 days from now. We must exceed our $1 Million grassroots goal to show the world that Democrats are strong, united and determined to fight back against the radical Republican agenda. Contribute Now.

The radical Republicans? What! Reconstruction is back? Has anyone told Wade Hampton?

These messages leave me really torn. On the one hand, I want to get off the mailing list, because I don’t want them thinking I’m the kind of sap to whom all this nasty partisan stuff would appeal (and really, is there anything more inimical to civil discourse in a free society than deliberately trying to get people angry so that they’ll give you money?). I’ve written about this before, quoting the sage Bugs Bunny. (“He don’t know me very well, do he?”)

But on the other hand, it’s kind of nice to know that Nancy thinks we’re such good friends.

Obama: Ready To Tap Oil Reserve If Needed — which it ISN’T, not by a long shot

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The president at this afternoon's presser. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Well, gasoline prices are rising toward levels that might, just might, cause some of us to face reality and acknowledge that it’s not a good idea at all to be so desperately dependent on cheap oil from crazy-dangerous parts of the world, and what are our elected leaders — Democrats and Republicans — doing?

Why, what they always do — pandering. But there’s pandering, and then there’s pandering.

The GOP is busily blaming Barack “Root of All Evil” Obama. The president himself is responding by saying, at a press conference today, that he’s prepared to tap the strategic oil reserve, if needed.

But that last part is key, and his way out as a rational man. It’s like his promise to “start” withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by a certain date, which in no way commits him to draw down dangerously before it’s wise to do so. Obama’s smart; he’s not going to pander so far that he commits himself to something irresponsible. This is a quality that he has demonstrated time and again, and which has greatly reassured me ever since he beat my (slightly) preferred candidate for the presidency. This is the quality — or one of them — that made me glad to say so often, back in 2008, that for the first time in my editorial career, both major-party candidates for president were ones I felt good about (and both of whom we endorsed, in their respective primaries).

It’s certainly more defensible than Mr. Boehner’s reflexive partisan bashing. And it’s WAY more defensible than Al “Friend of the Earth” Gore asking Bill Clinton to tap the reserve to help him win the 2000 election.

To quote from the report I just saw on the NPR site:

Obama said he’s prepared to tap the U.S. emergency oil reserve if needed. But as gas prices climbed toward $4 a gallon, the president said the U.S. must adopt a long-term strategy of conservation and domestic production to wean itself off foreign oil.

“We’ve been having this conversation for nearly four decades now. Every few years gas prices go up, politicians pull out the same political playbook, and nothing changes,” Obama said.

“I don’t want to leave this to the next president,” he said.

Some in Congress have been calling on Obama to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And the president made clear Friday that that was an option, although he indicated he wasn’t yet prepared to exercise it. He declined to specify the conditions that would trigger the step, but said it was teed up and could happen quickly if he chooses to call for it….

His threshold, based on what he said, is a Hurricane Katrina, or worse. Personally, I’d raise the bar a bit higher than that, but he’s on the right track, trying to set a high standard. (You make a disruption like Katrina the standard, then next thing you know, you’re tempted to lower it to, say, a BP oil spill — and that’s not the direction you want to go in.)

The key word here is “strategic,” a threshold that I would think wouldn’t be crossed until we have a sustained inability to GET oil to power our economy — something we came close to, in spots, in recent crises. But it seems to me one only turns to such “strategic” options as a last resort. The president should be “prepared to tap the U.S. emergency oil reserve if needed” in the same sense he is expected to be prepared to crack open the “football” and activate the codes for going nuclear. OK, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but you get where I’m going with this. It’s something we hope and pray never happens, and we do our best to pursue policies that avoid such an eventuality.

By the way, back to that excerpt above. I particularly love “the president said the U.S. must adopt a long-term strategy of conservation and domestic production to wean itself off foreign oil.” Earlier today, I disparaged the president for being no Energy Party man. (I was essentially repeating an observation I made about both him and McCain in a July 6, 2008, column.)

But maybe I was wrong. If he keeps saying things like that, he may deserve the Energy nomination in 2012 after all.

They’re not blaming the earthquake on Obama (yet), but…

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The bitter little joke I made earlier about FoxNews not having blamed the earthquake off Japan on President Obama was meant to be funny, but…

This morning, I saw this Tweet:

FrumForum

@FrumForumFrumForum

Boehner Blames Obama for Energy Costs: GOP: Obama to Blame for Higher Energy Costs http://bit.ly/f1cYtQ #tcot

What are you gonna do with people like that?

Of course, he’s got half of a point:

“They’ve canceled new leases for exploration, jeopardized our nuclear energy industry, and imposed a de facto moratorium on future drilling in our country. They’ve even pushed a cap-and-trade energy tax that the president himself admitted would cause the price of energy to skyrocket,” Boehner said.

Republicans have repeatedly criticized the administration and congressional Democrats for what they perceive to be a lackluster response to the rapidly rising cost of oil.

… but half a point, in the hands of partisan ideologues, is a very dangerous thing.

I say “half a point” because the president is no more an Energy Party man than the speaker is. Both of them only see the half that their respective ideologies allow. Boehner is for drilling, domestic exploration, nuclear energy and the like. Obama is for alternative energy sources, conservation, and other “green” initiatives. When the truth is, we need to do ALL of those things, and more, to achieve the critically important (economically and strategically) goal of energy independence.

Yet another way that our two-party system prevents our leaders from even considering real, comprehensive solutions to compelling national problems. Which is another reason we MUST not allow them to further strengthen their death grip on our electoral system.

One other thing: I allowed this comment from our persistent gadfly Steven/Michael/Fred/Luke/etc. earlier today:

… so that I could say this: You’re absolutely correct. But callin’ it business as usual don’t make it right, boss. It just makes it twice as wrong.

Vote UnParty.