Category Archives: Republicans

Are we starting to see a geologic shift between left and right on national security?

This is something I’ve been thinking about the last few days, and I haven’t written about it because it’s complicated and I haven’t had time to do something pulling all the threads together. But when I saw this development, I decided I’d better go ahead and throw out the general idea and get the discussion started:

Obama Says War Powers Act Doesn’t Apply to Libya Mission

White House maintains that the president doesn’t need lawmakers’ permission for U.S. role in NATO-led effort.

The White House on Wednesday told skeptical lawmakers that President Obama doesn’t need their permission to continue the nation’s involvement in the NATO-led mission in Libya because U.S. forces are playing only a supporting role there.

Administration lawyers made their case as part of a larger report sent to Congress responding to complaints that the president had yet to provide a sufficient rationale for continuing the Libya campaign, the New York Times reports.

“We are not saying the president can take the country into war on his own,” State Department lawyer Harold Koh told the paper. “We are not saying the War Powers Resolution is unconstitutional or should be scrapped, or that we can refuse to consult Congress. We are saying the limited nature of this particular mission is not the kind of ‘hostilities’ envisioned by the War Powers Resolution.”…

OK, digest that. Here’s the NYT version, and here’s the WashPost. And then consider some of the other things I’ve been noticing lately:

The fact that, in the GOP debate the other night, we heard some Republicans moving more toward the “get out of Afghanistan ASAP” line. Ron Paul, treated as an outcast for saying such things four years ago, got cheered by the Fox News crowd.
The bold way Obama decided to go in and GET bin Laden, without any of that multilateral consult-the-allies (as in, tell the Pakistanis we’re attacking in the heart of their country) touchy-feely stuff. No fooling around.
The way the administration is playing on having stunned the world with the bin Laden thing to get its way elsewhere. That prompted me to write that the difference between Bush and Obama is that Bush was Sonny, while Obama is the far-deadlier (that is, more effective) Michael.
The way Obama is taking advantage of chaos in Yemen to just GO AFTER terrorists there, without asking Congress or the UN, or presenting arguments about the War Powers Act, or anything like that. Read this, and this.

This has been building ever since the election, with a lot of Obama’s antiwar base feeling pretty disoriented (wait — is this who we elected?), and people like me being reassured by his steady pragmatism.

But lately, the process has seemed to be accelerating. Obama still talks a good war-as-last-resort, multilateral, we-don’t-want-to-be-a-bully line for the base… but watch what happens. (And how about the way he threw everybody off-balance on Libya, letting the FRENCH of all people take the lead, while still managing to get in there and go after the bad guys? That enabled him to have it both ways. The allies couldn’t do it without us, but it came across looking like we were a reluctant junior partner, which bought Obama some support for the move among liberals.)

And I find myself wondering, is anyone else noticing? I mean, while the Republicans get more timid about the U.S. role abroad (in some ways) and obsess more and more about domestic issues (because that’s what the Tea Party cares about), Obama is out there going all JFK and LBJ. He’s going Old School. He’s defining Democratic presidential leadership back to where it was before Vietnam.

Are the parties moving toward switching places?

This is a fascinating development. I think it has the potential to completely realign the country politically, and on more than national security.

Anybody else noticing this?

Could it (finally) be over for Grover Norquist?

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Who’da thunk the day would ever come?

Mark Sanford buddy and guru Grover Norquist — whose anti-tax pledge has verged on paralyzing South Carolina government in recent years because he had so many GOP lawmakers signing it and afraid to cross him (thereby preventing comprehensive tax reform, among other things) has apparently miscalculated, leading to a very public rebuke, by Republicans, in the age of the Tea Party:

WASHINGTON — Grover Norquist’s grip on the Republican Party’s tax policy slipped dramatically on Tuesday, a development that is likely to have significant repercussions on the debate over spending, revenue and the federal deficit.

Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform and a leading party power broker for a generation, drew a hard line in the sand against repealing ethanol subsidies, arguing that ending the tax breaks is equivalent to a tax increase and therefore a violation of The Pledge — a document nearly every Republican has signed promising never to vote to raise taxes.

Thirty-four Senate Republicans walked nonchalantly across that line on Tuesday, voting to move forward on an amendment sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) that would repeal the subsidies.

Norquist has been vicious in his recent talks on Coburn, charging that his amendment means he “lied his way into office” and is breaking the pledge.

Coburn was unmoved. “I think you all think he has a whole lot more hold than I think he has,” Coburn told reporters before the vote. “I don’t disagree with him on a lot of principles. The fact is it’s not a good position to put yourself in when you say, ‘Here’s a tax expenditure that nobody needs, and yet we have to give somebody else a tax cut to take away this.'”…

Could this be the end?

I mean, it should be. Even if you agree with Norquist, for the guy who famously wanted to shrink government to where he could drown it in a bathtub to make his stand on KEEPING one of the more wasteful government boondoggles is not calculated to win credibility.

Drat! Foiled again! Curse you, Snidely Obama!

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I was WAY busy last night with real-life stuff until about 1:30 a.m. (just wait until YOU have five kids and four grandchildren and everybody’s coming and going and having to be picked up at the airport in the middle of the night), and barely found time to watch some of that presidential debate. I didn’t even have time to think about Nikki Haley’s national TV appearance. Good thing, too.

I did glance at the coverage of it on CBS, and even managed to read on a bit after the horrible shock of the opening words:

Four of the biggest names in the Republican Party – Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Rep. Allen West of Florida, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahom…a

Really. “Biggest names.” Take THAT, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Jeb Bush… I could go on, but what does it matter? They’re nobodies! The peanut gallery is taking over!

It is just absolutely stunning how little one has to accomplish to be one of the “biggest” these days. In fact, in the GOP, accomplishing anything actually counts against you. Look at Romney and health care.

Of course, Nikki Haley is about as accomplishment-free as anyone can get, and by the new standards, that makes her golden. Of course, she likes us to think that she wants to accomplish stuff, but that uncontrollable forces prevent her.

What, you ask, has kept our gov free of the blemish of achievement? Could it be that she lacks good ideas? Could it be that she is clueless when it comes to working with other people who would have to be involved in making these things happen, such as the Republican leadership of the General Assembly? Could it be because of her inept, ham-handed approach to everything from USC trustee appointments to her own tax returns?

No, it’s none of that. There’s another villain, one that no rational person would have suspected in a million years:

Haley went on to say that “everything I’ve tried to do to govern in South Carolina has been stopped by President Obama,”…

Yep, it’s her favorite Snidely Whiplash, the guy she ran so hard against in her election last year (Vincent Sheheen? Who’s he?). He is still foiling her beautiful plans! Curses!

Party membership isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — and that’s a good thing

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Cleaning out my IN box today, I ran across this from four days ago:

Senators Say They Will return to Columbia on Tuesday

COLUMBIA – South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler today released a list of Senators who have requested it be made public that they will return to Columbia on Tuesday June 7th ready to conduct business per Governor Haley’s Executive Order.?

“We have enjoyed many successes with the Governor Haley this year. Now that the Governor has called the General Assembly back, it’s important we finish the job on these critical government restructuring reforms.”

Senator Harvey Peeler

Senator Lee Bright

Senator Kevin Bryant

Senator Ronnie Cromer

Senator John Courson

Senator Tom Davis

Senator Mike Rose

Senator Greg Gregory

Senator Greg Ryberg

Senator David Thomas

**Senator Shane Martin supports the effort to return to Columbia on Tuesday, but will be unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts.

*Some Senators were unable to be reached this afternoon.

###

Interesting, huh? Especially in light of what happened. Here’s something that’s even more interesting, given my jaded view of political parties…

That release was sent out by Wesley Donehue, in his capacity working for the Senate Republicans. He also, under the same auspices, sent out the releases from Glenn McConnell challenging the governor for violating the separation of powers. Now that’s cool. Wesley’s doing his job. But the point I want everyone to note is this:

Being a Republican, or a Democrat, means next to nothing. They are false associations, mere granfalloons. When a theoretically coherent organization such as the Senate Republicans are putting out statements taking such different positions on an issue, it makes this fact clear. (You will occasionally see reportage that notes that the Republican governor is at odds with the Republican legislative leadership, in a tone that suggests there is something ironic about it. There is not. Nor is it strange or ironic for GOP senators to take different paths.)

This is not a bad thing; it’s a good thing. Senators SHOULD be thinking for themselves, and taking their own positions individually, rather than marching in lockstep. I just wanted everyone to notice it.

Oh, one last point — someone with the caucus may argue that being willing to come back as the governor requested is not entirely inconsistent with being opposed to the way the governor went about trying to make it happen. That’s true. The world is NOT black/white, either/or, liberal/conservative, the way parties would have you believe. Reality, and responsible governance, are far more complex than that.

Talk about being Ms. Bossypants…

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One of the women in my household took it back to the library, so I didn’t get far enough in Tina Fey’s Bossypants to find out what happened after she hit puberty, but that’s cool. The part I did read was pretty funny.

What is not funny is the Gov. Bossypants we have over at the State House, who did this today:

Gov. Nikki Haley ordered lawmakers back to Columbia next week after they failed to pass a key piece of her legislative agenda on the legislative session’s last day, sparking dissention among legislative Republicans and howls from Democrats.

Haley wants lawmakers to return at 10 a.m. Tuesday to consider bills creating a Department of Administration, allowing the governor and lieutenant governor to run as a ticket, allow the governor to appoint the secretary of education and a bill merging the Department of Probation, Pardon and Parole into the Department of Corrections.

“Pick any two,” Haley said, asking lawmakers to voluntarily forfeit the $250 daily pay they are due, a total of $42,500 a day….

In other words, Do my will, and don’t get paid for doing it.

What a supreme mix of autocratic egoism and faux populism. The perfect Tea Party mix, steeped so as to make the maximum Palin-style impression.

Of course, she did allow them to pick two out of four, which I suppose Her Bossiness would consider to be magnanimity.

Here’s the problem with that: I would gladly vote for three out of the four (if her Bossiness could deign to condescend to do so, I would, were I a lawmaker, have to ask her to explain the virtues of combining the D of PP&P with Corrections). You know why? Because I am one of South Carolina’s most monotonously persistent advocates of giving the executive branch the ability to effectively administer the executive branch and be accountable for it.

But this kind of presumption of dictating to the legislative branch plays straight into the hands of those lawmakers who want to mischaracterize such proposals as a case of executive overreaching: See? She’s trying to FORCE lawmakers to pass the laws she wants. She should advocate strenuously for her positions, but there is a world of difference between advocating that a coequal branch of government do something, and using the power of one’s own branch to FORCE an issue that is the prerogative of that other branch.

The latter is not cool. Which, to turn full circle, brings us back to Tina Fey — a standing prop of her comedy is that she is not cool, not by a long shot.

But when Gov. Haley does the Bossypants routine, it’s just not as funny.

A realistic view from another smart Republican

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To elaborate on my theme that smart Republicans know that unseating Barack Obama will be a tall order (something that the fringe people, such as those who think the Tea Party is the “voice of the people,” completely miss), I point you to this piece by Daniel Henninger.

He blames, interesting enough, new media. He says GOP candidates who start this early will be cut down to nothing by the time the campaign is over by the constant drip of criticism on Twitter. It’s related to what we spoke of four years ago as Romney’s YouTube problem.

Strangely, he doesn’t see this as a problem for Obama, and his explanation of that is odd:

Meanwhile, it’s good to be president. With his opponents determined to spend a year and a half telling each other why “no one” is worth supporting, turning off contributors and independent voters, Barack Obama floats below the radar vacuuming up campaign cash at fund raisers.

He does make a legitimate point in the next sentence, however:

Every GOP candidate’s utterance is wholly political, but the Obama fundraisers and “policy speeches” are submerged in the presidency.

But he got the metaphor wrong. A president doesn’t fly BELOW the radar, but in a way above it. He’s fully visible, but can cloak his political statements in doing the job. Yep, that’s an advantage of incumbency. And always has been.

What Henninger ignores is that Obama has been thoroughly tested by new media, and not found wanting. There is nothing that can be thrown at a candidate via Tweets that hasn’t been hurled at him millions of times. And he sort of dropped the Big One on those flak sites a couple of weeks ago with the long form of his birth certificate, and his well-tempered scorn at his most imaginative critics. And, you know, by killing bin Laden. And, more substantially, by not being the extremist that his most extreme critics would paint him as.

If the GOP wants to prevail, it needs to come up with a candidate who can likewise endure the thousand slings and arrows. But the ones with that kind of substance are increasingly reluctant to get in.

In the end, Henninger rightly assesses the situation thusly, given the field as it stands:

A Republican candidate committed to running this gauntlet has to believe that come November 2012, the party will have nowhere else to go but to the polls to pull the lever for the last one standing. This assumes that the messaging power of electronic networks will magnify them. I believe the opposite: Given this much time, the medium eventually will melt them. The president, head ever up, will hold his ground.

The message in this for Republicans is that they need to come up with a candidate who, after being whittled at for 18 months, still has some substance left.

Oh, and by the way. I don’t know how Henninger votes. But if he isn’t a Republican, he missed a good chance.

Like Tessio, Huckabee was always smarter

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It’s the smart move. Tessio was always smarter.

— Michael Corleone

There was little surprise in Mike Huckabee’s decision to stay out of the 2012 presidential contest. He was one of the first to come out and speak of how hard it would be to beat Barack Obama, back in the fall. He said it again during the winter. And probably plenty of other times when I didn’t notice it.

And as hard as it might be for some Republicans to believe, he was not immediately struck dead by a lightning bolt on any of these occasions.

Yes, anything can happen between now and next year, but serious candidates have to get rolling NOW, and right now, things don’t look good for anyone seeking to go up against the incumbent.

The other day I exchanged email with a prominent South Carolina Republican who — when I brought up the subject of Jon Huntsman — said he doubted he had the traction to win the nomination. I responded,

Traction is the issue. Because unfortunately, these things tend to boil down to whom the party faithful want — which isn’t what wins elections.

Personally, I’m convinced that, given most scenarios, Obama wins this one. The GOP’s best chance is to come up with someone who appeals to people who might otherwise go for the incumbent. Who better to win over independents than someone who actually served in the Obama administration, then decided to oppose the president? THAT’S a story that works with independents, whereas the “Obama is and always has been the devil” people don’t get anywhere with swing voters.

The amazing thing was that in 2008, both parties went with the candidate most likely to appeal to swing voters. It doesn’t seem likely that the GOP will do that this time, on account of the Tea Party and such. Which means I wouldn’t give much for Republican chances this time (at this point, of course, which must always be our caveat).

To which my unnamed (for his own good) Republican said, “Unfortunately, I tend to agree with your analysis…”

I think a lot of smart Republicans are thinking along the same lines, if not saying it. Which is why these days we hear mostly from the yahoos who don’t get what’s going on… (Or the sad cases like poor Mitt Romney, a guy with an actual accomplishment under his belt who has to run AWAY from said accomplishment.) The smart ones are quieter, understanding the situation better.

So, how does Donald Trump’s announcement today fit with my “smart guy” theory… well, um, not so well… I know! He is the exception who proves the rule! I mean, if Huckabee is Tessio under my theory, then… well, there was nobody in “The Godfather” like Trump, unless it was Moe Green. Trump is like… Crazy Joey Gallo.

Seriously, I don’t care why he dropped out, since I never thought he was worth speaking of seriously. I guess he found another shiny toy to play with.

I just can’t get THAT much into political trivia

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Twitter alerted me to this item on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire:

Iowa Straw Poll Rises in Importance

“With the Iowa straw poll a mere 90 days away, the absence of an obvious leader in the GOP race for the presidency, or even an obvious lineup, has left Republicans in a state of unease — but the uncertainty has also heightened anticipation,” the Des Moines Register reports.

First, I don’t care all that much about the Iowa caucuses themselves. That is to say, I don’t believe they should have the impact they have had for the last few decades. I wrote about that in a column several years ago.

Second, I can’t think of when I was ever impressed by a “straw poll” — anytime, anywhere. If I did, it was a moment of weakness in which my sense of perspective was badly diminished, perhaps by a nutritional deficiency of some sort.

But the idea of anybody being so a-quiver about such things as to write the phrase, “With the Iowa straw poll a mere 90 days away…” causes me to think that somebody needs to get a life…

Poor Mitt Romney, having to flee his strength

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How weird has it gotten in the GOP presidential field this year? This weird:

Mitt Romney is making it official. No, not that he’s officially running for the White House. (That will come soon enough.) That he really, really doesn’t like the health care reforms President Obama signed into law last year.

“If I am elected president, I will issue on my first day in office an executive order paving the way for waivers from ObamaCare for all 50 states,” Romney writes in an op-ed in Thursday’s USA Today. “Subsequently, I will call on Congress to fully repeal ObamaCare.”

The former Massachusetts governor will take his show on the road later Thursday, when he lays out his five-part health care alternative in person at an afternoon speech at the University of Michigan’s Cardiovascular Center.

The event is Romney’s most direct attempt yet to address what is widely seen as his biggest political liability: his work as governor to establish universal health-care coverage in Massachusetts…

Poor Romney. His chief virtue is that he tried, way out ahead of most of the country, to address our chief domestic challenge. And he showed that he understood one of the fundamentals of ANY reform with a chance of doing any good, that a mandate would have to be part of it. And now, to remain viable in a party that has charged over a cliff into an irrational vacuum on the issue, he has to run from that achievement.

Pretty sad.

NLRB gives GOP chance to clearly be the good guys

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Yes, I know that was a split infinitive, but I like it that way.

I was glancing over this story on the front page this morning:

WASHINGTON — Business leaders and Republican politicians Tuesday accused President Barack Obama of punishing GOP states by trying to block Boeing from opening an aircraft plant in South Carolina.

… and it struck me what a gift the NLRB had given the Republican Party in South Carolina.

By doing something SO outrageous, so without justification, and so profoundly harmful to South Carolina (if successful), the NLRB has given our state’s Republicans an issue to rally around and present themselves clearly as champions of the state’s best interests.

This doesn’t happen often. Usually, the GOP has to manufacture nonsense to fulminate about, such as “the looming specter of Obamacare” or something equally ridiculous. But this is real, it has substance, and it is clearly an attack upon the economic well-being of South Carolinians.

No wonder Republicans are rallying together, forgetting their pettier differences, to make as much noise about it as possible.

Of course, there is some overreaching, with Jim DeMint accusing the president of the United States of “thuggery.” Because, you know, wishing for his “Waterloo” isn’t malicious enough. But that’s Jim DeMint. On the whole, this makes Republicans look good, and far less silly and ideological than usual. (YES, there are some big ideological issues at stake in this matter, but you don’t actually have to care about them to care about the outcome.)

As for Mr. Obama — it’s pertinent that Nikki Haley has asked him, personally, to weigh in on this. (Which I don’t believe he’s done yet, Mr. DeMint. If he has, someone please send me a link.) Not that he’ll want to. As much as I like Mr. Obama, we all have our faults, and one of his biggest is his unwillingness to oppose Big Labor, which crowds him into some really ridiculous positions, such as his longtime, indefensible opposition to the Colombia Free Trade agreement.

This issue puts the president right where the SC GOP wants him. Since, you know, they mean him ill and want him to look bad. More to the point, it puts them in the position to look very good.

Me, I don’t care who looks good, as long as the bid to derail this project fails.

New GOP chair with a video of his own

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Just got this a few minutes ago. Evidently, Chad Connelly is feeling the need to answer those videos his counterpart keeps pumping out, and was eager enough to do so that he didn’t wait for fancy production values (maybe he thought he had to send off to Texas for that), but went ahead and got out a quick-and-dirty clip.

My first impression is similar to the impression I formed when Mr. Connelly introduced himself to me today at the Capital City Club: Personable, upbeat. I thought for a moment that he was going to be, intentionally and strategically, more positive than attack dog Harpootlian.

But then he got into standard GOP talking points, such as the current silliest one of all, “the looming specter of Obamacare.”

Anyway, this is going to be lively…

Wait — didn’t I say earlier I was going to cut back on the party stuff? Oh, well…

Sweetness is in the eye of the beholder

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The Elephant In The Room from SCGOP on Vimeo.

First, sorry about all the posts the last few days about political parties. Such as this one and this one and this one and this one and this one. It’s a disagreeable subject, and one that I usually avoid rather scrupulously. But ever since I made the mistake of delving a bit into the Democrats’ intraparty politics, and then their convention, and then the Republicans’ convention, my attention has been drawn more than usual to this unseemly, depressing topic.

I’m sure I’ll climb out of this ditch soon. But in the meantime… my attention was drawn to the above “sweet video” — his words — by Wesley Donehue.

It generates in me several unpleasant thoughts:

My biggest question of all is, who are the “they” that the video repeatedly refers to? First, I don’t know ANYONE who said some of these things. And even if someone did say them, surely the same person/people didn’t say ALL of them? And who would pay any attention to anyone who DID say these things? Which pundits said the GOP was “heading backwards” two years ago? (Personally, I said — and still believe — that after the 2008 defeat that the NATIONAL party, not the SC one, was demoralized to the point that it left a vacuum that was being filled by extremists — and that has certainly had its effects here. But that’s not “heading backwards;” it’s heading somewhere I’d never seen the party go before.) Who on earth ever thought for a moment that Republicans “could never retain the governorship?” Whoever said, ungrammatically, that a “woman governor” was impossible? (For those who didn’t get my point about “ungrammatical” — and fewer and fewer people do these days — “woman” is a noun, not an adjective.) And who even CARED about when the GOP would pay off its mortgage? Talk about your esoteric insider concerns. And on and on.
The video illustrates, better than the recent ones Harpootlian has been pumping out, one of the main things that is wrong with political parties: It’s this assumption that because something wears Brand X, it is GOOD. It reminds me of those cars I see with multiple bumper stickers on them, and they are almost always (I could, if all such cars I’ve ever seen were to parade before me, count the exceptions on one hand, with fingers left over) all of one party. As though a thinking person could possibly get so worked up in favor of Candidate A as to deface his or her car with a bumper sticker, and then get so enraptured with another, and another, and another, and they would ALL be of the same party, when that’s the only “virtue” they share. The odds against that, if the voter THINKS about each candidate and makes a discerning choice, are astronomical. And yet that’s what one almost always sees. In this case, we are to embrace the election of Nikki Haley as a GOOD THING (which, deep down, a lot of Republicans do not), and the defeat of John Spratt as an equally good thing, and … this is the part that strains credulity… for the same reasons! When the only characteristics we are given for judging those phenomena are that Ms. Haley is a Ms., and Mr. Spratt has been in office 28 years. Well, those and the fact that the victor in each case happens to wear the Republican label, which is a most dubious unifying characteristic.
Finally, according to Wesley, this video about how wonderful it is that the Republican Party treads unopposed across the face of South Carolina was produced by Texans. Specifically, this one and this one. So… apparently the paradise that the GOP rules over here is incapable of producing anyone with the talent to produce a “sweet video.” Or so we are left to gather. Sorry, but ever since I went into the advertising/marketing/communications game I’ve learned to have a low opinion of those who insist on procuring such services from out of state. Like nobody here needs the business, or is good enough.

Well, I could go on, but I won’t. OK, one more point: “Sweet” is an odd thing to call such strident triumphalism. One practically hears the stamp of boots marching in the background, it is SO triumphalist.

OK, I get it; this is a love letter to Karen Floyd. But who saw it as worthwhile to spend money — OUT OF STATE — to produce such a thing? What is its worth to anyone, other than Karen, who is departing the stage?

I’ve just got to start ignoring all this party stuff and find something more pleasant to write about.

The connection to the royals didn’t do the trick

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That's 2nd Lt. Prince Harry (Henry Charles Albert David) of Wales on the right, Lt. Col. Bill Connor on the left, in 2008 (or late 2007; I'm not sure): "He called me Bill and I called him Harry."

Remember all the back-and-forth between the candidates for Democratic Party chair back before the convention, some of which I kept track of here (to the point that I was sort of sorry I started)?

I just didn’t get those kinds of releases from the candidates for GOP chair beforehand. Oh, I saw some back-and-forth on Twitter about how Nikki Haley was backing one candidate, and her critics at SCTruth were backing another, and so forth and so on. But they didn’t give a lot of context, and if there was a battle of emailed press releases, I missed it. Even though I had specifically asked to be kept in the loop (and folks, I seldom ASK for press releases), and at least two of the three campaigns said they’d send me whatever they sent out.

But about all I received via that medium in the last days was this one Facebook alert from Bill Connor, on the day of the royal wedding:

“Brad,
Thought you might like this bit of history in honor of the Royal Wedding (the picture is on my fb profile). Hope you are well!: http://www.facebook.com/l/ae801_1klnj9MQbQucenXRWIjsA/seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004253009_harrypal01.html“

As it happened, I had already known that about Connor. In fact, he had written us an op-ed piece about it, right after his highness had spent a brief time serving alongside SC Guard troops in Afghanistan (before the word got out and they had to yank him out of the country). The above photo ran with that piece.

Anyway, so much for any of the fairy-tale effect of the royal wedding rubbing off. Bill Connor came in third in the competition state GOP chair.

Which reminds me — I need to get winner Chad Connelly in here for a “Brad Show.”

Tweets from GOP convention Saturday

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Y’all don’t seem terribly interested in this, since I didn’t get a single comment when I urged y’all to follow my Tweets from the GOP convention at the Columbia convention center Saturday. But I’m going to to ahead and give you all the Tweets here anyway. Because that WAS my report on the event. So there.

Somehow I’d like to figure out how to integrate Twitter more fully into the blog. I used to have a Twitter feeder on the right-hand side of my blog page, but it was always several hours behind, which sort of defeated the purpose. Ideally, I’d like to post things on Twitter, and have them appear here in a format in which y’all could easily react and start a discussion without having to wait for me to get to my laptop and create a blog post — which is tedious, and pretty boring. For me, anyway, posting the same thing twice.

The Twitter strategy was successful Saturday in that people WERE reacting in real time — but via Twitter, or Facebook, not on the blog. You see, I have Twitter set up so that everything I put there automatically posts to Facebook. And I put the headlines and links to all my blog posts on Twitter. So… I have this weird phenomenon whereby people will see a link to a blog post on Facebook, follow it to my blog, read it, then go BACK to Facebook to leave a comment. Which is frustrating, because I’d rather they do it here, where the rest of our discussions take place. Oh, well.

Anyway, here are all my Tweets from just before I went to the convention (when Nikki Haley addressed the gathering) through the second ballot for a chairman, after which I left. This process took longer than the chairman election the Dems had had the previous week, because that one had been such a foregone conclusion.

Note that photography was a bit of a challenge at this one, because they had non-delegates at the back of the room. Hope Butch Bowers isn’t too insulted I thought he was someone else, but look at that picture above. You can hardly see the table, much less who’s sitting at it.

Anyway, here’s my feed, including things I reTweeted from others, and replies from others:

RETWEET: wesleydonehue Wesley Donehue: For the record, I did not kill the lights on @nikkihaley because she was bashing consultants.
BradWarthen:@wesleydonehue @nikkihaley Bashing consultants? Who’s she talking about, her senior staff?
RETWEET: SCTRUTH: Haley just said that she is her worst critic. Last Saturday she said that she didn’t make any mistakes in her first 100 days
BradWarthen: @SCTRUTH Well… Obviously, she’s not her BEST critic. Certainly not the most discerning…
michaelrentiers: Looks like the loons are going to try and run the asylum at #SCGOPconvention. Rules will be our friend today.
BradWarthen: I haven’t even gotten there yet, & it looks like there’s a good bit of dissension, & even (gasp!) IRONY @ the GOP convention…
BradWarthen: Is that Bob Inglis up there seated on the podium? Can’t tell… Too far away to see. How’m I gonna take pics with my iPhone?
BradWarthen: Alan Wilson ranting about Obamacare, etc. “Attacking our Constitution…” Always thought he was more mildly reasonable than this…
LeeCoLibrary: @BradWarthen Is there any live coverage of the GOP convention or just the twitter feed. Which, by the way, is pretty funny!!
BradWarthen: @LeeCoLibrary Dunno. Hey, TV doesn’t even cover the NATIONAL conventions any more…
BradWarthen: Eckstrom says you have to go after our enemy “where he lives & plans.” But he’s praising Bush, not mentioning Obama. When did he write this?
BradWarthen: Speaker after speaker going on repetitively about taking on that awful Obama fellow. Little mention of SC…
BradWarthen: Mark Hammond actually DID mention some SC issues. Good for him…
BradWarthen: Bobby Harrell, introducing Mick Zais, says we’re closer than ever to education “reform.” Can’t wait to hear what that looks like…
BradWarthen: Oh, I see… No. 1, Zais says, is “choice”…
BradWarthen: Zais wants to run schools “like a business”… I need to go check his bio again… He IS a retired military officer, right?”
ragley Jay W. Ragley: @BradWarthen Newberry College is a business.
RETWEET: PoliticalTicker CNN Political Ticker: Huntsman makes debut as possible White House candidatehttp://bit.ly/k7DdQr
BradWarthen: Got to get closer if I’m going to get decent pictures of GOP convention… yfrog.com/gzn8xxdj
johnroconnor John O’Connor: @BradWarthen not Inglis, Butch Bowers I think
dphamilton Dan Hamilton: @johnroconnor @bradwarthen that’s Butch Bowers, separated at birth from his twin Bob Inglis.
BradWarthen: Boy, do I feel like a dummy. That’s Butch Bowers way up there. I did think it rather unlikely it was Bob Inglis…
BradWarthen: Chatter at the back has mostly ceased. Candidates for chairman about to speak…
BradWarthen: @dphamilton @johnroconnor Yeah, I figured that out. It would nice to be closer. Butch is a friend. Embarrassing …
BradWarthen: When this convention is over, don’t anyone say “conservative” to me for a year. My brain cells that process that word are bruised & frayed.
nettie_b Nettie Britts: @BradWarthen Obama or Osama?
BradWarthen: @nettie_b Don’t tell me I mixed up “Obama” & “Osama” again…
BradWarthen: Connor leading with his strong suit. Last speaker said he’d been a county chair. Whoopee. Connor was out fighting the Taliban.
BradWarthen: Connor promises to take on Harpootlian aggressively, as a “warrior.”
BradWarthen: Ashley Byrd of SCRN just asked whether I was “having fun.” Let’s not get carried away. This is, after all, a political party event…
BradWarthen: SC Republicans now voting on “red ballots,” Kevin Hall keeps saying. I suppose blue ballots would give them cooties…
scott_english: @BradWarthen Overly snarky doesn’t work either, Brad.
BradWarthen: This young man, Eric Miller of Chapin, is passing out Donald Trump literature. He likes his “common sense philosophy”…yfrog.com/gyxv9onj
BradWarthen: @scott_english What was that about? The “conservative” thing? You know I can’t stand that bumper-sticker stuff…
scott_english: @BradWarthen Well, your snark is disproportionate in general. I was referring to the red ballot. That’s an effort at ballot integrity.
BradWarthen: @scott_english Aw, that was FUNNY. betcha Kevin Hall would laugh if you show it to him…
BradWarthen: @scott_english As I recall, your old boss Mark Sanford was also inspired to irony by GOP conventions. Always liked that about him…
scott_english: @BradWarthen I don’t think it was limited to the GOP conventions. That might be why I’m not there today though.
BradWarthen: Florence County chair (I think) referred gratuitously to “that scoundrel Clyburn.” Crowd went “ooooohhh.” Not what you’d call a cheer…
BradWarthen: John was keeping count: “@johnroconnor: Connelly tally is Connelly 46%, Brown 30%, Connor 24%”
BradWarthen: Ran into Ray Moore earlier, and he updated me on how his campaign to shut down the public schools is going. He’s encouraged…
RETWEET: AlbertBrooks: Sitting in airport waiting to fly Virgin America. There’s a 72 Virgin America joke here but security is watching.
RETWEET: You must be serving beer… “@donnareedshow: Next- interview w Dem Caucus Leader @PhilBaileySC on @donnareedshow on @560WVOC”
BradWarthen: Just had a nice chat w/ Alan Wilson, who STILL seems like a mild, sensible young man, in spite of that red-meat speech…
RETWEET: jimdavenport_ap Jim Davenport: AP – Huntsman takes on Obama role in first SC speech:http://apne.ws/iqok36
RETWEET: Not today, I hope… “@jimdavenport_ap: AP – Videos show bin Laden watching himself on TV: apne.ws/lOnvTU”
AshleyLandess: That was pretty funny, Brad! @BradWarthen @jimdavenport_ap
BradWarthen: Kevin’s getting tough; he just used the gavel…
BradWarthen: There’ll be a 2nd ballot w/ all three candidates staying in (which I don’t get). Crowd booed, which doesn’t bode well for 3rd place Connor.
BradWarthen: Kevin repeatedly says 2nd ballot will be on “the white ballots.” I will not make a joke. I will not make a joke. I will not make a joke…
RETWEET: johnroconnor John O’Connor: First ballot results: Connelly 399.5, Brown 247, 194.5. All three stay in for second ballot. Crowd boos.
BradWarthen: I need to get close enough to get a picture of that Connelly fellow. Don’t think the one I got of Connor is going to do me much good…
BradWarthen: On 2nd ballot, only one county spokesman has tried to give a cute speech about his county. Kevin called him up VERY short…
BradWarthen: Sounds like Connelly might make it this time, bringing the process mercifully to a close…
TylerMJones: @BradWarthen Can we get a diversity update from inside the convention? Just for kicks.
BradWarthen: @TylerMJones From where I stand, I see 2 black guys, but really can’t make out most of the delegates from here…
BradWarthen: @TylerMJones Earlier, a speaker bragged on Tim Scott, got a nice hand. They’re right proud of him, and by extension themselves…
johnroconnor: Unofficial Connelly count: Connelly 55%, Brown 33%, Connor 12%. Waiting on official result.
BradWarthen: Just chatted with Katon Dawson, who calls me “Rolling Stone” (old joke). He’s going to be helping Gingrich, expects race to get lively…
BradWarthen: Chad Connelly promises to be Dick Harpootlian’s “worst nightmare”…
BradWarthen: Gotta be the signs that did it… yfrog.com/h8bg1cij
dphamilton: @BradWarthen @tylermjones thanks for keeping it on the “content of character”…
BradWarthen: @dphamilton @tylermjones Hey, all I did was answer the question…
lianaorr: @BradWarthen @TylerMJones I’m proud of Tim Scott bc he’s a true conservative & statesman. And his motion just made this conv a lot shorter.

I don’t know what motion she meant. I was gone by then.

Bachmann running DOUBLE ads at thestate.com! Where’s my taste?

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OK, this is getting ridiculous. I knew that Michele Bachmann throwing around Web ad money in SC, but multiple ads per page on thestate.com? (On one page, I saw THE SAME AD twice, with one copy of it stacked on top of the other, the way those two slightly different ones are below. But when I tried to call it up like that again to grab a screen shot, I couldn’t get it to refresh quite that way.)

And not a single ad on bradwarthen.com. Which would probably give her a better deal.

At least, not yet.

Is this right? Is this fair? Is this the way the world should be? To quote the guy in the movie that came out today, “I say thee nay!”

If this pattern keeps up, I’m going to start seriously questioning this lady’s judgment…

Anybody see anything good at GOP debate? (FYI, this post mentions Ron Paul)

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As I mentioned before, I didn’t go. To the GOP debate in Greenville, that is. And I didn’t even think to watch it on TV last night (was it even on live? I wouldn’t know). When I got home from the Five Points event, the fam was watching a 1944 musical comedy called “Bathing Beauty,” starring Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Basil Rathbone, Xavier Cugat and Harry James and his orchestra. Which caused me to realize something: When he was young, Red Skelton looked a lot like Conan O’Brien.

Anyway, I read the stories about the debate in The State today — this one and this one — and didn’t get the sense that I missed anything at all.

But perhaps some of my readers DID see it, and were impressed by something or other. If so, this would be a good time to share.

I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as this guy says:

Hollywood is reportedly at work on a remake of the 1991 film “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.” This, however, is unnecessary, because a remake is already playing. It’s called the Republican presidential primary.

In the original, a mom leaves her kids with a babysitter for three months, but after the babysitter dies of a heart attack, the children fend for themselves for the summer.

The GOP nominating contest so far follows a very similar plot. With the grown-ups (played by Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels) out of town, the field has been left in the custody of caretakers (played by Mitt Romney, Donald Trump and Newt Gingrich). When even the babysitters fail to show up at the first debate of the season, the juveniles run the thing themselves.

At Thursday night’s debate in South Carolina, Libertarian Rep. Ron Paul explained why heroin and prostitution should be legal and why the Department of Homeland Security should be eliminated…

As I said, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that bad. But… I don’t seem to have missed anything. There IS quite a bit of excitement among Ron Paul fans, partly because they’re always excited (which is why I put him in the headline — that’s always good for about 1,000 page views), and partly because apparently no one at the debate offered him any competition in attention-grabbing.

Bottom line, what’s going on here is… nothing. You might see some activity at some point in the future among some Republicans who, if they gain the nomination, just might have a chance of giving Barack “Hey, I Just Killed bin Laden” Obama a run for his money, but none of them were going to poke their heads out this week.

And I’m not going to bet that this ever gets competitive, with serious candidates really running hard. At least, not soon. (Which is a shame because, you know, I’d like to get some of those ad bucks here on the blog.)

The contrast to four years ago is palpable. In May 2007, there was a GOP presidential debate here in Columbia, and while I didn’t actually go to that one, either, I did watch it on TV. I watched it in a bar with Bob McAlister. The reason we were in the bar was that John McCain was supposed to show up there after. He did, and that’s when I shot my most popular candidate video ever — the one that has been viewed 62,671 times on YouTube — the one in which McCain refers to Lindsey Graham as “that little jerk.”

There were enough actual contenders for the nomination there that Ron Paul, while he attracted attention, was regarded as a curiosity, as the outlier he is. Not this time. Did you see that Rep. Paul had again raised a boatload of money? Don’t know exactly what he plans to do with it. Surely not even he believes he is ever likely to be president of the United States. I suppose it will be like last time — lots of posters and such, not all that many voters beyond the passionate core, who are sort of doing their own thing. Perhaps Doug can explain it to us…

AP, Reuters ALSO sit out B-team debate tonight

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First, most of the candidates who count decided to skip tonight’s GOP debate in Greenville.

Then, so did I. Just not worth the trip. THAT did not make news. Partly because I didn’t tell anybody.

Now, The Associated Press and Reuters are staying away, as a protest:

The Associated Press announced Wednesday night that it’s not going to cover tomorrow night’s Republican presidential debate, citing “restrictions placed on media access.”

“The debate sponsors, Fox News Channel and the South Carolina Republican Party, will only allow photos to be taken in the moments ahead of the debate and not during the event itself,” the AP said in an advisory to editors.

“These are restrictions that violate basic demands of news-gathering and differ from other debates where more access was granted. Accordingly, the AP will not staff the event in any format nor will the AP disseminate any pool photos taken by another outlet.”

The AP said the decision was “consistent with longstanding policy” in coverage of events like these, and would be reassessed “should access conditions change.”

Reuters confirmed that it would not be covering the event photographically, because it shared concerns about access. However, Reuters did not confirm whether it would be going as far as AP and not filing text either.

While I suppose he won’t be there covering it, The AP’s Jim Davenport DID do an advance story, which you can find here.

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.

Best way to get a good grade — have a great relationship with the teacher…

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Did you see that our governor has taken a break from writing her memoirs to grade her performance in the few days she’s been in office:

By Dawndy Mercer Plank – bio | email

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – Governor Nikki Haley is touring the state talking about her first 100 days in office, and her hits and misses so far.

The governor is boasting of changing the leadership of the Budget and Control Board, getting Medicaid reform passed, on-the-record voting permanent law, changes to the budget and getting agency directors approved within six weeks time.

We asked Governor Nikki Haley to grade herself on her first 100 days in office. “Effort, absolutely A+++!” she said. “I sleep and breathe this every day. I want everything done yesterday. For accomplishments, I’d honestly give myself an A. We are so excited for what we’ve done in 100 days. We really, really are.”…

Actually, I only heard her say “A-plus,” not “A-plus-plus-plus.” But still…

So now you know what it takes to be a great governor. That, I suppose, is why our past governors haven’t been as “fabulous” as we might have liked: they weren’t “great” wives and moms.

At least, they haven’t been as wildly fabulous as Nikki. Which she has been. Just ask her, she’ll tell you.

I tell you, folks, I’ve encountered a lot of manifestations of ego and narcissism in my going on 4 decades of closely following politics. But I’ve never encountered anything quite like what Nikki Haley has become.

Some of this might actually be a gender thing: Women can get away with a certain over-the-top enthusiasm, even about themselves, that would brand a man a major jerk. Things that a man could NOT get away with can sometimes be seen as charming when said by a woman with a nice smile.

Or maybe I’m completely off-base. I’m just groping here, trying to figure out why she gets away with this stuff…

Haley Barbour drops out: What does it mean?

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OK, so that last post about the 2012 GOP presidential field was a few days old. This one happened today:

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) announced today that he will not run for president. The decision comes as something of a surprise — the Associated Press reported just Sunday that Barbour could launch his campaign as early as this week. He had been making moves toward a campaign, including a recent visit to New Hampshire.

“A candidate for president today is embracing a ten-year commitment to an all-consuming effort, to the virtual exclusion of all else,” Barbour said in a statement. “His (or her) supporters expect and deserve no less than absolute fire in the belly from their candidate. I cannot offer that with certainty, and total certainty is required.”

Barbour had previously voiced concerns about the time commitment involved in running for president, and both his wife and son had expressed reservations about the campaign.

He was also struggling to get above the low single digits in polls, even in the south. His past career as a lobbyist, though he tried to present it as an advantage, was expected to dog Barbour on the trail. His stumbles in statements on civil rights raised questions about his readiness…

So what does it mean? I like that Aaron Blake of The Fix says that “Barbour already had obstacles as a southern governor with a thick accent…” Huh. And we-uns down heuh thought that was one of his strengths…

The Post speculates that this promotes Barbour buddy Mitch Daniels. Maybe so. Or maybe Pawlenty. I would imagine it would make the aforementioned Huntsman a little more sanguine about his chances in SC.

Something it just might indicate — and the slowness of the GOP field is getting rolling this cycle tends to back this up — is that Republicans who know what they’re about don’t think they can beat Obama. And it’s hard to get, as Barbour says, a “fire in the belly” for a long, hard campaign that would in the end be unsuccessful.

We hear so much from the Obama-hating fringe of the GOP that it’s easy to remember that fringes do not constitute majorities. The people who’ve been involved in politics a bit longer than the Tea Party’s been around know that…