Category Archives: South Carolina

SANFORD MAKES HIS MOVE TO STACK THE LEGISLATURE!

18 Replies

Excuse the old-fashioned screamer headline, but this is pretty startling stuff.

Mark Sanford, the governor who long ago gave up playing well with others (radical libertarians, being self-oriented, have trouble with that sort of thing, so make allowances) has just taken his first visible step toward dumping the conservative Republicans in the Legislature in favor of drones more to the liking of himself, Howard Rich and Grover Norquist.

More startlingly, he’s got Tom Davis — who I would have thought was above such things — helping him do it.

You really need to read to the bottom of this to get the full import. But basically, the governor is no longer satisfied to let Mr. Rich finance the effort to Ayn Randize South Carolina. He, a man elected to be a steward of this state, is now leading the charge.

Note that there is no longer any pretense of his idea of "reform" having anything to do with good government. Restructuring state government — the one best idea Mr. Sanford embraced — is left out of the bulleted list of important values at the end. (Only one "good government" goal remains — prioritizing spending. But this context makes clear that for Gov. Sanford, it’s not about better, smarter spending, but simply less of it.) It’s now about less government, pure and simple.

This particularly disturbing because up to now, ReformSC has styled itself as an advocate for restructuring, and deservedly attracted support on that basis.

For the sake of time — we can come back to these things later — I won’t go into refuting the governor’s bogus figures about the growth of state spending. Just read the e-mail that was shared with us today:

—–Original Message—–
From: Tom Davis [mailto:tom1960davis@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 10:42 AM
Subject: A Chance for Reform in South Carolina

Please disregard the previous e-mail that was inadvertently sent to you with
the wrong subject heading.  I apologize for the inconvenience.  Thank you
for your time.

Dear Supporter of Gov. Sanford, 

First, please excuse this impersonal email.  It is not my preferred mode of
corresponding, but present circumstance requires me to reach as many
conservative-minded South Carolinians as soon as possible.

Second, a brief introduction: I am currently Gov. Sanford’s chief of staff.
I have known the governor for over 25 years (we both attended Furman
University) and I have also worked on both his gubernatorial campaigns.

Third, the reason I am sending you this email.    As you may have guessed, it
involves asking you for money, an unfortunate but necessary evil in the
world of politics – especially when you are trying (as the governor now is)
to mobilize the people of South Carolina to send Columbia politicians a
powerful message.

The money is not for Gov. Sanford or for any other elected official – it is
for a recently formed non-profit called Reform SC – an entity whose sole
purpose is to provide information – through television, direct mailings,
radio, etc. – in the belief that if people understand what is truly
happening in Columbia, then they will have a greater reason to demand things
change.

And equally important, Reform SC will be a vehicle through which to make
that change happen, a statewide, organized grassroots movement that likes of
which have never been seen in South Carolina.  But to do that Reform SC
needs money, and to that end major fundraisers for Reform SC will be held on
Tuesday, October 16, 2007.

On that day, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will join Gov. Sanford and other
leading conservatives in our state at a breakfast event in Spartanburg, a
lunch event in Columbia and an evening cocktail event in Charleston – all
for the sole purpose of raising money for Reform SC.

The sole purpose of this email is for me to ask whether you will help us get
folks to attend one or more of those events.  If you are willing to help,
then simply reply to this email with your contact information (name, mailing
address, phone number) and I will personally follow back up with you to
discuss particulars.  Time is of the essence since the fundraisers will be
on Oct. 16.

I appreciate your consideration and look forward to corresponding with you
in more detail in the days ahead.

Sincerely,

Tom Davis

Post-script:

REASONS WHY A GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN IS ESSENTIAL RIGHT NOW:

South Carolinians elected Republican candidates to serve in 8 of the 9
constitutional officers and as a majority in both chambers of the General
Assembly.  For that reason, many folks believe that conservative ideas are
being advanced in Columbia – but all too often they are not.

No question, there are some great conservative legislators serving in
Columbia.  But there are also far too many who campaigned for election on a
conservative platform and then failed to follow through on their promises.
Here are just a few examples: 

.    Promising to limit the growth of state government, but then voting
to grow it by 41% in the past three years – almost three times people’s
ability to pay for it.

.    Promising to cut taxes, but then opposing a reduction to a state
income tax rate that is the fifth highest in the nation and the highest in
the Southeast.

.    Promising to provide South Carolina parents with more educational
choices for their children, but then making state education bureaucrats the
ones who "choose."

.    Promising to prioritize spending on public safety, education and
healthcare, but then funding local pork-barrel projects that do nothing but
help them get re-elected.

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea.  The problem is, until
the creation of Reform SC, there has never been a statewide, grassroots
effort to inform the voters of the disconnect between their legislators’
conservative campaign promises and the way they actually vote.

—
Paid for by Reform SC

To unsubscribe:
http://www.mailermailer.com/x?u=47187078z-80002910

To subscribe:
http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=23497e

Reform SC
Post Office Box 123
Columbia, South Carolina 29202

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Nathan Ballentine, Mr. Accessible

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Calling your attention to the new Web site launched by S.C. Rep. Nathan Ballentine, who has created a fairly spiffy interface between himself and constituents:

    “Always accessible” is the theme I had in mind when I chose to launch a new website September 5, 2007!
    For the past three years, I’ve constantly kept my constituents informed via monthly COMMUNITY UPDATE emails, annual surveys, important mailings (tax free holidays, elections, referendums, etc), civic organization talks, as well as Open Office Hours and Constituent Service Nights. Now, I want to take it even further into the “21st century” with regular blog entries, videos, and updates on what’s going on inside the State House as well as in our community.
    Please visit often – especially during the January through June session – to read my “live from the floor” blog posts of what’s going on with your tax dollars and what bills are being debated that will impact the lives of all South Carolinians….
    If you have a question/concern/advice or you would like me to speak with your neighborhood association, church, school, or civic group, please email me through the site or directly at BallentineN@scstatehouse.net.
    It’s an honor and privilege for me to represent you in Columbia!

It’s worth checking out, and — if you happen to be an elected public servant type — emulating. I call your attention in particular to the first of what he says will be monthly reports from the State House. I read this passage with particular interest as it came from someone who recently imagined himself in the Treasurer’s seat:

In the past month, we’ve seen a new Treasurer elected as well as a new Executive Director of the Budget and Control Board. Many may not know just how significant these changes are in the political landscape but it will be very interesting to see how things progress when we return in January with this new dynamic. As you know, there is a constant battle between the Governor and the House/Senate. You may have read my comment in The State last Sunday which, I think summed it up quite well, “If I’m sick of it, I know the people of South Carolina must be too.” Let’s hope we can all work together to move our state forward. Thanks for your continued prayers and support. Change does not come easy but I am one that is willing to work towards that objective for the betterment of South Carolina…

OK, so it’s not all that fascinating, but compared to graft and scandal (made you look!), good government seldom is. That’s one reason you don’t read or hear more about such in the MSM — because when you do, it bores you and you quickly forget about it.

Zeke Stokes on ethics

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Yeah, yeah, I know — Zeke’s detractors will say hearing from him on ethics is like me holding forth on football. But I continue to maintain that Zeke’s a good guy. Anyway, when Cindi wrote recently about his famous run-in with our usually permissive ethics enforcers, he wrote this note to her. (I mentioned that if I could find this, I would put it up for your perusal, remember?) Here it is:

Cindy:
    Thanks for your nice piece this morning in the State regarding the Ethics Commission and my recent run-in with this process. Just so you’re clear, I’d like to share with you the sequence of events that led to my seeking and using the addresses of teachers for Jim Rex’s campaign last year. 
    During the Republican primary, I began getting calls from Jim’s teacher supporters saying that they were receiving regular correspondence at their school email addresses from both Bob Staton and Karen Floyd. They were worried, and rightly so, that we were behind the curve and that these other candidates were getting a leg up on us with their correspondence. At that point, I used a standard FOI request through the State Department of Education to receive a list of certified personnel in the State, including email addresses. I sought counsel from a couple of attorneys who are friends of mine, who looked at the law, considered what I was planning to do, and advised me that the law did not specifically address this issue. With others already doing it, plus the advice I received from people I trust, I proceeded as planned. I have maintained copies of these emails sent by other campaigns throughout this process, but I chose not file complaints against other campaigns, as was done to me by Rick Beltram.
    It wasn’t until after the election was over and Beltram’s complaint was filed that I became aware of the advisory opinion of the Ethics Commission. At that point, I met with investigators there and told the truth just as I am telling it to you now. Honestly, I could have fought this and I am told it is likely that I would have won. But I didn’t want to be the test case on this, and I certainly didn’t want to do anything to bring any unnecessary negative attention to Jim Rex, who I respect and admire tremendously. I admitted that I acted without knowledge of this advisory opinion and the Commission chose to interpret that as an admission that I broke the law. In fact, the Ethics Law was written in the early 90s, well before the common use of email.
     At any rate, I appreciate the fair treatment you gave it this morning. I just wanted to give you a little more background in case you write about it additionally or have to answer input from your readers.

Kind regards,

zeke stokes
anderson/stokes, llc
post office box 12656
columbia, sc  29211

… although it seems that those of you inclined to psychoanalyze — and you know who you are — might make something of his ee cummings-style signature. Low self-esteem, possibly arising from feelings of guilt? Eh?

Ozmint: “I need the Legislature’s help on this; somebody’s going to get killed” at Corrections

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Ozmint

S.C. Corrections chief Jon Ozmint came by Tuesday to give his perspective on the recently redirected Senate investigation of his department.

He kept saying he wanted us to take the 30,000-foot view of the situation. Well, this brief post is more like the satellite view — a few sketchy notes, a video clip, and some supplementary material his office e-mailed over when we were done. Look at it and decide what you think; I haven’t had time to digest it or dig deeper, so I have no opinion to offer at this time — beyond our usual position, which is that we’ve got to stop trying to lock up everybody and his brother and not pay what it takes to have safe prisons (that’s the view from the moon, metaphorically speaking).

In a nutshell, he said there were three problems with the way the Senate committee has gone about looking at how our prisons are run:

  1. The Subject. He says there are plenty of legitimate areas for legislative oversight — escapes, assaults, turnover rates, contraband control, gangs —  of the agency. But the Senate staff tried to get into the nitty-gritty of "individual, isolated complaints" from employees and others, and he believes there are more appropriate venues for investigating and adjudicating such matters.
  2. The Method. He said the Senate staffers lacked the expertise to investigate, leading to compromising potentially legitimate investigations. "There was no plan." They took a bunch of hearsay, he says, with no next step such as going to Corrections for more info.
  3. The Motive. He was cagier about this, not wanting to get into placing political blame specifically on individual senators. But he said the investigation "had been hijacked by a small group of senators and staffers."

"And I think those were the three problems that made this the disaster that it was," he said. We went on with a rambling discussion of problems at Corrections, politics at the State House, and various other matters, on and off the record — but the points above are what he mainly came to say. I urge you to watch him saying it on the video, as it helps you appreciate the passion and volatility that Mr. Ozmint brings to his job — whatever you may make of those qualities.

Oh, let me add this. Mr. Ozmint realized I was shooting video during the meeting. But near the end of the meeting, he said he didn’t realize I would publish it on my blog — even though he reads the blog (but, he said, his computer won’t play the videos). I asked him why he thought I was shooting it, and he said he supposed it was to back up my notes. But I have an audio recorder for that. He protested that he wasn’t dressed right. I told him he looked like a hard-working sort with his polo shirt with the name of the department on it. Whatever.

So, extra-point questions here:

  1. Is it fair for me to post the video?
  2. Does the video add any value for you, the reader (and citizen of South Carolina)?

That’s all for now.

The SAT ‘typo’

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Does it ever occur to you, as it does to me each year, that our state average SAT score looks like a typo?

I mean, it only has three digits. So right away, you think this is the score on one part of the test or the other, verbal or math.

But that can’t be right, either, because it’s higher than 800. And it can’t be a matter of a digit left off, because it can’t be, say 1,985. That’s also impossible.

Then you realize the truth of what it represents — a whole lot of kids taking a college-bound test who are not ready to go to any kind of college — and the sadness descends once again.

The national average of 1,017 is pretty pitiful — and not much higher — but at least it doesn’t look like a typo.

Scooped by the newsroom

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Yesterday, Zeke Stokes sent me the above video, with the following terse comment:

Just when you think we’re making progress.

Once again, this was Zeke Stokes, not some guy who gets his jollies making fun of the S.C. public education system.

I looked at it and thought, "the poor kid," yet resolved to put it up on the blog as inherently interesting — but only after I put up several other things that had more substance. I didn’t get around to posting those things yesterday, and since Jon Ozmint is coming in in a few minutes to talk about all this, and we still have pages to produce, I’m probably not going to get to those things today, either.

Meanwhile, the blasted newsroom scooped me on this. They even blogged about it. Ah, well.

Ex-Surgeon General Carmona visits

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Dr. Richard Carmona, former U.S. Surgeon General, came by Tuesday to promote the worthy agenda of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease. That’s yet another of those groups — such as this one, and this one, and this one (not to mention the one that advertises at the top of this blog) — that has established a presence in South Carolina in order to try to get the presidential candidates to address their issues of concern. As with the others, the effort is avowedly nonpartisan, and just as avowedly disinclined to promote any one solution over others.

I urge you to read about the group and its aims at this address.

Anyway, I asked the former Surgeon General whether his recent headline-making appearance at a congressional hearing — at which he complained that the Bush Administration, as is its wont, pressured him to get in line politically, regardless of science — had any effect on his ability to be heard across the political spectrum. I didn’t see why it should have, logically speaking, but I had long ago realized that political partisans don’t feel compelled to speak logically. His response was encouraging:

   

As long as I had him, I figured I’d ask him what he thought about South Carolina’s recent failed efforts to raise our cigarette tax:

   
Finally, I asked the question that I had always wanted to ask, and which I would not have been allowed to ask if my more task-oriented colleagues had been present (but fortunately, they were not): What’s with the Navy uniform (which one could also word, How come a "general" is wearing an admiral’s uniform?)
   

Crystal Pink Perversion

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Which state agency head said the following this week?

"We do not believe the Constitution grants an inmate the right to publicly gratify himself and assault female staff in the uniform color of his choice. We are bound and determined to protect our female staff from perverts who commit this sort of act, and we believe it is our duty to do anything possible to convince these perverts to reform their behavior."

OK, I know how easy it is to cheat in a world with Google. Yes, it was Jon Ozmint over at Corrections. You can read about it at this location, where it was published in the Charleston paper.

And for those of you still trying to figure out the headline, yes, it was another pop song allusion.

That’s it! We’re going straight to SIX blades…

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So if I’m running one of the major political parties in this state (which is what might happen to me if I’m very, very bad in this life), as I read this, I’m thinking, That’s it! We’re having our primary today!

By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
Associated Press
Saturday, August 18, 2007
LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Democrats and Republicans are moving closer to holding a closed presidential primary, the first joint primary in 16 years, on Jan. 15, people familiar with the negotiations said Friday.
     If Michigan goes ahead as planned, its primary would leapfrog over the recently moved South Carolina Republican primary, as well as many others.
    On Friday, top-level Democrats in Michigan discussed whether to have a primary or a caucus, with opinion leaning toward holding the mid-January primary, according to those in on the negotiations who asked not to be identified because the matter is not yet resolved.
    They say a primary would make the state more relevant in choosing the presidential nominee, although backers of presidential candidate John Edwards prefer a caucus.
    A Jan. 15 primary would put Michigan ahead of the South Carolina Republican primary, which last week moved up to Jan. 19, and the Nevada Republican and Democratic caucuses, also scheduled for that date. It also could give New Hampshire more impetus to move up its primary to keep its first-in-the-nation status, and may encourage Iowa to hold its caucuses in 2007….

This reminds me of one of my all-time favorite stories in The Onion, which basically involved putting into writing a thought I had had every time I’d seen an ad for razors in the past 30 years (please pardon the deleted expletives):

F___ Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades
By James M. Kilts
CEO and President,
The Gillette Company
February 18, 2004 | Issue 40•07
James M. Kilts
Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the f___ing vanguard of shaving in this country. The Gillette Mach3 was the razor to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-blade razor. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Mach3Turbo. That’s three blades and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I’m telling you what happened — the bastards went to four blades. Now we’re standing around with our c___s in our hands, selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we’re the chumps. Well, f___ it. We’re going to five blades….

That’s private enterprise for you (or at least, a reasonable satirical facsimile of private enterprise)! If we had somebody like that guy running the parties in S.C., we wouldn’t be getting pushed around like a bunch of chumps by those other states.

Audio of Edwards getting folksy with the editorial board

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Going back to the point that Aaron raised about the context in which John Edwards got all folksy with us by showing off his boots back in 2004: I can now add some perspective to both his memory and mine — that is, if hearing is believing.

First, let me share with you a passage that I wrote in the very first draft of the piece, a version I KNEW was too long. (The "Director’s Cut" version was one I thought would fit, until Cindi Scoppe told me it was 32 inches, of which I cut six for the print version.) It went like this:

… And we’re talking impressions and memories here. None of these events or observations struck me as anything worth noting in detail at the time, so my notes are sparse. But over time, without my intending it, an impression is formed. Human nature, I guess. But even without all the notes and details, I know exactly how he caused me to think of him as I do…

I had tried to reconstruct as much as I could from notes and the data trail of stories and editorials from the time. I was on vacation, and it was Sunday, but I dragged by daughter and granddaughter to the office with me after Mass to get my notes from the 2004 presidential primaries. I even listened to the beginning of a recording of the endorsement interview with Edwards, but decided after a minute of listening that I must have turned on the recorder after the crack about the boots.

So I searched my notes. No direct quote. I asked Cindi Scoppe, and she said without looking that she didn’t have it. She takes better notes than I do, but she’s a serious journalist — she doesn’t bother with the frivolous remarks that I often think are revelatory of character.

So I went with my best memory of what he said: “How do y’all like my boots?” And Aaron offered his perspective. Today, I decided to listen further in the hope of finding something to add to the record — seeing as how there was so much interest in this column.

And guess what I found at one minute and seven seconds, right at the point at which I was trying to get everybody to settle down from the opening pleasantries and get serious (apparently, tomfoolery had gone on longer than I had recalled)? Yep, it was the actual audio of the "boots" remark, which went like this:

ME: "Well, welcome."

EDWARDS: "Thank you. Have you noticed my shoes?" (general laughter as he props one on the table) "These are my boots that I wear in New Hampshire ’cause you can clomp aroun’ in ‘at snow an’ mess (inaudible), but it don’t exactly fit in Sou’ Calahna."

So right away I noticed two things: One, my memory wasn’t exactly right on the precise words he spoke. That’s embarrassing. But I feel much reinforced in terms of my characterization of the way he said it, and the exaggerated folksiness of it — which, of course, was my point. It sounds even more like an impersonation of early Andy Griffith than I had remembered. And mind you, this was right after he had breezed by the regular folks down in the lobby without giving them the time of day.

There is no sign on my recording of Aaron prompting the remark, but Aaron could well have said something just before that my recorder did not pick up. I trust Aaron’s memory on that.

As for the rest, click on this and give it a listen. I’ll be interested to see how it struck you.

‘No new taxes?’ How about, ‘No more collapses?’

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Some folks I know who used to work in Minnesota sent me this link while I was at the beach last week. In light of the radical anti-government, anti-tax stuff that tends to hold sway in this state, I thought it might be worth sharing, even this late:

Nick
Coleman: Public anger will follow our sorrow
Nick Coleman, Star Tribune

The cloud of dust above the Mississippi that rose after the Interstate 35W
bridge collapsed Wednesday evening has dissipated. But there are other dark
clouds still hanging over Minneapolis and Minnesota.

The fear of falling is a primal one, along with the fear of being trapped or of
drowning.

Minneapolis suffered a perfect storm of nightmares Wednesday evening, as anyone
who couldn’t sleep last night can tell you. Including the parents who clench
their jaws and tighten their hands on the wheel every time they drive a carload
of strapped-in kids across a steep chasm or a rushing river. Don’t panic, you
tell yourself. The people in charge of this know what they are doing. They make
sure that the bridges stay standing. And if t! here were a problem, they would
tell us. Wouldn’t they?

What if they didn’t?

The death bridge was "structurally deficient," we now learn, and had
a rating of just 50 percent, the threshold for replacement. But no one appears
to have erred on the side of public safety. The errors were all the other way.

Would you drive your kids or let your spouse drive over a bridge that had a
sign saying, "CAUTION: Fifty-Percent Bridge Ahead"?

No, you wouldn’t. But there wasn’t any warning on the Half Chance Bridge. There
was nothing that told you that you might be sitting in your over-heated car,
bumper to bumper, on a hot summer day, thinking of dinner with your wife or of
going to see the Twins game or taking your kids for a walk to Dairy Queen later
when, in a rumble and a roar, the world you knew would pancake into the river.

There isn’t any bigger metaphor for a society in trouble than a bridge falling,
its concrete lanes pointing brokenly! at the sky, its crumpled cars pointing
down at the deep water! s where people disappeared.

Only this isn’t a metaphor.

The focus at the moment is on the lives lost and injured and the heroic efforts
of rescuers and first-responders – good Samaritans and uniformed public
servants. Minnesotans can be proud of themselves, and of their emergency
workers who answered the call. But when you have a tragedy on this scale, it
isn’t just concrete and steel that has failed us.

So far, we are told that it wasn’t terrorists or tornados that brought the
bridge down. But those assurances are not reassuring.

They are troubling.

If it wasn’t an act of God or the hand of hate, and it proves not to be just a
lousy accident – a girder mistakenly cut, a train that hit a support – then we
are left to conclude that it was worse than any of those things, because it was
more mundane and more insidious: This death and destruction was the result of
incompetence or indifference.

In a word, it was avoidable.

T! hat means it should never have happened. And that means that public anger
will follow our sorrow as sure as night descended on the missing.

For half a dozen years, the motto of state government and particularly that of
Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been No New Taxes. It’s been popular with a lot of voters
and it has mostly prevailed. So much so that Pawlenty vetoed a 5-cent gas tax
increase – the first in 20 years – last spring and millions were lost that
might have gone to road repair. And yes, it would have fallen even if the gas
tax had gone through, because we are years behind a dangerous curve when it
comes to the replacement of infrastructure that everyone but wingnuts in
coonskin caps agree is one of the basic duties of government.

I’m not just pointing fingers at Pawlenty. The outrage here is not partisan. It
is general.

Both political parties have tried to govern on the cheap, and both have
dithered and dallied and spent public wealth on stadiums! while scrimping on
the basics.

How ironic is it that! tonight ‘s scheduled groundbreaking for a new Twins
ballpark has been postponed? Even the stadium barkers realize it is in poor
taste to celebrate the spending of half a billion on ballparks when your
bridges are falling down. Perhaps this is a sign of shame. If so, it is
welcome. Shame is overdue.

At the federal level, the parsimony is worse, and so is the negligence. A
trillion spent in Iraq, while schools crumble, there aren’t enough cops on the
street and bridges decay while our leaders cross their fingers and ignore the
rising chances of disaster.

And now, one has fallen, to our great sorrow, and people died losing a gamble
they didn’t even know they had taken. They believed someone was guarding the
bridge.

We need a new slogan and we needed it yesterday:

"No More Collapses."

Anyone for a bigger, badder ‘Green’ Diamond?

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Attention, Austin Powers: Dr. Evil has assumed control of the beach development conglomerate Burroughs & Chapin, and he plans to use it to rule the world! Which means B&C hired a new top guy who wants to do what they’ve always wanted to do.

OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a tad. Actually, I’ve never been one of the reflexive, anti-Green Diamond, B&C haters. I had serious doubts about the floodplain project, but did not consider the company to be Eee-ville (like the Fru-its of the De-ville) for proposing such a plan.

But I sort of soured on them when they carried out their diabolical plan to tear down the Pavilion. Really,Drevil
think about it — for those of us who grew up going to the Grand Strand in the summer, is that not like some sort of Bond-villain plot? I mean, it’s not the Golden Mosque, but can’t you just see a guy with a shaved head (like the one in the picture) holding his pinky to his mouth and delighting in saying, I will blow up your seaside Sanctum Sanctorum unless you send me … one hundred billion dollars!

Well, the actual name of the guy in the picture is Jim Rosenberg, which is why I restrained myself from headlining this post, "Lebensraum." He’s the newly unveiled head of Burroughs & Chapin, and down here at the beach, that is major news. Those of us in the rest of the state might want to pay attention, too, since the new guy wants to grow the company. Yeah, I know, all new CEOs say they want to grow the business, even the ones hired to tear it down and sell off the pieces. But when Burroughs & Chapin says it, believe it:

"If you think the last 14 years was high growth, fasten your seat belt," Rosenberg told the crowd.

The headline in the story that led the Sun News this morning was "New president pledges growth." Here in Horry County, you don’t even have to ask, "the president of what?" I was particularly touched by this passage:

One of the first things he did when arriving on the Grand Strand was visit the former site of The Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park. But he said it’s too soon to determine what will happen there or at the empty 60-acre site that used to be Myrtle Square Mall.

I wondered whether he laid a wreath while there. If so, the story doesn’t mention it. But at least he paid his respects.

Sure, it’s easy to be nostalgic about something you don’t have to deal with, and I recall being told by the former editor of The Sun News that the Pavilion area had become seriously blighted, a magnet for drugs and crime, etc. But I guess my image of the place will never go much beyond the one in the movie. And now that it’s gone, it sort of reinforces that — even though that image came from before my own time, and own experiences.

Oh, well — gotta pack the car and head back to Cola town.

Who is this Converse Chellis, and why are we letting him hold all our money?

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Well, as everyone knows by now — even those of us at the beach and doing our best to be as far out of the loop as possible — state Rep. Converse Chellis will become our new treasurer tomorrow.

So how do we feel about that? I don’t know; how about you?

I don’t know much about the guy, beyond the facts that:

  • He managed to sew up the House vote, which Nathan Ballentine acknowledged last week by bowing out. (Ken Wingate indicated his lack of interest at about the same time.) And, of course, the guy with the House votes is generally the guy who wins in these joint-assembly things there being fewer senators, and the loyalty divide between House and Senate being a far sharper distinction than between GOP and Dem.
  • What this indicates, although does not prove, is that Danny Cooper, and therefore by extension Bobby Harrell, feel confident that Mr. Chellis will be their boy, and not the governors — which is why they put the provision in the sine die resolution to come back and do the picking themselves in the event young Thomas resigned. While Mr. Chellis might be a fine man, and while I often prefer Bobby Harrell’s priorities to the governor’s, this is a bad thing in good-government terms, because  everything that the Budget and Control does is considered an executive function in sane states, and the Legislature already holds 40 percent of this executive agency — with the other 60 percent fragmented among three executive officers elected separately, and often with competing agendas. This gives lawmakers a solid 60 percent — if they can retain solidarity, in light of that Senate/House rivalry thing. But when it’s a matter of fighting with a true outsider like the governor (and to the General Assembly, any governor is an outsider, not just this one), suddenly House and Senate are quite capable of melding minds.
  • He is a CPA, which may mean that he’s better qualified than Sen. Greg Ryberg, who would be my choice among the candidates I’ve actually had a chance to interview at length on the subject. So maybe that means he’d do a better job. At the same time, Ryberg would be a reliable ally of the governor on the B&C Board (even more so than Mr. Ballentine might have been), which is a good thing in my mind but a very bad one in those of Mr. Cooper and Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman, and what they prefer will count for a heap more than what I think when the  voting starts Friday.
  • His name — Converse A. Chellis III — sounds like it would belong to a character whose homework Dobie Gillis might have been tempted to copy, if Dobie hadn’t been an essentially good person at heart. No, wait — actually, I’m thinking of the obnoxious rich guy who was a regular character. In any case, Maynard G. Krebs he ain’t.
  • His picture in the legislative manual is completely unfamiliar to me. I’ve probably seen him, maybe met him, but don’t recall. I wouldn’t mention this, seeing as how I’m awful with names and faces, except that people who are better with such things say they don’t know him either.
  • Mr. Chellis was the subject of a lawsuit a few years back — this was reported this morning in the Charleston paper  — arising from the breakup of an accounting firm of which he was a part. Allegations flew involving both sex and money, which I guess sort of covers the waterfront. Someone who was on the other side of the report. Plaintiff said, "Disputes arose between the members of CBA, concerning Chellis’s conduct
    toward female employees, Chellis’s work ethic, and financial rewards." I don’t know much about accounting, and might not be in a position to judge even if I had more details. But I probably could have understood the conduct toward female employees part, had there been more info to go on. For the record, I don’t hold with ungentlemanly conduct toward ladies. But the lawsuit was settled out of court, and Mr. Chellis is likely justified in saying "I want to reassure you that these attacks are totally without merit,
    and are merely an attempt by our opponents to derail the election
    process."

Which isn’t much. Me, I’ll be making like a Cubs fan and cheering for Sen. Ryberg, but we could be OK with Rep. Chellis. What do y’all think?

My exchange about the governor with ‘Pollyanna’ Scoppe

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Yesterday my uncle brought a copy of The State from Florence and let me look at it. When he saw me looking at this story, he asked whether I had expected that. I said certainly not, and started launching into a tirade on the subject before reminding myself I was on vacation and shutting up.

Cindi Scoppe also brought it to my attention, and we had the following exchange. To put it in language that young folk can understand, she was like:

—–Original Message—–
From: Scoppe, Cindi
Sent: Mon 7/30/2007 5:14 PM
To: Warthen, Brad – Internal Email
Subject: FW: E-Release – Gov. Sanford Names Buck Limehouse to ContinueLeading DOT

interesting …

—–Original Message—–
From: Joel Sawyer [mailto:jsawyer@gov.sc.gov]
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 4:03 PM
To: Joel Sawyer
Subject: E-Release – Gov. Sanford Names Buck Limehouse to
ContinueLeading DOT

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNORe
MARK SANFORD, GOVERNOR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:        Joel Sawyer

Gov. Sanford Names Buck Limehouse to Continue Leading DOT
LIMEHOUSE TO SERVE AS FIRST SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

Columbia, S.C. – July 30, 2007 – Gov. Mark Sanford today nominated Buck Limehouse as his Secretary of Transportation under the new authority given by recent Department of Transportation restructuring legislation.

Limehouse, 68, is a former chairman of the DOT board and currently serves as director of the agency. Limehouse will run the day-to-day operations of the agency. Gov. Sanford said Limehouse’s wealth of institutional knowledge of the agency made him the right person for the job while the DOT transitions from its previous management structure to the new restructured model.

"First off, I want to thank Buck for being willing to continue his service to the state as this agency transitions to a more accountable structure," Gov. Sanford said. "Whether it’s been his time as chairman or in his current role as director, I think Buck brings a unique skill set and perspective to this job as we sort out what works and what doesn’t under this new management model. This appointment will give us through the next legislative session to not only see what works and doesn’t work within the agency, but to clearly determine whether or not Buck is the right fit with this administration to bring those changes. Our administration will work closely with the DOT and with Buck to make that agency more accountable and a better steward of taxpayer dollars."

Gov. Sanford signed a DOT reform bill last month that in addition to creating an at-will director appointed by the governor, is also aimed at encouraging sound infrastructure investments by requiring that decisions be made in the context of a statewide plan. It also gives the new Secretary of Transportation the ability to hire and fire down to the deputy director level. The legislation was passed in response to an audit that found a number of problems at the state DOT, including overpaying by tens of millions of dollars for contracts, purposefully manipulating account balances, and violating state law on hiring practices for temporary employees. All told, the report found more than $60 million wasted by the agency that could have been used for infrastructure needs in South Carolina.

Limehouse will be officially named the state’s first Secretary of Transportation upon Senate confirmation.

"It’s an honor to be named the state’s first Secretary of Transportation, and I appreciate the governor picking me for the job," Limehouse said. "I think this legislation is a step forward, but at the same time there are clearly some unworkable components that need to get addressed. In addition to continuing to focus on accountability and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars, part of my role will be to continue looking for ways to improve upon this new legislation, and to work with the legislature toward that goal."

Joel Sawyer
Office of Gov. Mark Sanford

And then I was like:

—–Original Message—–
From: Warthen, Brad – Internal Email
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 8:54 AM
To: Scoppe, Cindi
Subject: RE: E-Release – Gov. Sanford Names Buck Limehouse to
ContinueLeading DOT

Actually, it’s just plain weird. First — at the very moment when he had leverage to reform an agency that badly needed it, and had just been re-elected saying that THIS time, he really MEANT it about restructuring — he goes in with an inadequate compromise as his demand, and comes out with next to nothing.

Now he not only capitulates to, but positively affirms, the status quo by naming the official Commission Man to the only position he has any kind of say over.

It’s nothing short of perverse.

And then she was like:

Or perhaps he’s trying to be pragmatic.

1. He has to get the Senate to confirm his choice for secretary, and Limehouse is popular in the Senate.

2. He wants the law changed to give the secretary more power, and Limehouse is saying the law needs to be changed to give the secretary more power, and he has pull in the Legislature.

So why not keep Limehouse in place to see if HE can get the Legislature to improve the law (we know the Legislature isn’t going to FIX the law) to give the secretary more power and the commission  less. If it turns out that Limehouse really is a status quo guy, Sanford can replace him after he gets the law changed (or after it becomes clear that the Legislature won’t change it). If, on the other hand, it turns out that Limehouse is merely someone who does the bidding of whoever he works for, and that now that he works for the governor he actually works to reform the agency to the extent that the secretary can, then Sanford can keep him, and it’s a win-win.

So, is it a good thing or a bad thing that we discuss stuff before we do editorials about it, rather than going with our respective individual guts?

Videos of Hillary Clinton in Columbia

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Since it’s getting into the wee hours of Sunday morning, and I’ve been going since early Saturday, I’m just going to slap down a couple of clips from Hillary Clinton’s appearance at USC Saturday morning. There’s more from the College Democrats of America confab that I hope to post when I have time — but right now, I don’t. In the meantime, enjoy the clips.

The first is entitled, "Hillary Clinton, Young Republican."

The second is, "Hillary’s Heckler."

MacGyver, Lion Leopard and the ANP

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Lionleopard

Fridays are ridiculously busy and long in Editorial, so even though I had received this PDF file from our correspondent "MacGyver" operating out of Kandahar early this morning, I’m just getting to posting it now. To read all of it, with all the pictures, call up the full file. In the meantime, here are excerpts:

                                                    27 JUL 2007
Dear Family and Friends:
I hope all is well. Here, this mission is proving to be all that we anticipated and more. Team Swamp Fox had been trained to serve as Embedded Tactical Trainers (ETTs) for the Afghan National Army (ANA) but when we got here we were tasked as ETTs for the Afghan National Police (ANP). Team Swamp Fox is spending most of its time training and mentoring the ANP to be able to defeat TB and Al Qaeda attacks and secure and maintain peace and security after we leave….

Our mission has moved into the execution phase in one of the most difficult areas in country and working with the most challenging indigenous force to mentor. Team Swamp Fox is one of the first mentor teams to work with the ANP in the 205th Corp area – otherwise known as RC South – Southern Afghanistan.
A new man replaced the previously arrested Provincial Police Chief (PPC) by the name of Gen. Yacoub. Gen. Yacoub was formally an ANA Kandak Commander and has the military experience needed in the Province. He has tremendous challenges ahead and has a staff not of his choosing some of which has very close ties to the TB. Team Swamp Fox has traveled most of the province making assessments of the various District Police Chiefs and Ring Road (Hwy 1) Check Point commanders. I have sent photos of these travels in previous email photo updates. Essentially, we found some semi-good ones but many others who steal from the local population, kidnap and hold young boys as sex slaves, assist the TB with food, water and equipment, actively assist in emplacing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), assist the TB in hiding the weapons caches. As part of the insurgency the TB will commit atrocities on the local population in ANP uniforms to undermine the people’s support of the Government of Afghanistan (GoA). One of our challenges will be separating the good from the bad….

This MAJ Shay Pallan (translated his name means Lion Leopard) [Pictured above]. MAJ Pallan has been in combat for 25 years and formally a Mujahadeen Tank Commander. MAJ Pallan and I hit it off and got along real well almost right away. Despite his countenance in this photo, he has a great sense of humor and understands military discipline and its importance on the battlefield. Most importantly, he makes sure his policemen/soldiers have what the need.
That brings me to another point… Although these guys are called policemen, the really don’t do police work like we understand it to be. The are no statutes to enforce and they essentially are a domestic security force that operates more militarily to defeat the TB – Al Qaeda insurgency – which is good for us because we are not policemen and can’t teach that but we can teach them military tactics to increase their survivability….

Civilians are always a primary concern for us and the TB all too often use civilians as a shield, a violation of the law of war…(not that such a violation would be a concern of theirs). In many cases they will fire upon Coalition and Government of Afghanistan (GoA) forces from buildings containing civilians. This young boy handled those sheep like a master – he was moving his sheep through the area we were operating and I took a moment to speak with him and provide him with a bottle of water….

I love the Sat-phone – anytime anywhere – well anywhere outside – because the antenna hasMacgyversat
to be outside – I can call anywhere in the world… I think of my family who has fought in previous wars… and what kind of communication they have had or not have had… to be so far in the middle of no where and simply dial a few numbers and speak to your loved ones keeps you connected to home…

They were so proud when they returned – they turned on their blue lights and sirens and paraded through the streets of Qalat – they were very proud of their hard work and felt honored to be working with Americans… the ANP has been largely left alone without supervision or oversight and the increased focus on the ANP will replicate the ANA success of the past… The ANP seemed to be very devoted to the work and desirous of being a professional force… as you can see we have a lot of work to do … but they are ready for the hard work ahead…

[This goes with picture below] I told them how proud Team Swamp Fox was to be working with them but it is up to them to secure their country – they have to want it and be willing to give everything for it… we would be with them side by side as we were in this operation but if “Asadi” (Freedom) is what they want for their Country then it is ultimately up to them, the ANA and the people of Afghanistan…

Thank you for your continued prayers. The Team is doing very well and making a difference for the American and Afghan peoples. The Taliban and Al Qaeda cannot and will not be able to train and export terrorist activities from Afghanistan. As a soldier here, I hope that our nation will not wait and allow Pakistan to become the next Afghanistan.

Cheers, MacGyver

As always, I feel privileged to know "MacGyver," and stand in awe of the job that the men of Team Swamp Fox are doing in Afghanistan.

Debrief

 

We won’t have Thomas Ravenel to kick around any more

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Treasurer

Well, he’s resigned. He should have done so before, but now it’s done. Appearing in the protective custody of his sisters, he read the following statement today after his court hearing:

"I would like to say I’m deeply disappointed in myself for the
circumstances surrounding my presence here today due to the personal
mistakes I’ve made in my life.

"Second most important, I want
to offer a heartfelt apology to the state of South Carolina. To the
people of South Carolina and to my family, I am deeply sorry.

"Now,
in the best interest of our state, I believe I must resign the position
of treasurer of the state of South Carolina, and I have so informed the
governor.

"Effective as of today, I do resign. Thank you."

I was struck, as you might as be, by the way this experience has changed the man, as well it might. The raw video I found on the WIS-TV site provides a marked contrast to the know-it-all persona that was his ever-present mask back during the election.

Now the jockeying for the position of Treasurer can begin in earnest. The Legislature reserved the right to come back into session to deal with such an eventuality (anything but leave such a matter in the governor’s hands, you know), although at the moment I’m not sure when that will be.

Thoughts?

Good news, bad news: Back to the political branches

14 Replies

By BRAD WARTHEN
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
AS THE ABOVE editorial indicates, the matter of whether young children will have a chance at a good education in South Carolina is back in the hands of the political branches. That’s very good and very bad.
    It’s very good because such matters of fundamental policy are political in nature. The courts can and should do no more than give us the constitutional parameters within which to act. And what the constitution says isn’t much:
    “The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free public schools open to all children in the State and shall establish, organize and support such other public institutions of learning, as may be desirable.”
    Courts have elaborated on that slightly. In 1999, the state Supreme Court added “minimally adequate” in front of “system” (not literally, as in amending the constitution, but in terms of our legal understanding). Many education advocates today, just a very few years later, see that “minimally” as a damning sentence of inadequacy. The great irony in that is that the chief justice who presided over that addition saw it as a great step forward for the progressive approach to education, insisting that South Carolina not define “adequate” below a certain, minimal level. That’s not the proper purview of judges, but in any case he did not have the effect he’d hoped for.
    Words can be slippery.
    I am reminded of the late Douglas Adams’ hilarious series of satirical science fiction novels. One of his main characters was a researcher for “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The universe being a big place, the Guide had devoted only one word to describing Earth: “Harmless.” After 15 years of intensive research here on our planet, the field man manages to get his editors to expand the entry so that it reads, in its entirety: “Mostly harmless.”
    As it happens, 15 years is only one year longer than the life span of the lawsuit over where we will set the floor for educational opportunity in the poor, rural parts of our state. Abbeville County School District (et al.) v. the State of South Carolina was filed on Nov. 2, 1993. Almost 14 years later, it has added “minimally adequate” to our understanding of our constitutional obligation regarding education — and not even the people who agree on what they want our school system to be can agree on whether “minimally” is a good addition or a bad one.
    On to the political branches. That’s where the “very bad news” part comes in.
Education is the biggest thing government does at the state level, which is why people who vaguely, but insistently, desire to “reduce the size of government” are always talking about vouchers and tax credits aimed at preventing the state from spending so much on public schools.
    It also happens to be the one thing that government does that can most affect whether our state prospers. South Carolina hasn’t done it very well, relatively speaking, and so we have not prospered as well as other states. It’s not that we don’t know how to educate. It’s that we’ve never resolved to extend the sort of education available in our prosperous suburbs to the rural parts of our state that have been economically irrelevant since the end of slavery. The test scores from those areas pull down the state’s averages, scaring off economic development, which keeps those areas poor, which continues to scare off economic development, etc.
    It’s possible to break the cycle, but it would take a tremendous mustering and focusing of political will to overcome certain rather powerful political barriers.
    The Legislature won’t provide the answer, because it is the nexus of 170 political agendas. Many of the most adept of the 170 are from districts that see themselves as losing what they’ve got in any effort to focus resources on the poorest districts.
    The one political figure in the state in a position to chart a course that steers around all those shoals of local interest — to articulate a bold vision of statewide interest over the heads of lawmakers and fire up the electorate — is the governor. And our current governor hasn’t the slightest interest in doing that. He’s one of the folks who wants us to spend less on public education.
    (But “Spending alone won’t do it!”, you cry. You’re right. It will require implementing a comprehensive vision of reform, from classrooms to the state Department of Education. But if you’re not willing to spend, you can forget the rest. As long as the affluent parts of our state see themselves losing in a zero-sum game, you can’t turn around the poor parts with current overall spending levels.)
    The alternative would be an uprising of the people, a grass-roots movement that would make it impossible for even the most parochial of lawmakers to ignore the broader view.
    There is such a movement. A group called “Education First” plans to dramatize the need to get serious about improving public schools by putting up interstate billboards that will welcome visitors to South Carolina, the “home of ‘minimally adequate’ education.” This will humiliate us all, and effectively dramatize the moral indignation of the sincere, well-meaning liberal Democrats who lead “Education First.”
    Meanwhile, the State House is run by Republicans. Fortunately, many of those Republicans are more interested in public schools than the governor is, at least within the contexts of their own districts. Unfortunately, for them to become emboldened to risk themselves for a broader cause, they need to hear a message that sounds like it came from the people who elected them, and might elect them again.
So much for the political branches.
    This state of affairs is not “mostly harmless” to South Carolina. Tragically, it is not even minimally so.

Video: McCain goes to the mattresses

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Apparently, there is still a John McCain presidential campaign going on in South Carolina, in spite of conventional wisdom. I’m not dismissing conventional wisdom, mind you — Mike Fitts’ assessment of his situation this morning was as follows: "He’s out." And I’m not arguing with Mike, on account of the fact that he finally came back from vacating in Colorado, and I don’t have to do the production work any more. I had to be physically restrained in the hallway this morning to keep me from hugging him.

That doesn’t mean I agree with him.

True, when I went by the McCain HQ this morning on a whim to see if it was still there (actually, I’d never been there before; I had to ask Bob McAlister where it was), I found one staff left. It was quiet — too quiet. But B.J Boling was putting a brave face on things, as the video will attest — talking about no more of this massive, Clausewitzian-army approach — back to the insurgency of 2000. Anyway, listen to the video to hear the sound of a campaign going to the mattresses.

   

B.J. isn’t the only guy on the staff, mind you — I ran into Buzz Jacobs in the parking lot on my way out ofJacobsbuzz
the HQ (in Richard Quinn’s building at 1600 Gervais — that’s 1600, note). I said I wanted to get a mug shot, so he stood in front of an SUV with a McCain sticker on it. But he explained he isn’t a Clemson grad.

Anyway, B.J.  and Buzz actually do have some good points when they say the campaign’s obits are greatly exaggerated. I tend to agree with them. Two of the better points:

  1. McCain still raised more money than any candidate of either party in South Carolina in the past quarter — in spite of, as Buzz put it, "getting our butts beat over immigration." So there.
  2. Who the heck else are Republicans going to go with in South Carolina? Seriously. Giuliani? I like Giuliani OK — he’s a stand-up guy — but I can’t see Repubs in this state seriously going with him. Mitt Romney? I don’t think so. Maybe, but I really don’t think so.

And oh yeah — where’s that Fred Thompson guy anyway?

1600gervais

Mind like a trap

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Fred_thompson3

You can tell I’m a trained, professional observer, on account of the way I notice stuff and remember it later, like that Jason Bourne guy.

I said to that reader in that e-mail much earlier today that I thought I saw something — I even specified, "a banner" — about the "FairTax" in the background at the Fred Thompson event. And now I go back and look at the stuff from my digital camera, and bingo. Dang, but I’m good. Mind like a trap.

It was even in the background of a couple of blurry shots I got of the lovely Mrs. Thompson. (And for those of you with differing tastes, that’s the lovely Katon Dawson off to the right.)

Fred_thompson2

Of course, I didn’t make much note of it at the time. I mean, who’s going to stop and think about obscure banners in the background when there’s more interesting stuff to concentrate on…

Fred_thompson1

… such as, the exciting possibility that an exciting guy like Fred Thompson might get into this exciting presidential contest?

By the way — has he done that yet? I haven’t been paying attention.