TweetThursday, 10 a.m. Rep. Jimmy Bales last had opposition six years ago, at which time we wrote: We worried two years ago that Democratic Rep. Jimmy Bales would bring County Council-style politics to the House, which already had more than enough partisanship. Fortunately, our concerns seem to have been overblown. Rep. Bales has been a […]
TweetWednesday, 10 a.m. Ray Maly has never run for political office before, and it shows. He is a sincere, well-meaning citizen, and we need more such folk stepping forward to serve (as he already did, for 20 years in the Army). Unfortunately, he knows very little about the office he is seeking or the issues […]
Tweet One state’s voters get chance to break partisan death grip By Brad WarthenEditorial Page Editor A WONDERFUL thing happened in Connecticut last week — something that could bode very well for the political direction of this country: A man who six years ago came within a hair’s breadth of the vice presidency broke […]
TweetSince Sunday, I’ve been meaning to call your attention to this piece that was in the NYT‘s Week in Review section. OK, all the folks on the right wing of the blog community can now spend 10 seconds doing the customary hyperventilating about what an unreliable, biased source the Times is … 3, 2, 1. […]
TweetThis is a real shame — the one guy who really cared about and understood the job losing this badly to a guy who just decided he’d put his name up again, and to my knowledge, has expressed no interest yet in actually doing the job of state Treasurer: (COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Senator Greg Ryberg, […]
TweetI just got this from Katon Dawson. I have no idea why he didn’t send it earlier so we could have published it as a letter to the editor before the election. (As we told readers, the cutoff for primary-related letters was 10 a.m. Friday, and we ran the last of them Sunday. Oh, and […]
TweetGovernor should show up, debate Lovelace By BRAD WARTHENEDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MARK SANFORD has disappointed a lot of people who supported him four years ago. He shouldn’t disappoint us again on June 7. So far, the governor hasn’t told the folks at ETV whether he’ll show up to debate GOP challenger Oscar Lovelace that […]
TweetTuesday, 12:30 p.m. Maybe I can keep up with these endorsement interview posts if I do the latest one first, and work backwards. The only candidate seeking the Democratic nomination for Richland County auditor to come in for an interview this round is the incumbent, Harry Huntley. His challenger, Paul Brawley, joins what is shaping […]
TweetHighlights and sidelightsfrom a week of interviews By Brad WarthenEditorial Page EditorSOME NUGGETS from interviews this past week with candidates in the June 13 primaries: Monday, 8:30 a.m. Surprise: Rep. Joe E. Brown, the retired school administrator who has represented S.C. House District 73 for 20 years, seems to have viable Democratic opposition. Energetic young […]
TweetBiden hopes even ‘red states’ want ‘competent government’ By Brad WarthenEditorial Page EditorTHE AMERICAN people “have written off” the Bush administration, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden told a parking lot full of Democrats Monday at Galivants Ferry. “Part of me says ‘good; they figured it out,’” he said. But “In a sense it’s a shame, […]
TweetBacksliding? Top UnParty Leader caught at Dem shindig! OK, so maybe he’s not a "top leader." Maybe he’s not even a "leader," seeing as how we’re not organized enough to have leaders. We’re in such disarray that we don’t know who our candidate for governor is. Spencer Gantt thinks it’s me. But at the very […]
TweetAs both a blogger and editorial page editor, and not exactly in that order, I can run into certain conflicts: If I use the blog to share my impressions of candidates as we wade through endorsement interviews, am I not risking giving away whom we are likely to endorse? And yet if I don’t share […]
TweetMonday. No. 1 of 55 interviews I’ll be doing before the June primary. When I entered the room and started to sit down opposite the young man who is challenging Kenny Bingham in the Republican primary for the District 89 seat in the S.C. House, Cindi Scoppe said: "This is Artie White. Go ahead. Ask […]
TweetOver the last month or two, I’ve broken the rules I’ve made against answering e-mails at length to respond to a Lexington County physician who has been extremely upset about our stance against Lexington Medical Center getting permission to start an open-heart-surgery facility. What got to him the most was the fact that we got […]
TweetIraq: Why we’re there, why we must stay By Brad WarthenEditorial Page EditorI WAS BRIEFLY taken aback when a colleague reminded me that we were coming up on the third anniversary of “the war.” I thought we passed the fourth one last September. Within days after 9/11, I turned a file drawer over to […]
TweetGraham provides model of whatparties should be, but are not By Brad WarthenEditorial Page EditorTHERE’S something reassuring about sitting and talking with a U.S. senator and thinking, “This guy is smarter than I am.” Even better thoughts: “He’s smarter than most other senators, and the nation sees that. And he represents South Carolina.” […]
TweetA link that blog regular Herb provides in a recent comment asks the not-so-musical question, "Are reporters too stupid to get religion?" The simple answer is, "Yes." But that’s a little too simple. I should elaborate. Journalists pride themselves (many of them do, anyway; I certainly did during my news days) on being jacks of […]
TweetOutsourcing the deliberative process By Brad WarthenEditorial Page EditorTHE POSITION we take in the above editorial is an uncomfortable one. I say that not because using a “BRAC” approach to consolidate school districts is a bad idea. In fact, it’s a great one. But it shouldn’t be. Our system of representative democracy is all […]
TweetFirst, take action to make the whole lake riseBy Brad WarthenEditorial Page EditorPOLITICAL NOSTRUMS often become obnoxious with excessive application. Some simply start out that way. For me, one that has always fit in the latter category is “A rising tide lifts all boats.” I’ve never denied that there’s truth in it. At […]
TweetLess room for us, and more room for youBy Brad WarthenEditorial Page EditorLAST MONDAY, for the first time ever to my knowledge, we published this page without a single editorial. An editorial, I should explain, is what we call that vertical item to the upper left. The thing you are reading right now is […]