TweetSeveral days back, I got an invitation to a political event from Mark Huguley, mayor of Arcadia Lakes and former top official at SLED. And I set it aside to read later, thinking maybe it would be something I’d go to. Then I received the same message again, forwarded to me by his wife Sally, […]
Tweet A few things we might talk about — just don’t cough! Four years after Charleston church massacre, what have SC lawmakers done? — Nothing, if you’re talking about keeping people like Roof from getting a gun. Iran Threatens to Exceed Nuclear Deal’s Limits on Uranium Enrichment — We’re in a fix, aren’t we? POTUS has alienated […]
TweetE.J. Dionne says we are, at least with regard to one issue: “On gun violence, the United States has become a corrupt failed state.” But the problem is broader than that. Sure, we have demonstrated that we are completely incompetent to keep children from being murdered en masse in our schools, which is about as […]
TweetIn reaction to disclosures regarding Rick Quinn’s case, former state GOP Chairman Matt Moore Tweeted this: Classic example of what reform-minded leaders in S.C. face every day. Sadly, many of the individuals involved in this scandal are still serving at the highest levels of state government. https://t.co/2tNuJhalO1 — Matt Moore (@MattMooreSC) February 11, 2018 I retweeted […]
TweetIn response to this Tweet today from Andy Shain: Three years out, fighting over redistricting election lines in South Carolina has already begun https://t.co/6Qq4jAYITy — Andy Shain (@AndyShain) December 17, 2017 … I had this response: Scrap the system. It has made a mockery of our system of representative democracy. The real election should be […]
TweetSome good people who place their faith in the rule of law may have gained encouragement from the guilty plea of Michael Flynn. After all, this is the case that Trump tried to get Comey to back off on, before firing the FBI director. Time to start up the impeachment apparatus! Others will cite the continuing […]
TweetSlow news day, but let’s see what we can find: U.S. to Pull Embassy Staff in Cuba After Mysterious Attacks — This is one of the weirdest items out there, and it’s been percolating in the background for awhile. What have the Cubans — if it’s them — been doing? The U.S. Is Beating Back ISIS, […]
Tweet No biggie, but each time South Carolina Democrats come up with a guy with a grizzled beard to be their sacrificial lamb to get creamed in a congressional election, I think, “They don’t even want to pretend that they’re serious.” Come on, guys: Don’t you think it would be good, this being South Carolina, to […]
TweetNot much that’s interesting out there, but here are some talkers: Justices rule North Carolina improperly relied on race in redistricting efforts — Whoa! If they’re not going to allow that, then there goes every district in South Carolina. And it can’t be too soon. Reapportionment reform! Trump said what?!? — That’s the headline on […]
TweetThey say Speaker Ryan has the votes now: House Republicans are set to pass a controversial plan to revise key parts of the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, capping weeks of fits and starts to fulfill a signature campaign promise. “We’ll have the votes. This will pass,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) vowed on […]
TweetThis had me shaking my head this morning: President Trump effectively declared war Thursday on the House Freedom Caucus, the powerful group of hard-line conservative Republicans who blocked the health-care bill, vowing to “fight them” in the 2018 midterm elections. In a morning tweet, Trump warned that the Freedom Caucus would “hurt the entire Republican […]
TweetNot a very newsy Monday, but we’ve got what we’ve got: Flynn’s Position as Security Adviser Grows Tenuous — That’s the WSJ’s take on it, to which I think, really? I mean, if Trump were to back away because someone in his circle did something inappropriate, that would certainly be news. And promising… Standing Rock chairman […]
TweetI hadn’t really focused on this until I got the release from the state Democratic Party complaining about it: Dear Brad, Earlier this week, SCETV announced they do not plan to televise any 2016 general election debates because they do not view the races to be “highly competitive.” We are circulating a petition asking them to reconsider this misguided […]
TweetI got this release from the new party that Jim Rex and Oscar Lovelace started here in South Carolina, and it points a way to profound political reform in our state — and then takes its eye off the ball: The Supreme Court struck a blow against gerrymandering this summer,but the voters in our state (like most) […]
TweetOr, if you prefer, the good and the bad. Because as one who loves the American system of government and respects the court, while at the same time decrying what ideological partisans are doing to the political branches (and trying their best to do to the judiciary as well), I’m all like “Yay, Supreme Court” […]
TweetTwo days ago, I said I hoped that when the SC House Democrats announced their legislative priorities on Tuesday, they would back away from their awful idea of legalizing casinos in order to pay for roads. I didn’t have much confidence that they would, and I didn’t attend their presser. But I’m pleased and surprised […]
Tweet Click on the map above to go to a page where you can interact with it, and explore just how few House districts across the nation are competitive. It’s accompanied by various other charts that show graphically just how stacked the deck is across the country. The dark red and dark blue districts are […]
TweetJust wanted to bring to your attention this story, together with photo essay, in The Washington Post today. It examines the dreary fact that there is not one competitive congressional race in South Carolina. As though that were news to us: … Wilson, running for his eighth term, didn’t attend that candidates night program. Which […]
TweetI read a really good piece by Martin Wolf in The Financial Times today. Excerpts: Is the US a functioning democracy? This week legislators decided to shut down a swath of the federal government rather than allow an enacted health law go into operation at the agreed moment. They may go further; if they do not vote […]
Tweet Even Paul Krugman — who is such a bitter, contemptuous partisan that I avoided running his columns at the newspaper — thought maybe he was going overboard a bit by calling the GOP’s maneuvers on funding Obamacare and the rest of government “crazy:” In recent months, the G.O.P. seems to have transitioned from being […]