Moe Lane

We talked this afternoon on South Carolina’s Spending Accountability Act (which was formally signed into law today). To refresh people’s memories: Governor Haley had campaigned in part on a platform of transparency, with a specific focus on the South Carolinian legislature’s ability to vote on funding issues without their votes actually going on the record. The Governor has long been a proponent of reversing this, and the Spending Accountability Act is the result: it requires roll call votes on bills, particularly ones involving the budget. We spoke on this and some other matters:

Gov. Haley’s Facebook page (mentioned at the end of the interview) can be found here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Nikki Haley was sworn in today as South Carolina governor, and of all the annoyances that the Left has been trying to inflict upon us for the last few days over their petulant inability to dictate what can and cannot be said, this one grates most: they made me forget that briefly. We at RedState have been waiting for this moment for quite some time, after all.

Link to video here; text here. Enjoy.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

…this.

South Carolina Democratic candidate Rob Miller has apparently adopted Republicans’ “Fire Pelosi” mantra.

According to a report by The Associated Press, Miller — who is hoping to oust Rep. Joe Wilson (R) in the South Carolina 2nd district race — said Wednesday that he would not vote to keep Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as Speaker in the 112th Congress.

Via, of all things, @markos, who is upset that Democrats gave Miller 2.5 million dollars to retire his 2008 debt and lose again to Joe Wilson in 2010 (hint, Robbie: don’t go into the red this time); I would have posted this last night, except that it took me this long to stop laughing.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Joe Wilson for SC-02.  Not voting for Pelosi for Speaker, either.

Tell the truth, Spratt.  You mumble when people ask you which district you represent.

It sounds like that book will get at least one South Carolinian purchaser: Spratt’s campaign manager Wayne Wingate, who is completely behind the idea that Osama bin Laden would receive widespread support from Republicans in SC-05.  An opinion that Spratt apparently shares, given that he didn’t immediately turn on Wingate and lay him out on the ground for saying filthy trash like that about Spratt’s constituents.

Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s the report:

“If Osama bin Laden ran in this district as a Republican, he would get 38 to 40 percent of the vote in any election year,” says Wayne Wingate, Spratt’s communications director, as he walks alongside the congressman at the festival. “This is a very Republican district. So you’ve got that plus this tea party angst against any incumbent in the world right now.”

In point of fact, Mister Wingate – and Mister Spratt – if Osama bin Laden ran in SC-05 as a Republican somebody would come up to bin Laden and put a bullet in his brain.  This does reflect a change from our past methodology of capture and interrogate, but better safe than sorry. After all, since January 2009 there’s been a growing understanding among the American people that the political party running things can’t exactly be trusted with keeping the really bad illegal combatants under wrap. (more…)

Admittedly, we were hoping for more than 37%, but every little bit helps.

[Alvin] Greene, an African-American, captures 63% of the black vote. Eighty percent (80%) of whites favor [Senator Jim] DeMint.

I’m not going to be cruel and quote the total poll results. Suffice it to say that I wish that Greene had actually done something to deserve the public humiliation that is coming for him.  The poor SOB just wanted to try out American democracy for himself, and he’s not going to get anything out of it…

Moe Lane

PS: OTOH, Nikki Haley is easily crushing Vince Shaheen in SC-GOV, and I’m sure that Shaheen has done something to deserve that.

(Via Instapundit)  This is a joke, right?  Surely not even this administration is going to let people die of AIDS – even if they’re convicts – by going after humane correctional policies designed to keep uninfected convicts from being infected while still providing the infected treatment and counseling.  Even if it does mean removing terminally ill, infectious convicts from the general prison population.  That’s just not right.

Some states long ago implemented policies to protect the uninfected part of the prison population while providing exceptional medical treatment and counseling to the infected population.

In South Carolina, it has worked so well since 1998 that there has only been a single transmission of HIV/AIDS to a noninfected prisoner. All that may change, however, thanks to a threat from Eric Holder’s Justice Department.

South Carolina received a letter from the now-infamous Civil Rights Division that the policy of keeping infected inmates at a designated facility, instead of scattered across the state in the general prison population, may unfairly stigmatize infected prisoners. To the Obama political appointees in the Civil Rights Division, this constitutes discrimination under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

But apparently that’s going to be policy.  At least, if the White House has its way. (more…)

Seriously, what is Rep. Clyburn’s problem?

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (S.C.) theorized that an operative ran unemployed Army veteran Alvin Greene’s (D) South Carolina Senate campaign to create a “mess.”

The Hill touches on the major objections to this… well, ‘theory’ and ‘hypothesis’ both seem to give this more credit than it deserves: perhaps ‘allegation?’  Whatever one wishes to call it, it seems to assume that there would be some point for putting Candidate A in the designated ‘crushed by DeMint in November’ slot, rather than Candidate B.  At this point in South Carolina politics, the various Federal and state executive seats are all pretty much foregone conclusions: John Spratt (D) is the most at-risk incumbent, while the Democrats are not expected to flip any seats in this hostile election atmosphere.  So it’s a good question to ask why anybody would bother risking a scandal just to make sure that the rubble bounced farther.

Or am I over-analyzing this?  Is it just that, after 70 years of being carefully taught to do so, Rep. Clyburn’s simply comfortable with the idea that all Bad Things that happen are the result of sinister, hidden forces?

The runoff elections are tomorrow, so if you like reform and live in South Carolina, get thee hence to the polls. Nikki feels good about the election, but this is no time to stop.

Nikki’s site is here.

Crossposted to RedState.

These numbers look pretty solid:

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Haley picking up 55% of the vote over Democratic State Senator Vincent Sheheen, who earns 34% support. Five percent (5%) would choose some other candidate and six percent (6%) are undecided.

Congressman Gresham Barrett earns 46% support over Sheheen’s 38%. However, 10% of voters would vote for some other candidate in this match-up and six percent (6%) are not sure.

…and I would like to note that Barrett’s support since the December 2009 poll has apparently not increased.  Couple that with the way that people are significantly more willing to vote against Rep. Barrett… look, I honestly don’t want to force him out of this race; he’s earned the right to participate in the run-off.  But is this really best for all concerned?

Moe Lane

Tim is the front-runner in the GOP primary runoff for SC-01, and he took the time to talk with us about the state of the race and why he’s running.

Tim’s site is here: he’s a state representative and former Charleston County official. The runoff is June 22nd. There’s been a good deal of interest among RedState’s readers about this race thus far, and I expect that said interest will continue…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

I think that he is… (more…)

You know, South Carolinian political shenanigans are ever so much more fun when they’re not aimed at anybody on your side:

South Carolina’s surprise Democratic nominee to challenge U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint is facing a pending felony charge.

Court records show 32-year-old Alvin Greene was arrested in November and charged with showing obscene Internet photos to a University of South Carolina student. The felony charge carries up to five years in prison.

No, I don’t know why anybody would bother further ensuring DeMint’s re-election: this goes far beyond ‘belt-and-suspenders’ and well into ‘plate armor’ territory.  But, seriously: where did this guy come from, where did he get the money to run…  and why has all of this been done for this race?  Is this some form of bizarre political performance art? (more…)