Carolina Politics Online

Alright!  We made the top five on a list.  Woohoo!  South Carolina has the fifth highest percentage of fat asses throughout the land with more than 30% of our state’s residence breaking the bathroom scale.  That fact didn’t surprise me at all.  I only have to walk outside to see everyone stomping and waddling around like a herd of bloated hippos.  It’s even more frightening in Wal-Mart.

The south pretty much dominated the fat list and the reason isn’t too hard to figure out. Southern food is not particularly healthy. If we can fry it, we’ll eat it. I also think the heat and humidity plays a role down here and makes everyone a little more lazy than they may be somewhere else.

I received an email from someone with a tip about an alleged Democrat challenger to Henry Brown in next year’s election.  The information I received was regarding a Robert A Dobbs, a resident of Wisconsin who I am told has purchased a business in South Carolina’s First Congressional District and will be residing there with his family.  I am told he is of the “Blue Dog” persuasion of the Democrat Party, a name for a coalition of Democrats in the House that are more conservative and centrist.  I looked him up in the FEC and sure enough he does appear as a registered candidate.  I also received his resume which notes that he once served as a City Councilman for the town of Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Now interestingly enough, I did a little more digging myself and came across some archived election information on a Robert A Dobbs in Two Rivers, WI, who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000 as a Republican, not a Democrat, and also made a donation of $215 to the Republican Party of Wisconsin back in 1999.  This would appear to be the same guy, unless he has a politically active father with the same name who is a Republican.

Not a big deal I guess, but I just found that somewhat interesting.  We’ll see if this gentleman eventually surfaces and officially kicks off a House campaign against Brown.  Assuming he ends up being the nominee for his party, being a Blue Dog Dem will probably help him peel some voters away from Brown who may not care for him.  On the other hand, I am skeptical as to how well he will appeal to voters in the district being that he is an outsider just recently moving here.

S. Sen. Jim DeMint could gain a high-profile challenger later this summer.

State Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said he is looking at entering the race and plans to make a decision by Labor Day.

“A lot of people have asked me about that, and I have responded to them that I would consider that,” he said. “I’ve been in the process of talking to people about that, but I haven’t made any decisions yet.”

Hutto, a 51-year-old lawyer, was elected to the District 40 Senate seat in 1996.

The Post and Courier

I don’t know that I consider Hutto to be a “high profile challenger”, but I imagine he is as close the Democrats will get to having one.  I don’t think DeMint is going to be in any real danger next year, although a lot of people said that about Elizabeth Dole and she was handed an upset loss by a State Senator so who knows.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, already struggling to salvage his family and his political career after admission of a scandalous affair, added explosive details Tuesday, including more visits with the mistress he calls his “soul mate” and additional women in his past.

The once-promising presidential prospect said he is committed to reconciling with his wife, but professed to The Associated Press his continued love for the Argentine woman at the center of the firestorm that gutted his political future.

In emotional interviews with the AP over two days, he said he would die “knowing that I had met my soul mate.”

The State

Yes, well, telling the whole world that his wife is not his soul mate will most certainly send her running back to him with open arms as he tries to reconcile their marriage.  Good grief.  He also states that he has crossed the line with some other women during their 20 years of marriage.  This just gets better each day.  I’m telling you, I am waiting for the love child.  This just screams John Edwards all over again.

COLUMBIA — Gov. Mark Sanford said legislators and friends encouraged him to stay on the job, in part, to not set the state back and to not interfere with the 2010 governor’s race.

Sanford, who is limited to two terms, would be replaced by Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer if he resigned. Both men are Republicans.

Bauer told CNN that he would be willing to assume the position on the agreement that he wouldn’t run for a full term after serving Sanford’s remaining 18 months. Bauer said that would help to take political angling out of the picture.

But Sanford said he is no longer considering resigning. Leaving office would be the easy thing to do, he said. Resigning was his initial reaction.

“If the good Lord’s going to make changes in your life, you’ve gotta stick around for the process,” he said.

The Post and Courier

Whatever, but the taxpayer money he used to pay for the trip might result in him being forced out of office by the legislature.  Even if he does pay it back like he said he would, would he have done that had he not been caught?

Uh-oh.  This is going to put the Bible thumpers in a tizzy.

South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis made a name for himself in the late 1990s as one of Bill Clinton’s most zealous pursuers, an impeachment “manager” who attacked the moral failings of the president with a gusto that earned him a devoted following in the staunchly conservative “Upstate” of conservative South Carolina.

But with his governor now felled by similar temptations, Inglis sees an opening for the Republican Party, a chance to “lose the stinking rot of self-righteousness” and “to understand we are all in need of some grace.”

The Wall Street Journal

I don’t disagree with Inglis’s comment.  The Republican Party throughout the Bush years allowed social conservatism to define them.  They threw fiscal responsibility right out the window, which makes it all the more amusing to watch them preach about it as Obamination spends us into oblivion.   Instead they railed and hollared about morality and that is why they get slammed so hard by the media when one of them don’t live up to the moral pedestal they have put themselves on.  Sure, there is a leftward bias in the mainstream media.  I don’t deny that, but Republicans have branded their party as the party of traditional family values so when they screw up, like Mark Sanford and Diaper Dave Vitter and Mark Foley, etc they get thrown into the frying pan.

The GOP should put the social cons on the backburner for now and get back to their fiscally conservative roots if they are to win over the trust of the American people to put them back in control of Congress.  That’s not to say that social conservatives can’t have a home within the Republican Party, but they can’t have 90% of the seats at the table anymore.  That shift is what drove away people like me who used to support Republican candidates that truly believed in the idea of personal freedom, responsibility, and limited government, not the ones who falsely preach morality and then try to use their power in government to force it down our throats.  I think that is what Inglis is getting at.

By a vote of 219 to 212, the House narrowly passed the Cap and Trade bill that will cost us millions of jobs and devastate the American economy even more as it starts going into affect. Just ask Spain how well it went for them?

This still has to pass the U.S. Senate of course and that is nowhere near certain. They need 60 ayes just to be able to vote for it and I imagine there will be Democrat defectors there just as there were in the House.

Those who voted to raise your energy bills by about $1500 a year to “save the planet” are as follows:

• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-01)
• Bob Etheridge (D-NC-02)
• David Price (D-NC-04)
• Heath Shuler (D-NC-11)
• Mel Watt (D-NC-12)
• Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
• Jack Spratt (D-SC-05)
• Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)

Those who voted to protect your liberty, labor, and livelihood were:

• Walter Jones (R-NC-03)
• Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
• Howard Coble (R-NC-06)
• Mike McIntyre (D-NC-07)
• Larry Kissell (D-NC-08)
• Sue Myrick (R-NC-09)
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
• Henry Brown (R-SC-01)
• Joe Wilson (R-SC-02)
• Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)
• Bob Inglis (R-SC-04)

Republican National Committeeman for South Carolina, Glenn McCall, has called on Governor Sanford to resign from office on the heels of the revelation of his scandal.

A top South Carolina Republican leader says philandering Gov. Mark Sanford should resign and practice the philosophy he’s preached of holding GOP leaders accountable. Glenn McCall is one of the state’s two national representatives to the Republican National Committee. He’s also a county party chairman and said Thursday that party members want Sanford out.

McCall says Sanford repeatedly has said party leaders should be held accountable for not upholding the GOP’s principles. And McCall says the married father of four should be held to the same standard.

The AP

Let us not forget that Sanford, while in the House of Representatives, voted for the impeachment of then President Bill Clinton, citing Clinton’s lack of moral fiber.

A vote on the Waxman/Markey Cap and Trade bill is expected to come up as early as tomorrow.  This bill will have devastating affects on all Americans, particularly hitting the poor and middle class the worst.  Here are a few ways the energy tax will hurt us:

1.    Reduce aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) by $9.6 trillion
2.    Destroy an average of 1-3 million jobs, every year
3.    Raise electricity rates 90 percent after adjusting for inflation
4.    Raise inflation-adjusted gasoline prices by 74 percent
5.    Raise residential natural gas prices by 55 percent
6.    Raise an average family’s annual energy bill by $1,500 annually
7.    Increase the federal debt by 26 percent, which is $29,150 per person

If you don’t know whose Congressional district you’re in, you can find out here:

Americans Solutions for Winning the Future

Call them today!

Good ole Fox News:

Media Matters

H/T to Save The GOP

I would like to start by saying I love my husband and I believe I have put forth every effort possible to be the best wife I can be during our almost twenty years of marriage. As well, for the last fifteen years my husband has been fully engaged in public service to the citizens and taxpayers of this state and I have faithfully supported him in those efforts to the best of my ability. I have been and remain proud of his accomplishments and his service to this state.

I personally believe that the greatest legacy I will leave behind in this world is not the job I held on Wall Street, or the campaigns I managed for Mark, or the work I have done as First Lady or even the philanthropic activities in which I have been routinely engaged. Instead, the greatest legacy I will leave in this world is the character of the children I, or we, leave behind. It is for that reason that I deeply regret the recent actions of my husband Mark, and their potential damage to our children.

I believe wholeheartedly in the sanctity, dignity and importance of the institution of marriage. I believe that has been consistently reflected in my actions. When I found out about my husband’s infidelity I worked immediately to first seek reconciliation through forgiveness, and then to work diligently to repair our marriage. We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of right and wrong. I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago.

This trial separation was agreed to with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage. During this short separation it was agreed that Mark would not contact us. I kept this separation quiet out of respect of his public office and reputation, and in hopes of keeping our children from just this type of public exposure. Because of this separation, I did not know where he was in the past week.

I believe enduring love is primarily a commitment and an act of will, and for a marriage to be successful, that commitment must be reciprocal. I believe Mark has earned a chance to resurrect our marriage.

Psalm 127 states that sons are a gift from the Lord and children a reward from Him. I will continue to pour my energy into raising our sons to be honorable young men. I remain willing to forgive Mark completely for his indiscretions and to welcome him back, in time, if he continues to work toward reconciliation with a true spirit of humility and repentance.

This is a very painful time for us and I would humbly request now that members of the media respect the privacy of my boys and me as we struggle together to continue on with our lives and as I seek the wisdom of Solomon, the strength and patience of Job and the grace of God in helping to heal my family.

Meg Milne
Assistant to the First Lady

WYFF

CNN is breaking that Sanford has admitted to being unfaithful to his wife with an Argentine woman.

I don’t even know what to say about this.  I am so let down.  I have to go to a meeting at work now.  I’ll be back about this later.

So the Sanford trip tale takes yet another turn as it turns out he was actually in Buenos Aires the last several days and not hiking the Appalachian Trail.  According to Sanford, he wanted to do something exotic.

So yeah, the whole thing is a little out of the ordinary, no doubt, but I honestly think a bigger deal is being made of this than it really is.  Maybe there is something strange going on that we don’t know about or maybe there’s nothing more to it than what he said.  I think most of the people over hyping this are just using the opportunity to take a political shot at him.

Amanda Terkel over at Think Progress must have gotten a splinter in her behind as she has become completely discombobulated over the Twitterings of State Senator David Thomas (R-Greenville) in which he said the following:

Iran Election Protests.  Tea Parties Middle Eastern Style

and

Even Al Jazera is reporting on protests in Iran.  Satellite “Link TV” showing much protest video.  Tea parties mid East style.

How could he????!!!  [/SARCASM]

And there is your phony outrage for the day.

Oh, he’s been found now.  Good God, can’t the man take a few days to himself without a dragnet ensuing?

Within the next two weeks, South Carolina public schools will receive $184 million in federal stimulus money that Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said will save jobs.

Rex said the impact of that cash will be felt most noticeably by what students and parents won’t see: dramatically larger class sizes.

The Post and Courier

In the short term, sure it will save jobs.  The long term is an entirely different story.  This is borrowed money and eventually the piper must be paid, with interest.  The whole “stimulus” package is one big gamble with the finances of the American people.  It relies on a risk that in two years the economy will have recovered to a reasonable enough state that the debt can start to be repaid along with offsetting the negative affects the debt will have on the value of the American dollar.  If however the economy has not recovered or is even worse off than today, what then?

The “stimulus” money disappears after two years.  Mark my words, we will be dealing with this situation again two years from now.

Undoubtedly.  Truthfully, anything Obama says to and about Iran is merely symoblic, but I think by originally standing back and saying little, certainly not condemning the current situation involving their elections, made Obama look weak.  Of course, Obama is weak so I’m not surprised by this.

As thousands of Iranians have flooded city streets in the past week to demonstrate for a new election, Republicans have been turning up the heat on Obama. The president has sought to send a measured message to the Iranian leadership, with which he still hopes to open a dialogue over its nuclear program.

“The president of the United States is supposed to lead the free world, not follow it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on a Sunday morning talk show. “He’s been timid and passive more than I would like.”

The Greenville News

The notion that Obama is going to sit down and talk to Ahmadinejad over the Iranian nuclear program just further highlights his naivete and reveals all the more what a complete amateur he is in foreign affairs.  Obama seems to have this world view that all cultures in the world are equal and we shouldn’t hold our own up any higher than others.  That, of course, is a bunch of crap and it’s an ignorant and dangerous view to hold.  Case and point, while I don’t approve of Bush’s neocon ways in Iraq, I do wonder if North Korea would now be threatening to shoot a missle towards Hawaii if Bush or a President that did not appear as weak Obama were occupying the White House.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., countered that Obama had found the correct mix of toughness and diplomacy.

“We should not politicize this issue here in the United States,” Casey said. “The biggest threat down the road … is Iran’s nuclear program.”

Which they’re going to pursue no matter what we say to them.  Wake up.

That’s the latest unemployment rate here in South Carolina.  I’m sure glad that stimulus plan and bank bailout are paying off.