Last Night's Election - The Devil's Own Day

Wave.

Nikki Haley cruised to a fairly easy victory last night, as Republicans swept pretty much every race there was, in both South Carolina and nationwide. Even the state of Maryland elected a Republican Governor. Maryland, y'all.

Anyway, we'll see how things go for the next two years. My only admonition to Republicans in the Senate is this: All glory is fleeting. Remember the hubris of the Democrats, who basically thought the were going to have a permanent majority?

Well guess what, y'all. No majority is ever permanent. Get things done, and you'll be rewarded. Act like knuckle-heads, and you'll be out on your ear next time. Being marginally better than the Democrats isn't something to get all that excited about. There's always another battle to be fought.

I'm reminded of the exchange between Grant and Sherman at Shiloh. After the first day of battle, the Confederates had taken the Federal position and forced a retreat of the Federals under Grant and Sherman. The Federals had been driven from the field and looked like they would be finished off the following morning.

When Sherman arrived at Grant's headquarters later that evening, he found the general–broken sword and all– chewing on a soggy cigar in the rain, which had begun soaking the battlefield.

'Well, Grant' Sherman said to his friend, 'We've had the devil's own day, haven't we?'

'Yes,' replied Grant, 'lick 'em tomorrow, though.'

The GOP could easily be licked next time.

Election Day: 2014 - You can't vote for me; I'm not on the ballot.

Well, today's the day. Although there aren't really any competitive races in South Carolina, it will be interesting to see what happens around the country. I'll certainly be interested to see how the dynamics of our national politics changes if the entire Congress becomes controlled by the GOP.

I guess the last time we had the Congress controlled by one party and the White House controlled by another was during George W. Bush's presidency. Man, doesn't that seem like a long time ago?

Voting was easy this morning. No delays, no broken machines. I had actually looked at a sample ballot last night, so I knew what to expect. (Yeah, that's kind of a dork move, isn't it?) And once again, I was the youngest person in my polling place again. I'm sure that will change eventually.

Also, there were lots of people running unopposed. What's up with that?

In any event, go vote if you are moderately informed about current events and the news.

"Meantime, what the rest of us need to do is understand that if we don’t want legislators to trade judicial candidates like baseball cards, we have to stop treating judicial candidates like baseball cards."

"That is, we have to stop letting the Legislature elect judges.", says Cindi Ross Scoppe in response to the current state and federal investigation into potential illegal vote-trading.

Beer, Battle Flags, and Gators

Lots of things to do today , but I have to throw some meat at you jackals. Accordingly, I'm going to link myself to this awesome article about the Hunter-Gatherer that I did for Fig.

In other news, the Democratic candidate for Governor has taken a strong stand on the Confederate Flag. (SPOILER ALERT: He's against it.) Mostly, I am fine to take the flag down. It's not an issue at the top of my Important Issues List, but then again, everyone's not me. I can hear some of y'all now: Thank god for that.

I'll be going alligator hunting tomorrow evening, so right now the issue on top of my Important Issues list is to make sure that I don't end up getting eaten by a big gator down in the ACE Basin.

Hopefully, I'll have some good pictures for y'all afterwards.

Monday Game Week Links

Happy Monday.

A few things going on this week:

Rick Perry will be in Columbia fundraising for SC Republicans in various different places. He'll be at First Citizen's Cafe on Main Street on Wednesday to raise money for the SC GOP in general, and on Thursday, he'll be at Doc's BBQ for Kirkman Finlay.

In case you want to attend any outdoor events, it looks like the tropical storm is going to miss South Carolina. So the weather should be nice all week.

Oh, and there's a football game that will be played on Thursday.

SC Supreme Court Issues Opinion In Harrell vs. Attorney General

REVERSED! You can read the opinion here. I'll have comments later.

Trey Gowdy Does His Thing - IRS Scandal Gets Worse

This Trey Gowdy fellow...he's going places. I can tell you that I've seen lots of lawyers do cross-examination, and he's pretty good at it. But this is just devastating for the legitimacy of the IRS.

This entire IRS deal is getting worse and worse. The IRS is pretty much entirely devoted to record keeping. That's what they do. They keep records, and sort through taxpayers records. With this scandal, they've basically admitted that they're negligent record keepers at best, and intentional attack dogs of a political party at worst.

 

And this Koskinen guy is so arrogant. He's not sorry for anything. You know, when the head of a private company comes before Congress in connection with a big screw up, they're pretty contrite. Remember the GM CEO?

This guy is basically saying, Yeah, we don't have the records, or maybe we'll get around to it, but no big deal. We didn't do anything wrong anyway - just take my word for it, ok?

It's clear he doesn't give a damn about "Congressional oversight".

And on the issue of the "our hard drive crashed" excuse - let's just assume (for chuckles) that it's true. Ok, if someone's hard drive crashes, what's the first thing you do? Obviously, you make an attempt to retrieve the "lost" emails from the hard drive using IT expert before you destroy the freaking hard drive.

If no attempts were made to recover the information before the drive was physically destroyed, then intentional, and people like Lying Lois Lerner need to be charged with a crime.

Orange. Freaking. Jumpsuits.

“If you want to build a relationship and build a rapport, then you don’t talk about specific issues first,”

Says Senator Tim Scott, as he works to build relationships.

Headlines for Tuesday May 6, 2014

Today is Tuesday, May 06, 2014. On this day, back in 1937 the German airship Hindenburg caught on fire and burned. There were thirty-five fatalities including one ground crewman. This widely known disaster (along with the passenger airplane) ended the era of the airships for passenger travel. It also provided a the basis of a metaphor for something being a spectacular failure.

1. South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy will lead the House Select Committee on Benghazi. Not a bad choice. Gowdy has been known for his tough questioning of witnesses in front of his committee before. Rather than give a speech, he tends to...you know...ask questions. We'll see what he makes of this opportunity.

2. First it was Global Warming. Then it was Climate Change. Now it's Climate Disruption. Please adjust your lexicons accordingly. They can call it whatever they want, it's still silly.

3. Healthy SC man defrauds Veterans Administration by claiming he had combat wounds. They really ought to have a severe punishment for this kind of thing.

That's all I've got for you this morning. I'm heading to Florence.

My First Look at Det Bowers for US Senate

My firm hosted a short meeting with Det Bowers, who has tossed his hat into the ring in the GOP race to unseat Senator Graham.

[Full disclosure: I know the Bowers family personally. I'm about the same age as his two older sons, and I have known him and his family growing up. He was also one of the ministers at my church for awhile.]

[Second full disclosure: I was only able to stay for the first thirty minutes, as I had a court hearing to attend. Accordingly, I missed about half of the discussion.]

Having said that, coming into today's meeting I didn't know anything about Det's political opinions, so I was interested to see what his motivation for running would be, and what his intentions were. My biggest concern was that he was running "to make a statement" rather than to actually win. I have no problem supporting people whom I agree with if they truly want to win, but I have no interest in supporting a candidate who's goal is anything other than actually winning. Because of his late entry into the race, I was worried that he might not be fully committed.

Accordingly, I was pleased to hear Det say that he isn't in the race to just show up. He told us that he decided to enter the race about a month ago. He said that one of the catalysts to his entering the race was when he and his wife recently watched the HBO series John Adams. Det told us that his wife encouraged him to run for this office because it was his duty to his country to try and make it a better place. Det said that his initial response was "I can give you about eight million reasons why I shouldn't run" but his wife dismissed that objection.

Det said that ultimately, he wants to run not against Senator Graham so much as he wants to run for the things that he personally believes in. He emphasized that he felt it was his duty to run for office.

Getting to those specifics, he led off with the idea that he wants to be a Senator that doesn't live in Washington DC. He said that his life is in South Carolina, and he wouldn't be a Senator who goes up to DC and becomes detached from this State. Without directly saying so, it was clear that he believes Senator Graham has made Washington, DC his home.

This dovetailed into his position that politicians shouldn't be in office for long periods of time, and he endorsed the idea of term-limits. He spoke about Washington's overspending, and the how Congress has continually delegated more and more authority and responsibility to the other two branches of government. He was extremely familiar with the Constitution, referencing it specifically in several instances. It was clear that he would seek to reassert Congress' power at the expense of Executive agencies.

He indicated that he would not have voted to confirm either Justice Sotomayor or Justice Kagan due to their views on abortion and homosexuality, but he acknowledged that they would have been confirmed anyway. However, he made a point to de-emphasize social issues, or at least it seemed that way to me.

It appears that his primary motivation for seeking a seat in the US Senate rests more on economic freedom and lessening the federal government's role in trying to direct private action. He told us about a business owner in Charleston who said he pays more  money complying with government regulations than he pays in taxes as an example of the federal government's heavy hand with economic activity.

On the practical side, his son Wyman is dealing with the logistics of the campaign. Wyman briefly indicated that they are looking to raise $500k by March, and he said that "it was a very attainable goal". They hope to have an official campaign website up and running soon as well. In the meantime, if you want to keep up with him, he is on Twitter. Wyman indicated that it was their goal to reach out to people both in and outside of South Carolina, as a US Senator's vote affects more than just one state.

Overall, Det Bowers struck me as a very humble and authentic man who is running for office because he truly wants to try and make this country a better place for his children and grandchildren. I'll be interested to see how his campaign plays out over the next few months.

I haven't decided where I am on this GOP primary, but I'll certainly be watching all the candidates closely.

Monday Open Thread

This is probably what you were doing if you were looking for some content today:

So...you'll have to talk amongst yourselves for today anyway.

Tomorrow, I promise actual content. I'll be co-hosting a meet and greet a for Det Bowers, who has tossed his hat in the ring for the GOP primary against Lindsey Graham. I'll have some notes on how that goes. I don't know much about Det, other than he has been a pastor at my church. I know he's a good guy, but I also know that Graham has a lot of money.

If nothing else, tomorrow will be educational.

Break's Over; Back to Work

Ok, y'all, everyone back to work. Break's over. So what's going on in the world today?

1. Did healthcare.gov get fixed over the weekend? Well, sort of. If you define "fixed" as a website that still doesn't really work all the time. It's kind of like Sex Panther Cologne. But hey, for the people who don't have to use the website because they're either exempt or already have insurance, the site works perfectly.

2. Abandoned Sites That Would Make Great Super Villain Lairs. In other news, if you have that hard to shop for person on your Christmas list, here are a list of six abandoned sites that would make great super-villain lairs.

3. Speaking of Super Villains, our "strong mayor" referendum is going to be on Tuesday. Here's everything you need to know, courtesy of The State. Funny, I don't see anything about the mayor getting a cool lair. That seems like a requirement, right?

In all seriousness, I don't have too strong of a position on the "strong mayor" thing. If you elect good people to office, they'll mostly do a good job. If you elect corrupt goobers to office, you'll have a poorly run city. Maybe it's easier to find one good person than it is to find a whole council of them. Who knows? All I know is that I doubt this will solve any of Columbia's problems.

4. Global Cooling Returns! The arctic ice cap grew 29% from 2012. Here's a picture:

Al Gore, call your office.

Incumbents Sweep in Columbia Elections

If you like your incumbents, you can keep your incumbents.

All the incumbents in the Columbia area pretty much cruised to easy re-election yesterday. Hopefully, the Bull Street development will go smoothly, the City can get out from under the Palmetto Compress Warehouse and we can figure out how to keep Five Points from turning into Fallujah.

In other news, Virginia decided to cement its new identity as a blue state by electing Terry McAuliffe, and New Jersey re-elected Christie. Lots of pundits are sure to try and give these two elections larger implications, but I'm not so sure. Maybe Christie is the new face of the GOP, and maybe he's not.

All I know is that he's the media darling for a little while now. We'll see how long that lasts. My guess is that by the time 2016 rolls around, Christie will be labeled an "extremist" "tea party" guy.

In other, other news, fewer young people than expected are signing up for Obamacare. I'm sure this will all work out fine, right?

SC Councilman in Jail Over Child Support

Bryan's Suggested Rules: If you are in violation of a court order, you should not continue serving as an elected official.

Come on, Batesburg-Leesville. You've got to have somebody better than this who wants to serve on the town council.

Sen. Lindsey Graham is in Trouble

I shared this on Twitter earlier, but I thought I should post it here for those of you who aren't Twitter-inclined. If you haven't been paying attention, Lindsey Graham is in big trouble for his reelection this fall. How much trouble?

Try 31% on for size.

Clemson political science professor Dave Woodard conducted the poll last week and found only 31 percent of South Carolina's Republicans plan to vote to re-elect Graham, regardless of who else was in the race.

For those of you not familiar with math, that's bad. Further down, the article cites Richard Quinn who is critical of the methodology that Woodard uses. That may or may not be a fair criticism. As Quinn notes, he doesn't know what methodology was used.

For comparison's sake, a Landmark/Rosetta Stone poll has Senator Graham up by a comfortable margin in the primary. However you slice it, I don't think Senator Graham is going to coast to reelection in a state known for long-term senators.

Todd Walter to Challenge Leona Plaugh for City Council Seat

A real estate developer from CDM Smith has thrown his hat in the ring to challenge Leona Plaugh for a seat on the Columbia City Council.

Walter has never run for public office. His only political experience, he said, was “putting stuff in mailboxes” for former President John F. Kennedy. He said he wants to be on City Council because he can help create incentives for companies to move here and hire more people, creating “more jobs and more tax revenue.”

Never run for public office? I like him already.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/09dd/02/2956203/developer-says-he-will-challentml#storylink=cp

Nikki Haley Announces Reelection Bid

It's not really news, per se, but it's something. I didn't know she was the youngest governor in the country, but that makes sense. If you like re-runs, get ready for an encore performance of Nikki Haley vs. Vincent Sheheen.

Alvin Green Arrested (Again)

I think this is going to hurt his chances for unseating Sen. Graham in the fall.

Gov. Haley Tours FN Plant and Fires Guns

I took the same tour about a year ago, but they didn't let me fire anything. Also, FN came to a Columbia Rotary club meeting awhile back, and they put on a nice presentation. That was the one of the very few Rotary meetings I've ever been to.

It's really great that FN Manufacturing is located here in the midlands. It's clear that Governor Haley is doing good work in getting companies to come to SC. The demand for firearms right now has to be at an all-time high, and certain states (Colorado) seem ready to push gun companies out for political reasons.

Did you know that Connecticut based rifle manufacturer decided to relocate to SC? $20 Million in economic impact per year sounds pretty nice to me.

These are good, high-skilled, highly technical jobs, and because of the nature of the product, they're less likely to be outsourced to a foreign country. Looks like South Carolina isn't screwing everything up.

[h/t to @AndyShain for the video link]

SC Supreme Court Race for Chief Justice

Chief Justice Jean Toal will have some competition for the top judicial post in South Carolina. The State newspaper is reporting that Associate Justice Costa Pleicones will toss his hat in the ring and run against Justice Toal.

I don't really have a dog in the race, since I'm just a humble little lawyer around these parts. I had heard that the Chief Justice was considering not running again, so I guess you can't believe everything you hear.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out, though.