By Terry Manning
Three is a magic number. So sang the fine folks at “Schoolhouse Rock,” and it still seems to be the case, at least for news regarding politicians with South Carolina connections.
The first is former Governor Nikki Haley’s blooming into a halfway legitimate candidate for the office of President of the United States. After she participated in the GOP’s first presidential debate a little while back, and had the audacity to speak honestly about the Republican Party’s contributions to the nation’s woes—both real and imagined—some commentators opined, hmm, she might be on to something.
The New York Times’ David Brooks touted her as the “Best Trump Alternative” in a column just after the debate. He lauded Haley’s intelligence and maturity, writing, “She seems to be one of the few candidates who understands that to run against Trump you have to run against Trump.”
I thought to myself, that depends on which day of the week it is, a sentiment echoed by another Times columnist, Frank Bruni. I won’t quote him beyond the headline, “When I Tell You Nikki Haley Is Pathetic, That’s an Understatement.” That kinda says it.
Bruni contrasts the principled candidate who appeared on the debate stage in Milwaukee with the former U.S. ambassador’s devilish inconsistency in her views on the former president. Bruni resurrects critical comments from Haley about Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and positions them opposite her more accommodating later views of the former president.
Many will say, so what? A politician saying anything and everything to get elected? What’s the big deal? If the Trump years in the White House didn’t demonstrate all the horrible “big deals” having an habitual liar in the Oval Office can produce, maybe you should just stop reading.
A second news item that caught my interest was Sen. Tim Scott’s plan to introduce his girlfriend to the public sometime in the near future — assuming he hasn’t done so already by the time this is published.
Following a report in Axios about Republican donors’ skittishness over his bachelorhood, Scott told members of the press in New Hampshire last Thursday other Republican candidates were to blame.
“People plant stories that have conversations to distract from our rise in the polls,” Scott is quoted by NBC News, “to distract from our size of our audience.” Like Haley, Scott saw a bit of a surge in his political fortunes after the first debate.
But let’s not ignore the elephant in the room. The GOP is so homophobic Scott merely being single is teased as a possible strike against him. It’s disgusting his bachelorhood is being scandalized and not much better that he feels compelled to produce a girlfriend to get the newshounds off his tail. Sad.
A third item is news of the grand jury into the former president’s muddling with election results in Georgia recommending criminal charges for Sen. Lindsey Graham.
The Hill website spoke to political experts who said the fact only 13 jurors — compared to 20 of 21 who supported charges for Rudy Giuliani in the same matter — likely convinced District Attorney Fani Willis she might have trouble convicting Graham.
I’m pretty certain I’m not the only person who wondered whether Graham might get caught up in the broad sweep of indictments that resulted from the grand jury probe. For his part, Graham told reporters he did nothing wrong and made no inappropriate suggestions during the course of his phone calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger.
Raffensberger sure seemed to think Graham was making an indecent proposal in inquiring about mechanisms for rejecting mass groups of votes, according to an interview he did with the Washington Post in November 2020:
“Raffensperger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. Absent court intervention, Raffensperger doesn’t have the power to do what Graham suggested because counties administer elections in Georgia.”
Graham said recently he was surprised charges were ever considered.
For its size, the Palmetto State is over-represented in recent political news. But considering past headlines that brought unwanted attention, these are tolerable at the very least.
Maybe three really is a magic number.
Terry E. Manning is a Clemson graduate and worked for 20 years as a journalist. He can be reached at teemanning@gmail.com.
