Haire of the Dog

This week, the Gresham Barrett campaign apparently decided they needed to provide a buffer between the gubernatorial candidate and, whoever, posts tweets for his campaign. And the way they solved it was rather ingenious: any post that begins with '[*]' is from a campaign staffer not U.S. Rep. Barrett (R-S.C.) himself.

Well, this morning, [*] decided it was a good idea to notify Barrett's Twitter followers that they had "just received this disturbing message from @redstate" and then encouraged those followers to sign the petition Barrett has posted at KeepTerroristsOutofSC.com.

The thing is, the RedState writer seems to confuse a show trial with a fair trial. Read on:

Today Barack Obama is going to announce that the terrorist mastermind of September 11th, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be sent to New York City for a criminal trial in a civilian court.

In that trial, the terrorist will get all the rights afforded an American citizen in a criminal trial, including the right to a fair trial, the right to a taxpayer funded attorney, the right to review all the evidence against him, potentially including classified intelligence matters, the right to exclude evidence against him including, potentially, any confession obtained through enhanced interrogation techniques, etc.

At best, this will be a show trial fit not for the American Republic, but a third world kleptocratic totalitarian regime.

Barrett couldn't have employed [*] a moment sooner.

You may not remember Darla Wynne, the Wiccan who sued the town of Great Falls, S.C., over the invocation that began each town council meeting, but S.C. Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Henry McMaster does.

And according to a new video from the McMaster campaign, the AG would take on folks like Wynne, the ACLU, and anybody else who thinks that the separation of church and state should, well, stay a separation.

Even worse, McMaster doesn't seem to mind that any such defense would be a waste of taxpayer money, based on the Wynne case and the recent "I Believe" license plate ruling. He simply wants your vote in the Republican primary.

According to our very own Will Moredock, this is how the Wynne case went down:

In 2001, Wynne, a practicing Wiccan, sued the town of Great Falls over the invocation at the beginning of town council meetings. Wynne asked that the prayers not be delivered "in the name of Jesus Christ" or that alternative faiths be heard at invocation. She offered to lead such a prayer, in her capacity as high priestess of a group of about 35 Wiccans in the area. The Chester County town of 2,100 refused her request, and Wynne went to federal court.

But with the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union, she prevailed over the next four years in the U.S. District Court and Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The town appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case. The council ceased praying in the name of a Christian deity and was even ordered to pay Wynne's legal expenses.

Oh. And in case anybody needs to be reminded: Henry McMaster was, until very recently, a member of a white folks-only country club.

First you have Democrat Mullins McLeod telling Republican Gresham Barrett to take his letter to President Obama and stick it where the sun don't shine (that's what "shove it" means after all), and now you have Barrett's fellow GOPer Nikki Haley giving the Upstate Congressman a pimp slap. All three are seeking their respective parties' nominations in the South Carolina gubernatorial race.

And while Haley agreed to sign Barrett's we-don't-need-no-Gitmo-detainees-in-S.C. letter to the president — she doesn't want those guys here either — she wasn't entirely supportive of Gresham's penmanship either. Here's what Haley said:

However, calling on candidates for Governor to join you in a letter to President Obama, rather than asking your colleagues in Congress — who are actually in a position to prevent this potentially dangerous situation — to do the same, strikes me as little more than political grandstanding.

And it gets better:

I would suggest writing another letter to President Obama that might do even more good. Please ask the President to stop using taxpayer dollars for the TARP bailout. As you were a supporter of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, adding your voice to the chorus of conservative opposition to that continuing waste of tax dollars might actually prove helpful.

Of course, Haley's outburst probably does very little to increase her chances at securing the Republican nom for governor. This is a race between Barrett and S.C. AG Henry McMaster. Haley has a lot of work ahead of her to catch up to these two.

In last week's column, I wrote about attempts by the Carroll "Tumpy" Campbell III campaign to deny previous media claims that the 1st Congressional District candidate is a lobbyist and that his company, Carroll Campbell and Associates, is a lobbying firm.

Of course, Tumpy's denial seemed to contradict earlier statements made by himself and associate Russell Munn on the Carroll Campbell and Associates website in the press release section:

"The addition of our new partners clearly demonstrates our commitment to politics and public policy in South Carolina. We plan to continue our goal of building a premier lobbying practice in this state," says Carroll Campbell, chairman of Carroll Campbell and Associates.

Munn followed with a statement of his own:

"I could not be more delighted to have a core group of accomplished lobbyists in our firm. The skills and reputations of our partners add to our already substantial lobbying capabilities."

Prior to the publication of last week's column, I sent a link to the press release with the above-mentioned quotes to Brent Littlefield of the Campbell campaign.

Now those quotes and the press release in which they were included are apparently no longer on the site. Feel free to look for yourself.

As for the original press release, you can click on the screen grab image below.

Obi Wan knew how to get the fuzz off his back. He waved his hand in the air and recited these words, "These are not the droids you're looking for. Move along." And just like that, the troopers back the fugh up and let the jedi pass.

Well, apparently, Gov. Mark Sanford has learned a jedi mind trick or two from old Ben Kenobi. Check out this report from The State concerning a recent encounter between the Luv Guv's driver, a trooper, and Obi San Kenobi himself:

In the video from a dashboard camera, Lance Cpl. R.S. Salter asks the driver, "You got a good reason for running 85?"

The agent from gets out of the car and walks toward the cruiser, credentials in hand and tells Salter he is driving the governor, to which the trooper replies, "Not a really good reason to be speeding."

"Tell him that," the agent says, walking back to his car.

Walking around to the passenger side of the sedan, Salter peers inside and greets Sanford. The two shake hands, Salter returns to his cruiser, and the agent drives off.

This are the not the grounds for impeachment you're looking for. Move along.

Since 1992, the Citadel has been using as their "spirit flag" a replica of the flag that cadets flew as they fired on the Star of West, a ship bringing supplies to U.S. troops at Fort Sumter. Many argue that this act was the start of the Civil War, not the later attack on Fort Sumter.

Only now, the folks at El Cid found out that the design they've been using is wrong, thanks to the recent discovery of what is likely to be the actual flag those war-hungry cadets "fought" under.

As for why experts believe this to be the flag, the P&C knows:

The replica the school has been using has a smaller white palmetto tree on a red background, with a white outward-facing crescent in the upper-left corner. The direction of the crescent is important, Curtis said, because an inward-facing crescent was, at the time, a common symbol of secession in the Charleston area.

The fact that the flag in Iowa carries the secession symbol makes it more likely that it is the flag that flew on Morris Island, he said.

Now today, the P&C reports that the Citadel's Board of Visitors voted to adopt the Morris Island flag as its new spirit flag.

I mean, talk about timing. The country is divided in a way that it hasn't been in decades — with some right-wing entertainers and not-so fringey political groups calling for a revolution. And many folks believe that a lot of this strife is racially motivated — surprise, surprise, some saltines are bothered that a black man is president.

And in the midst of all this, the Citadel, a state-supported school, has decided that it's a good idea to choose as its, um, spirit flag, a tattered rag declaring South Carolina's secession from the Union and a symbolic fuck you to Uncle Sam and the American ideal that all men are created equal.

The South Carolina brand just keeps getting better and better.

Here's hoping the folks at Boeing don't hear about this.

After months of speculation, Carroll "Tumpy" Campbell III has entered the First Congressional District race against the Republican Workhorse, Henry Brown. Smokey Bear was at Tumpy's side when he made the announcement.

Just kidding.

About the Smokey part, not that some bloke named Tumpy actually thinks he has a future in D.C., and he's going to start by challenging a longtime incumbent.

Tumpy? Really?

Sounds like the name of a Pokemon character, you know, the one that looks like a dirt brown toad and squirts a tarry substance out its mouth that makes the victim forget that South Carolina politics isn't currently a cesspool of shame and self-destructive narcissism. (I can see Mark Sanford now, after such a horrible attack, starring into a pig trough saying, "Pig trough, pig trough, in which we wallow, who is the most delusional of them all?")

Now that Tumpy has entered the race, fans of the '80s can rejoice. Not only is Tumpy the son of former Gov. Carroll Campbell, who served South Carolina from 1986 to 1994, but Tumpy is a big fan of 30-year-old pop culture references. Consider this bit from The Post and Courier:

Carroll Campbell III, a Charleston businessman and son of former Gov. Carroll Campbell, formalized his entry into the 1st Congressional District race Wednesday and wasted no time blasting a fellow Republican, incumbent Rep. Henry Brown.

"I have been in the Wendy's restaurant business. And when I take a look at Mr. Brown's record, I have to ask, 'Where's the beef?'" Campbell said. "Unfortunately, Mr. Brown's beef is nothing but pork."

Well, Tumpy, that's three strikes against you.

One, I love bacon.

Two, I hate John Hughes movies.

Three, I go to Burger King. The double cheeseburger is the best burger in the world.