Documents Sought Pertaining To S.C. Rep’s Racist Flyer

RUMORS, ACCUSATIONS SWIRL AT S.C. STATE HOUSE

FITSNews – April 7, 2008 – After several national political blogs picked up our story about the racist flyer found last week on S.C. Rep. Bill Sandifer’s desk, it seems more than a few local reporters – including the FITS gals – are suddenly filing Freedom of Information Act requests in an effort to get to the bottom of the brewing scandal.

Entitled “Why he’ll lose the black vote,” the controversial flyer shows a crowd of African-Americans fleeing from a superimposed image of presidential candidate Barack Obama, who is quoted as offering them jobs. Black leaders have bristled at the obvious implication, and several have publicly condemned Sandifer for having such an offensive tract displayed in his office.

“I’m trying to imagine what would have happened if two African-American interns had walked into his office and seen that staring back at them from his desk,” State Sen. Darrell Jackson said during an interview with FITSNews last week. “I suspect they would have been highly insulted and offended by that.”

In the days since this story broke, rumors and accusations concerning the flyer’s origins have been swirling around the S.C. State House, particularly among members of the House Republican Caucus.

Some rumors have even suggested that our founding editor Sic Willie planted the controversial image on Sandifer’s desk, or doctored the photograph, two charges he laughs off.

Those working at the State House know for a fact the photograph isn’t faked.

Too many received the same image in their e-mail inboxes, although it’s unknown how many of them printed out copies like the one found on Sandifer’s desk.

In fact, some have speculated that the impending uproar over this flyer could surpass “Memogate,” a scandal from seven years ago in which a group of House Republicans known as the “Men’s Caucus” were caught drafting a sexually-explicit memo to female pages. The memo was never sent, but its contents were found in a State House trash can by a particularly intrepid reporter and published in the state’s largest newspaper.

“This’ll be bigger than Memogate,” said one GOP State Representative who spoke with FITSNews on the condition of anonymity. “That (flyer) was zipping around lots of people’s e-mails and lots of people were commenting and saying stuff about it they probably shouldn’t have.”

Another Representative we spoke with said several of his colleagues were furiously deleting e-mails Thursday afternoon as a result of the picture being made public.

“I deleted it the second I got it because it personally offended me,” he said, adding that the original e-mail including the controversial flyer was sent sometime the week of March 24-28.

In case you were wondering, deleted government e-mails actually remain stored for up to 45 days in a computer backup queue, meaning they are accessible to FOIA searches provided those inquiries are submitted in a timely manner.

No one has stepped forward as of yet to claim responsibility for the flyer, although we’ll be sure to update you as soon as we hear something on that front …

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