Something’s Brewing
LESS THAN A MONTH AWAY FROM PRIMARY, ARE THINGS STARTING TO HEAT UP?
FITSNews - May 12, 2008 - With the first round of State House elections less than a month away, things are beginning to heat up considerably in the South Carolina political world. Specifically, it appears that the tug-of-war for the heart and soul of the S.C. Republican Party is beginning to take concrete tactical dimensions …
In case you’re new to South Carolina politics, the so-called “most Republican state in the nation” is actually anything but … Republicans control everything, to be sure, but the party is divided into three distinct ideological camps.
First is a group that’s been dubbed the “Common Sense Caucus,” a group of younger, devoutly fiscal conservative members who are by and large fed up with the big-spending approach to government adopted by the state’s Republican leadership. Lawmakers like Sen. Kevin Bryant and Reps. Mick Mulvaney, Phillip Shoopman, Nikki Haley and Eric Bedingfield comprise the leadership of this group.
Next up is a group we’re calling the “Middlers,” Republicans who vacillate back and forth between the two emerging ends of the GOP spectrum. House Majority Leader Jimmy Merrill and budding Ways & Means powerbroker Kenny Bingham are two of the more prominent members of this group.
The third group - and unfortunately, the largest of the bunch - is the RINO Caucus, a group of “Republicans In Name Only” who have consistently joined with the Democrats in blowing tax dollars, electing liberal judges and blocking long-overdue reforms. Sadly, this group includes incredibly powerful lawmakers like Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell, Ways & Means Chairman Dan Cooper, LCI Chairman Harry Cato, Education Chairman Bob Walker and pretty much the entire S.C. Senate.
Working behind these three loose lawmaker classifications are two polar opposite political apparati (editor’s note: yes, that’s a word ).
Pushing and pulling to keep the status quo in place is a group led by veteran “Republican” consultants Rod Shealy and Warren Tompkins - who have formed an alliance this year to try and beat back the rising anti-establishment, anti-incumbent tide being advanced by groups like S.C. Club for Growth, Reform SC and South Carolinians for Responsible Government.
While sources in both camps refuse to talk specifics, we’re hearing rumblings that this week is going to be a “Showdown Week” of sorts, as each side looks to press its most compelling arguments in advance of the June 10 Republican primary.
“This very well could be the week that the State House turns into the O.K. Corral,” said one Republican legislator who spoke with FITSNews on condition of anonymity.
Cool! We’ve got calls into a bunch of folks this morning to try and figure out what’s going on, and as always we’ll let you know as soon as we hear something definitive …
Developing …
Comments
By floxybloggers on May 12th, 2008 at 10:02 am
What delicious irony! As the Republicans are continually diluting themselves in our state and the GOP is becoming its own greatest liability, these 3 distinct ideological groups may be looking to the devil to deliver them- Hmmm, at what price is it worth selling ones soul? This remains as powerful and provocative a concept now as it was to audiences when Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus was first performed in the late 1500’s.
By ??? on May 12th, 2008 at 11:36 am
floxy,
I was thinking that observing this is more akin to Marlowe from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. And agreed on the rest of the assessment.
By foxybloggers on May 12th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Thank you ???- Conrad’s ideas about how we all must be protected from the savagery inside of us…..or because the little “white lie” at the end of the novel reveals a striking moment of weakness when Marlowe can’t bear to keep telling the novel’s heavy story? Nonetheless “selling one’s soul to the devil” akin to Christopher Marlowe’s, Doctor Faustus, or Joseph Conrad’s evils of imperialism, and evil that lurks in the human heart, are both great examples of what happens when a person gives into temptations- or their ideological principles in this case.
By veritas on May 12th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Seems like the house “reformers” rolled over during the budget debate. That’s effective- the Marcel Marceau approach to legislative disobedience. Perhaps if there were some salesmen rather than after the fact gripers it would be more effective.
P.s. Gary smith and Jeff Duncan are stars