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Smashing Lawmakers?

THE VIEW FROM HOUSE SPEAKER BOBBY HARRELL’S “HIT LIST”

FITSNews - August 10, 2008 - Ever since we published our story about S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell’s “skull-cracking” plans this coming legislative session, we’ve been getting blown up like Baghdad with people wanting to know who is on the Speaker’s “hit list.”

Well, since we know a little bit about such things, we figured we would be the ideal “peeps” to bring you the skinny on Harrell’s latest attempt to flex his muscles.

Obviously, the biggest “pumpkin” Harrell wants to smash isn’t a lawmaker, it’s fellow Charlestonian and S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford - who has made a habit of calling the Speaker out for his fiscal recklessness over the past six years. In fact, as far as we can tell, the whole point of Harrell’s recently-announced “Jobs plan” was to exact a little revenge on the governor by slamming him for his supposed failure to attract new jobs to our state. Never mind that even a master salesman (which Sanford certainly isn’t) would be hard pressed to polish the turd that is our state’s anti-competitive, anti-business and anti-investment tax, legal and regulatory climate.

At any rate, in addition to Sanford, Harrell has reportedly also set his sights on … well, us … being the conservative new media darlings that we are and everything. Additionally, we’re hearing that Harrell is decidedly displeased of late with the hard-charging S.C. Policy Council, as well as grassroots giants S.C. Club for Growth and South Carolinians for Responsible Government, all of whom the Speaker views as thorns in the side of his ebbing RINO coalition.

But who, specifically, is Harrell targeting under the State House dome? And which legislators could end up bearing the brunt of his effort to bring the S.C. House of Representatives “in line” with his status quo philosophy? Well, since you asked …

The one lawmaker who poses perhaps the greatest threat to Harrell’s heavy-spending hegemony in the House is Lexington Rep. Nikki Haley, an unapologetic fiscal conservative and a rising star in the Republican ranks.

Haley, who is running for Chairman of the House Labor, Commerce and Industry (LCI) committee, presents the nightmare scenario for Harrell - an affable, articulate and attractive female Representative whose power has expanded each election cycle with the steady flow of more conservative members into the House.

Obviously, Harrell doesn’t want a strong, independent-minded conservative like Haley at the head of such a powerful committee (he’d much rather have this guy), but with some of the Speaker’s strongest supporters in the business community already backing her, he may not have a choice.

One House member Harrell doesn’t have to hide his contempt for is Upstate Rep. Rex Rice, who has consistently earned his boss’s ire by making the House of Representatives the poster child for a South Carolina cigarette tax increase.

It’s not that Harrell doesn’t want the tax hike (he does), it’s that Rice’s effectiveness at building a coalition for it in the supposedly “conservative” House makes Harrell look bad - similar to when powerful Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman played the Speaker like a fiddle on the state budget earlier this year.

Politics 101 in the liberal halls of power in Columbia is easy - you can be the biggest-spending, biggest-big government backer you wanna be, just make sure the other guy comes off looking more liberal than you do.

Rex Rice’s pro-cig tax advocacy makes it very difficult for the Speaker to pull off that deception.

As we’ve written recently, the race for Chairman of the House Education Committee has also emerged as a barometer for the Speaker’s list of “naughty” Representatives.

In this case it’s Lexington Rep. Ted Pitts drawing Harrell’s ire, which surprises us given the fact that Pitts’ support of a watered-down, Democratic school choice initiative was instrumental in keeping the real school choice debate off of Harrell’s plate this year.

We blasted Pitts at the time for what we continue to believe was a sell-out on school choice, but ironically it was conservative Representatives who rushed to his defense, not Harrell - whose “PR hide” Pitts’ action had ultimately protected.

Oh well. “With friends like the Speaker …”

Anyway, we endeavored to get additional names on Harrell’s “hit list,” but predictably few Representatives were willing to talk to us on the record.

Several additional names which were offered to us are also members of the growing conservative wing of the House Caucus, including Reps. Jeff Duncan, Eric Bedingfield and Garry Smith, among others, and even staunch Harrell supporters acknowledged to us that his “crackdown” is a reaction to the strengthening of the fiscal conservative cause.

“The barbarians are one election (cycle) away from being at Bobby’s gates,” one of the Speaker’s confidantes told us. “If you were him, wouldn’t you batten down the hatches while you still could?”

House Rep. Nathan Ballentine - who said he wasn’t aware of any lawmakers being specifically targeted by Harrell - did speak with us briefly regarding how conservative Representatives might react to the rumored “crackdown.”

“Bobby has always told me and others to do what (we) need to do back home,” Ballentine told us. “He’s never forced me to do anything and I would be disappointed if me or others were now put in ‘time out’ for not following orders that were against our beliefs or folks’ beliefs back home.”

Ballentine also said he didn’t think the voters would go along with another year of insider “turf wars” at the State House, which had perhaps its least productive session ever this year.

“Bobby has a chance to put his stamp on the House,” he said. “Will it be ‘business as usual’ or will he see what the voters see and what they’ve been saying for years? People are tired of the good ole’ boys doling out committee chairmanships and assignments as favors to those who do what they’re told. They want common-sense leadership with backbone.”

Indeed … now the only question is whether anyone in the House leadership fits that description.

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