Who’s Against Transparency?

First off, a rare apology … frankly, we’re not sure why it took us so long to realize that all these recent articles about government transparency should be accompanied by pictures of celebrities wearing see-through garments. Rest assured, people, that sort of intellectual incuriosity isn’t going to become habit around here.

Anyway, yesterday’s statewide fly-around by S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, Reps. Nikki Haley and Nathan Ballentine and S.C. Policy Council President Ashley Landess was all about transparency – specifically, getting South Carolina’s two-faced General Ass-embly to start casting its fiscal votes “on the record.”

It seems simple enough – and it’s certainly important enough.

After all, in a state where the “party of less government” is growing government twice as fast as the rest of the country, why not force these fake Republicans to put their names on all those wasteful expenditures instead of hiding behind unrecorded voice votes?

But apparently the plan – which was also endorsed today by dozens of other GOP lawmakers and State House candidates – does have one very powerful detractor …

In a bitter and vindictive press release sent out late yesterday afternoon in response to the transparency fly-around, House Speaker Bobby Harrell railed on the governor and his allies and blatantly misled the public as to what the bill (sponsored by Rep. Haley) actually intends to do.

“We must be fighting for true transparency and not just pandering to voters and grabbing for headlines,” Harrell’s release reads.

And in case you missed “pandering” the first time, Harrell threw it out once more for good measure.

“Demanding that we should spend taxpayer money to take a roll call vote on a resolution congratulating a state championship high school team is not true transparency, it’s pandering.”

Of course that’s not what Haley’s bill does … in fact it specifically exempts those ceremonial votes. And if the language of the bill wasn’t enough, Haley sent a letter to all 124 Representatives (including Harrell) earlier this summer making that point clear.

Aside from the ridiculousness of wasting people’s time with the incessant litany of recognitions, introductions, congratulations and related nonsense that both the House and the Senate spend hours on each week while they’re in session, it didn’t take long for Harrell’s misleading tactic to be picked up on by Rep. Ballentine.

In fact, here’s what he had to say on his website about the Harrell release:

I’m not sure why Speaker Harrell decided not to run for Governor, but after reading a release from his press shop today commenting about On-The-Record voting (or lack thereof), I’d tell him he probably saved himself a lot of money.

Damn … right on, dude. That’s not only accurate, but it’s extremely ballsy … two things in very short supply over at the S.C. State House.

Ballentine also calls Harrell out (although not by name) for the crusade he’s been waging against Haley over the last few months, a vendetta which reached its boiling point at a gathering of Republican lawmakers earlier this summer.

Here’s what’s disappointing in politics: when good, common-sense policy has to overcome personal vendettas and egos.

It’s no secret that there were only THREE Republicans to speak up in support of this legislation this summer. It’s no secret the tone of the “debate” that day was very personal , attacking, and unprofessional. If it’s not status-quo versus common-sense Republicans, it’s House/Senate Leadership versus the Governor.

Again, that’s pretty much “nail on head” if you ask us. Sad, but true.

Frankly, Harrell’s aggressive moves against Haley and the leaders of the so-called (wait, Sic Willie named it) “Common Sense Caucus” in the House of Representatives are slowly but surely beginning to backfire. And today’s overreaction may have been Harrell’s greatest miscalculation yet.

Not only did he impulsively attack in a caustic and personal tone – he got his facts completely wrong in the process. Then he got called out for it not by the Governor or the Policy Council or the Club for Growth, but by one of his own members.

Honestly, we haven’t seen a meltdown like this from a legislative leader since 2004, when former House Speaker David Wilkins went “insider ape” over Gov. Sanford bringing two piglets into the State House to protest wasteful spending – a move which (like Haley’s transparency bill) was extremely well-received by the public.

Of course, if some of the reports we’ve been receiving lately about Harrell’s shady dealings are true, there could be a pretty good reason why he’s acting so pissy …

UPDATE – Oh, in case you were wondering the identity of our transparency celebrity babe, it’s Heather Locklear.

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