Don’t Mess With Sic Willie

One thing about our founding editor … you can love him or hate him, but if you’re gonna hate him, you might want to buckle your chin strap.

The same can be said of rough-and-tumble S.C. Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, who has always had a good relationship with our favorite bad boy after the two of them had a famous bathroom altercation at a Columbia-area establishment back in 2003.

Anyway, that friendship is clearly on the ‘outs’ this week.

The drama began last week when FITS published a story questioning Peeler’s Senate GOP Caucus for spending several hundred thousand dollars to defend RINOs in primary elections last year (losing three of four races) instead of saving that cash to beat Democrats in November.

According to several sources we spoke with, an enraged Peeler blew a gasket and made several phone calls after the article ran to different politicians and consultants. Peeler allegedly told one of them that he wanted Sic’s “head on a platter.”

Not surprisingly, our founding editor took the opportunity to address this latest call for his head in what we can only describe as vintage Sic Willie style … specifically, in a letter addressed to Peeler’s “S.C. Senate Socialist Caucus,” which he listed as residing in “Leathermangrad, S.C.”

While we weren’t originally going to publish anything from the letter out of respect for Peeler’s privacy, the contents of Sic’s response have apparently “gone viral” among Palmetto politicos, no doubt owing to the letter’s opening reference to Peeler and Sic Willie having a shared affinity for “hot girls, cold beer, fast cars or various combinations of all three.”

From the letter:

While I’m now married, on-the-wagon and driving a much more family-friendly vehicle, I must admit part of me sometimes misses our good times getting drunk and running leg in the State Capital.

Of course it didn’t take long for our founding editor to dispense with the pleasantries and get down to the heart of the matter …

Frankly, the fact that your organization dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars earlier this year into trying to defeat fiscal conservatives (rather than saving that money for whoever won the GOP primaries) disappointed me, not to mention a lot of other legitimate advocates for lower taxes and less spending – which are two things I would remind you that all Republicans are supposed to support.

He also throws a not-so-subtle jab at longtime Peeler favorite Sen. Catherine Ceips, who threw some particularly nasty allegations at Sic during her unsuccessful campaign to hang on to her Senate seat earlier this year:

… my wife and I did enjoy being able to spend some time in Beaufort this spring as volunteers on one of the campaigns opposite your Caucus. Which reminds me – I certainly hope you’ll pass along my gratitude to soon-to-be-former Senator Ceips for her concern about my “heroin addiction.” Her public exposure of my problem helped me get the help I desperately needed, which is probably why I’m no longer throwing the women I love into furniture anymore.

Later, Sic advises Peeler that FITS will continue to call things “precisely” as it sees them, and tells him to “stop attacking those who are only advancing the issues (he is) supposed to believe in.”

Sic also recommends House Speaker Bobby Harrell and several other whiny Columbia politicians to Peeler as possible “shoulder(s) for you to cry on,” and curtly informs the majority leader of the futility of his effort to put his head on a platter.

.. my head is way too big to fit on a platter.

Ahh … Sic. You got that one right …

Anyway, this is definitely the most amusing Sic Willie letter since he smacked down the Spartanburg County GOP Chairman last spring for being unable to count.

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