Echo Chamber – Girl Drama

With this morning’s edition of La Socialista beginning to investigate the all-male smackdown of State Rep. Nikki Haley, we figured now was as good a time as any to put all the cards on the table … including our controversial use of the term “smackdown,” ironically enough.

First, let’s start with today’s story in La Socialista, which delves further into last week’s vindictive move by S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell and his band of boy toys (led by Majority Leader Jimmy Merrill) – a move which was aimed at preventing Haley from heading up one of the most influential economic development committees in all of state government.

From that story:

A proposal to change the way House committee chairmen are chosen set off a wave of criticism in Columbia last week …

… supporters of the proposal say it would limit growing Democratic Party influence in choosing leadership.

Critics — such as blogger Will Folks — say the change would be a power grab and was used to prevent Rep. Nikki Haley, R-Lexington, from taking over the influential Labor, Commerce and Industry committee.

In fairness, we’re not the only ones saying that … but whatever.

The fact is that this change was proposed just hours after a female legislative candidate took out Rep. Wallace Scarborough, who was Haley’s primary opposition for the leadership of the LCI committee.

Now we all know that sexism is nothing new for Merrill – who authored a controversial “Men’s Caucus” memo and initiated “Thong Day Thursdays” for female staffers at the GOP Caucus office – but are the other boys in this operation guilty of the same anti-female bias?

After all, their power play does aim to block the ascension of Haley – an Indian-American woman – and instead elevate a white, male lawmaker who has a history of racism and alcoholism … to say nothing of liberalism.

But let’s dig a little bit deeper into that theory, shall we?

It goes without saying that Speaker Harrell has drawn beads on two of the most powerful women in South Carolina politics this year – Haley and S.C. Policy Council President Ashley Landess.

Haley and Landess ranked Nos. 29 and 43, respectively, on our recent Palmetto Power 100 list, and Harrell has made it his mission this year to utterly and completely destroy both of them.

Just three weeks ago, he attempted to have Landess removed as President of the Policy Council after the organization criticized the House on the issue of roll call voting.

Making matters worse, during that dust-up Harrell had a curt, two-sentence letter hand-delivered to Landess’ office urging her to “make copies” of his spleen-venting for her board members to see – a secretarial allusion that wasn’t lost on anybody.

Additionally, Policy Council board members have told FITS that the Speaker’s Office threatened retaliation against them if Landess wasn’t removed from her post, with one member telling us that their business was threatened with “direct reprisal” if Landess remained in her position.

These hardball tactics were repeated during last week’s intrique against Haley, who like Landess had the temerity to criticize the House (although not Harrell specifically) on the same roll call voting issue.

But what’s really at the heart of Harrell’s hatred?

Is it seriously the fact that Haley and Landess are women? Or is he going after them because they are both advancing conservative, common sense fiscal policy at a time when Harrell wants to keep moving his RINO-Democratic majority in the House even further to the left.

Either way, Harrell has once again decided to unleash his chief “boy toy” on Haley (and on us) … and do so with a vengeance.

In fact, no sooner had we broken the story about the committee chairmanships, Majority Leader Merrill’s rumor mill kicked into high gear (again), churning out false, personal attacks against Haley and our founding editor, Sic Willie.

We’ve been told the reason for this is simple.

Merrill, who runs a Lowcountry PR firm, is obviously no idiot when it comes to public perception.

As such, he apparently views Sic Willie as the ideal vehicle through which to attack Haley’s credibility, due in large part to the infamy our founding editor achieved during his 2005 domestic violence saga … which is still brought up almost every day in our comment section here at FITS.

As noted on his official bio page here at FITS, Sic pled guilty to a first offense CDV charge three years ago, although to this day he swears he didn’t do it (mmm-hmmm).

Since that time, let’s just say a lot has happened … although we have no idea if that whole can of worms will be re-opened or not.

Obviously, we could care less one way or the other, but Merrill’s latest misinformation campaign is clearly treading on explosive ground.

Beyond reviving the CDV issue, Merrill is also said to be in possession of certain e-mails which prove that Sic Willie had sexual relations with a former female state legislator during his time in the governor’s office – as well as e-mails which prove that Sic had sexual relations with the wife of a sitting state legislator shortly after his time in the governor’s office.

We’ve been told to expect to see these e-mails “floating around” very soon.

After being informed Sunday night that neither of the individuals he was accused of sleeping with were men (and that none of the spouses involved were particularly imposing) Sic grunted approvingly and resumed watching the Indianapolis Colts game on television.

In addition to these personal attacks, though, Merrill is also reportedly targeting some of Sic Willie’s business interests – promising to expose our founding editor’s association with a lucrative regional trade publication, for starters.

All this blowback less than 72 hours after the Haley-Harrell flap blew up in the public eye.

For her part, Haley has kept a low profile and chosen to ignore the attacks, although one of her supporters told us to expect “blood on the deck” if Harrell and Merrill follow through with their plan to put liberal Rep. Bill Sandifer atop this influential committee.

Needless to say, this is one insider fight that went incredibly personal, incredibly fast … all while totally ignoring the real issue of whether a liberal RINO or a conservative Republican should manage this committee.

Oh well … when it comes to “Girl Drama,” you really can’t ask for much better than Jimmy Merrill versus Sic Willie, can you?

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