The Nikki-Bobby War Goes Mainstream

The war of words between left-leaning S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell and conservative Rep. Nikki Haley took a very public turn today, as multiple mainstream media outlets began picking up on the drama that’s been raging unabated in State House circles since we first published a story detailing a controversial legislative rules change two weeks ago.

It fell to La Socialista’s Pippi Wrongstockings to dish on the drama to the SC insider crowd, i.e. the same people who’ve been reading about it for weeks already on our website (see here, here, here, here, here and here).

Of course, Scoppe’s piece did include the following zinger from the Speaker toward Haley …

“I can tell you that the membership generally has been pretty angry with her,” he said. “I hear a lot of concerns about how some members are out there saying that most of the House doesn’t want transparency or most of the House doesn’t want to be fiscally responsible. I think in a legislative body when you start singling yourself out as one of two or three people who want to do the right thing and the rest of them do not, it creates some animosity.”

Of course the only problem with that statement is that most of the House obviously doesn’t want transparency … and it’s painfully obvious that most of the House doesn’t want to be fiscally responsible, either.

Which makes the Speaker even more full of it than usual.

Anyway, the Harrell-Haley showdown reached a significantly higher energy level when Associated Press reporter Jim Davenport published his opus on the subject – which went to every media outlet in the state.

Asked in that article about whether or not Haley’s chairmanship of the powerful House Labor Commerce and Industry (LCI) Committee played a role in the rules change, Harrell gave a response that we’re surprised wasn’t immediately followed by a lighting strike.

“(Haley’s LCI race) has absolutely nothing to do with this discussion at all,” he said.

Right … sort of like the ocean has nothing to do with water.

Look, people. The last time we checked, Republicans were for less government. And open government.

But that’s not what Bobby Harrell wants.

In fact, not only does he want to keep the fact that he’s for more government a secret, he also wants to smite those who dare to raise their voices for reform.

Sad …

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