Jimmy Merrill Is Popular (Not)

Outgoing S.C. Majority Leader Jimmy Merrill tested the gubernatorial waters in his hometown of Charleston over the weekend, floating a 2010 trial balloon courtesy of friendly reporter Yvonne Wenger, who was no doubt blushing when she compared Merrill’s looks to those of former GOP Vice President Dan Quayle.

Awww … that’s very sweet, but not exactly how you want to start a puff piece.

From there, things continued to go tragically awry for “Dan Quayle, Jr.”

From the story:

“I am kind of at a crossroads. Do I do the political thing a little longer or do I move to the private sector? I don’t know,” Merrill said.

Decisions, decisions.

What’s funny about this quote is that prior to the onset of blogs, Merrill’s intense, soul-searching rhetorical interrogative would have just hung out there, a contemplative question mark for all of humanity to ponder.

But that was the old information age.

In an effort to engage its increasingly ADD readers and avoid losing increasingly valuable digital ground to increasingly popular interactive blogs, the Post and Courier now has a “comments section” on most of its online stories.

And not surprisingly, a few of the paper’s readers decided to weigh in on Jimmy Quayle’s alleged “indecision 2010.”

From one P&C reader:

Jim,

It’s time to go the private sector my friend. You’ve been the Republican Majority Leader in Columbia during a time of “feast and now famine”. The famine in my view is a direct result of irresponsible “liberal republicans” in Columbia who’ve literally enjoyed their liberal pork barrel spending shenanigans which have resulted in our not having “the rainy day fund” to now balance the budget. As a matter of fact this is the second major era of budget deficits this decade, the first following the bursting of the “dot com bubble” and the present one resulting from the bursting of the “real estate bubble”. In both cases, it is my opinion that disastrous consequences could have been avoided if the Republicans in the majority had conducted themselves in accordance with the GOP platform which clearly calls for personal responsibility, less government and lower taxes. This personal responsibility thing in my view applies to the “chiefs as well as the indians” my friend. The GOP majority has clearly failed “we the people”. I’m sorry to say this because on a personal level, you’re a very likeable guy. However you have not made a difference in Columbia. GO TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR NOW. As a matter of fact most of you guys in the General Assmembly SHOULD GO TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR NOW!!

Ouch …

Of course the irony there is that most of the people we elect to public office in this state would get chewed up and spit out by the private sector.

Merrill’s political consulting firm, Geechie Communications, is a perfect example of a company that’s stayed in business almost exclusively because of its founder’s position as Majority Leader (as opposed to its capabilities).

Anyway, we were also intrigued by Merrill’s assertion that he wasn’t a “super-duper follower.”

He’s right … the term is “fluffer.”

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