Inside The Sellout

Earlier this year, we spoke with newly-elected S.C. Rep. Tim Scott after news broke of a major academic testing scandal down in his neck of the woods in Charleston, S.C.

He gave us some great quotes about these schools offering “false hope” to parents and students, and said he was interested in using his new position to bring some pressure to bear on the education establishment down there.

Nothing ever came of Scott’s promise, though, and in all honesty we had forgotten about the whole conversation until last week, when the S.C. House of Representatives convened for what should have been a routine organizational session.

It turned out to be anything but.

Very quickly, the week disintegrated into an all-out assault on government transparency as well as a petty,personal vendetta launched by House Speaker Bobby Harrell against a pair of fiscally conservative lawmakers whose only crime was speaking up for something they believe in.

Well, speaking up and permitting the governor to join them at a series of press conferences back in September to support their open government legislation.

Anyway, while Harrell was meting out his middle school … sorry, pre-school revenge against Reps. Nikki Haley and Nathan Ballentine, he was also rewarding those lawmakers who helped him pull off the playground coup.

For example … Tim Scott, who helped steer several key votes Harrell’s way and in return for his obedience was the only freshman lawmaker to be given a seat on the coveted House Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee. Incidentally, Scott’s sellout also helped pave the way for this guy to become Chairman of that committee, which we’re sure will make for some interesting discussions on race relations when lawmakers reconvene in January.

Not to mention some abysmal public policy.

Anyway, we had incredibly high hopes for Scott, but now we’re left with three troubling possibilities as to why he sold out everything he campaigned on within an hour of taking his oath of office.

Behind door number one is perhaps the scariest possibility – that everything this guy ran on was utter and complete bullsh*t, and that in his heart of hearts he’s really a Bobby Harrell Democrat who’s going to stick it to the taxpayers every chance he gets. We find it hard to believe someone would go as far out in support of conservative ideas as Scott did during his campaign, but it’s not like we haven’t seen it happen before.

Behind door number two is a theory advanced by our friends over at The Palmetto Scoop. This theory holds that Scott is an extraordinarily savvy politician who simply played the game better than others to get what he wanted. Sadly, while the juice may have been worth the squeeze for him on an individual level, he still empowered a corrupt legislative leader to inflict some lasting damage on the conservative cause.

More importantly, how do you trust a guy like that to protect the taxpayers moving forward? After all, there’s always another rung on the ladder, right? And who knows what he’ll cast aside the next time he decides to put himself first.

Behind door number three lies the possibility that Scott is really naive enough to be played by Harrell, although we highly doubt that is the case. We’ve actually had several conversations with him over the last few days and it’s pretty clear to us that he knew exactly “which end was up” throughout this whole process.

Whichever door you choose to explain Scott’s decisions, however, there’s disappointment waiting behind it.

As for Scott’s newly-elected colleagues, sources tell us that on the alleged “litmus test” vote of the session, Reps. Rita Allison, Derham Cole, Mike Forrester, Deborah Long, Joey Millwood, Steve Parker, Tommy Stringer and Bill Wylie all showed a willingness to stand up to Harrell’s machinations, although there’s some debate as to that vote’s true significance.

Either way, it goes without saying that several freshman joined Rep. Scott in punking out (at least initially) on the conservative beliefs they campaigned on, which ironically makes passing a comprehensive roll call voting bill even more critical this year.

We simply cannot allow these people to keep saying they’re for one thing and voting in secret for something else.

Also, we’d also like to send a special “punk out” award to fourth-term Rep. Jeff Duncan, who practically cuddled Harrell’s balls over the last few weeks to make sure that absolutely nothing jeopardized his ascension to the chairmanship of the House Agriculture Committee.

Well, now that you got what you wanted, Mr. Chairman, our advice to you would be to “stop stroking and start squeezing.”

Also earning a “punk out” is Beaufort Rep. Shannon Erickson, who has always talked a good game but for whatever reason seems to be there for Harrell whenever he needs her. In fact, we heard from more than a few people that she was shedding crocodile tears after completing her “fluffer apprenticeship” with the Speaker.

So who else is on Team Bobbycrat?

Well, we all know Majority Leader Kenny “Slick” Bingham, Jimmy “Two Face” Merrill and Annette “Dewar’s” Young represent the chief lieutenants in the Harrell mafia, and certainly Reps. Dan Cooper, Brian White, Joan Brady, Chip Limehouse and several others are so deep in Harrell’s pockets we might as well call them his “lint monkeys.”

Make no mistake, this will be the leadership team that attempts to shove a socialist jobs plan (and God only knows what other big government bullsh*t) down our throats this coming year.

Who will stand against them (and stand up for your wallet)?

Only time will tell.

As for Rep. Scott, he asked us to judge him on his record moving forward.

To which we can only say, “count on it.”

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