Thin Skin

In the battle to get S.C. Republicans to act like Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler is your classic fence-sitter.

He’s a finger-in-the-wind, do-just-enough-to-get-by, fifty percent Republican.

Sure, he’s not a full-fledged “D” like Hugh Leatherman, Billy O’Dell or Luke Rankin (all “former” Democrats), but his consistent acquiescence to South Carolina’s failed status quo is every bit as instrumental in holding our state back.

He’s lukewarm … and we all know what happens to “lukewarm,” don’t we?

Anyway, in spite of his inability to consistently stand for the principles of the party he purports to lead, we’ve never lumped Peeler into the “Thin-Skinned Caucus” (currently chaired by House Speaker Bobby Harrell).

At least not until we learned of his response to some anonymous letter that was sent to his constituents in Cherokee County.

Apparently the letter had to do with a charter school bill, and apparently Peeler didn’t appreciate its contents.

From the TNN (Tompkins News Network):

For whoever sent out the letter, they seem to have made a mistake as to how it would be taken.

“Let me give you some information, my constituents, my supporters of the charter school district. My daddy told me, ‘Son, you better quit crying, or I’m going to give you something to cry about.’ I don’t know who sent this, but it worked,” Peeler said. “I got these in my office today from my constituents. Let me tell you, my constituents, my supporters of the charter school district, whoever sent this, has brought you the biggest enemy you’ve ever had. You have an enemy now. You didn’t before, but you’ve got one now. I ask you to ferret out who sent you this, and we can sit down and talk about it. But, I want the person to be man enough, or woman enough, person enough, to come to me and tell me they sent this, and try to explain to me why they sent it. But, I don’t know what they were trying to accomplish. Something tells me, it accomplished just the opposite.”

Uhhh … what?

To paraphrase, Harvey Peeler only wants his constituents to send him “happygrams.” In fact, based on what we know of the man, he prefers “really happygrams,” you know, the kind with lipstick smudges and nudie pics.

Seriously, though. This is ridiculous.

Harvey Peeler is a grown man. His constituents are grown men and women. There’s no need for anybody to start crying.

And for that matter, there’s no need for anybody to “go Godfather” here, either.

We have no clue what this bill does or why these Cherokee parents are so pissed off about it, but Peeler’s response is ridiculous.

Sadly, it’s also emblematic of how the vast majority of the S.C. General Assembly responds to criticism.

Ask any brown-nosed lobbyist at the State House and they’ll tell you – unless you’re kissing their asses, lawmakers don’t want to hear it.