Peeler Plays The Blame Game … Badly

When he’s not posing for ridiculous photographs outside of the S.C. State House, Senate “Majority” Leader Harvey Peeler is voting in lockstep with the liberal RINOcrat caucus inside the building.

In the ongoing battle between conservative reformers like Sen. Tom Davis and big government backers like Sen. Hugh Leatherman, Peeler had long been viewed as a “swing vote,” one of a handful of Senators who could potentially change the direction of this state.

Of course, as they say in Peeler’s hometown of Gaffney, S.C. he’s “done swung” … and swung the wrong way, sadly.

But as much as we disagree with Peeler turning himself into a tall, redneck version of Arlen Specter, that’s his business.

He has the right to vote however he wants to.

And besides, it appears there’s little risk in it coming back to haunt him seeing as South Carolina Republicans are too stupid to figure out now badly they’re getting played by all these Dems in disguise.

Anyway, where we draw the line with Peeler is when he tries to blame the utter lack of accomplishment of the First Session of the 118th General Assembly on one freshman Senator.

Like he did over the weekend in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal:

Peeler said the Senate also spent too much time debating a joint resolution reaffirming the state’s rights under the 10th Amendment. Sen. Lee Bright, R-Roebuck, was the primary sponsor, although Peeler signed on as a co-sponsor.

“If you want to point at one legislative issue that gummed up the works, that was it,” Peeler said. “It’s discouraging that Sen. Bright insisted on that. We attempted some amendments that would have made it more palatable to the body, but it was all or nothing with him.”

Bright said the proposed changes, however, made the resolution unpalatable to him – including one, he said, that would have given the state the “right” to accept the stimulus funds. He said some senators wanted to “pass a watered-down bill and declare victory.”

“Senator Peeler is the majority leader, and nothing was accomplished,” Bright said. “If he wants to blame the failure to move one bill that was introduced Feb. 12 on a freshman senator, that’s his prerogative.”

Wow.

Lee Bright 1, Harvey Peeler 0.

Seriously, people … we know what really happened to the minuscule amount of “conservative” legislation that actually made it in the vicinity of a vote this year. Republicans cut and run – by cutting a deal with the Democrats.

But Peeler’s attack on Bright is telling.

It shows that the RINO wing of the GOP – while still firmly in control in Columbia – is starting to fear the consequences of its actions. Or in this case, its inaction.

These left-leaning “Republicans” know that they can spin their way out of failing to advance fiscally conservative legislation – after all, they’ve been doing that for years. But this year they expanded the scope of their failure by dropping the ball on an election reform bill pushed by party activists – as well as a 24-hour ultrasound bill favored by pro-lifers.

By our count, that’s three constituencies these “Republicans” have alienated over deal-making with Democrats that betrayed their core interests.

Add those up and what do you get? Easy … a bunch of nervous RINOcrats in need of a scapegoat.

Enter Lee Bright.

In fact, we saw the beginning of this “blame game” strategy at work last week when liberal La Socialista (a.k.a. The State newspaper) took after Bright for “killing” a pro-life bill.

Of course the problem with that story – which FITS has since learned was leaked by Senate staff – is that Bright actually revived a bill that was already dead, only to see it get killed again by Senate President Glenn McConnell and six other Republicans.

Clearly, though, this freshman Senator has found himself squarely in the RINOcrat crosshairs.

Here’s the thing, though – with nineteen Democratic votes and fifteen “Republican” votes, the RINOcrat majority easily owns a two-thirds majority of the S.C. Senate that it can call upon on virtually any tally.

That’s why blaming one of the dozen or so actual Republicans in the Senate for “gumming up the works” is not only misleading, it’s logically impossible.

Conservative reformers can’t gum up anything – they don’t have the votes.

Don’t expect the truth to get in the way of Peeler’s “blame game,” though. After all, these RINOcrats need a scapegoat, and it appears they’ve found one in Lee Bright …

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