After initially promising to provide documentation for her bizarre claim regarding drug use among job applicants at the Savannah River Site (SRS), S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley has now totally backed down from her controversial comments.
“I’ve never felt like I had to back up what people tell me,” the embattled governor told reporter Jim Davenport of the Associated Press (one of her few remaining ‘go-to guys’ in the local lamestream media).
“You assume that you’re given good information,” Haley continued. “And now I’m learning through (the press) that I have to be careful before I say something.”
Last Thursday, Haley told a Rotary Club in Lexington, S.C. that half of the people who applied for jobs at the U.S. Department of Energy facility failed a drug test … while the other half were illiterate.
“Down on River Site, they were hiring a few hundred people, and when we sat down and talked to them – this was back before the campaign – when we sat down and talked to them, they said of everybody they interviewed, half of them failed a drug test, and of the half that was left, of that 50 percent, the other half couldn’t read and write properly,” Haley told the group.
The only problem with that statement (other than the fact it violated Haley’s “speak no ill of SC” rule)?
It was patently false.
“Half the people who applied for a job last year or year 2009 did not fail the drug test,” an SRS spokesman told The Huffington Post – the website which first broke the story. “At the peak of hiring under the Recovery Act we had less than 1 percent of those hired test positive.”
The spokesman added that SRS doesn’t even drug test applicants – it only tests those people it winds up hiring.
Haley’s office refused to respond to the Post‘s request for comment, but on September 10 Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey told a local paper – The Aiken Standard – that the governor stood by her statements and would be providing documentation for her claim.
“The statistics came from an SRS contractor who was involved in hiring folks working on the site,” Godfrey told the paper a week ago. “It has been reaffirmed that they had a significant failure rate — for both reading and writing and drug testing — from applicants in South Carolina counties, and the actual numbers will be delivered to us next week.”
Of course Godfrey was nowhere to be found a week later – and phone calls from the paper on September 17 “seeking clarification on whether actual statistics ever existed and the identity of the personnel who Haley said she met with” were not returned.
Now, Haley is telling the Associated Press that the man who made the statement can’t back it up.
“Now they’re all backing off saying it,” Haley told the AP. “Now they don’t have the backup.”
How convenient, right?
Meanwhile, adding a “government transparency” wrinkle to this latest Haley debacle, The Aiken Standard quoted an SRS official as saying that the record of email exchanges between the governor’s office and the U.S. Department of Energy were “being kept private.”
Sheesh … is this the most incompetent, hypocritical administration this state has ever seen or what?
Obviously this isn’t the first time Haley has been caught in a lie. In fact, “Trikki Nikki” been caught fibbing so many times since taking office (click here, here, here, here, here and here for a few examples) that she’s actually managed to make our attention-starved founding editor seem credible by comparison. And when Haley isn’t lying, she’s flip-flopping, obfuscating or attempting to bury the truth – all of which runs counter to her “transparency” promises.
Haley’s aversion to the truth might be marginally more palatable if she were living up to her “Tea Party” roots, but she’s been a disaster on that front as well – approving multiple bailouts, doling out exorbitant raises to her staff and signing off on the largest spending plan in state history.
The missteps are taking their toll, too.
According to a Public Policy Polling survey released earlier this month, only 41 percent of South Carolina voters approve of the job Haley is doing. Meanwhile 43 percent disapprove. Needless to say those are awful numbers for a politician who hasn’t even been on the job for a year.
Haley has also had several major missteps since that poll was released. Most notably, she responded to a devastating report in the state’s largest newspaper by referring to the reporter who wrote it as a “little girl.” She’s also seen the state’s unemployment rate climb above 11 percent – and was busted skipping two days of work to take her staff on an exclusive retreat.
How low can Nikki go?
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By cash September 19, 2011 at 4:43 pm
It is said that you grow up to become one of your parents…sometimes both. I am surely glad I have honest parents.
By Sam Spence September 19, 2011 at 4:56 pm
The real question is, even IF the applicants were testing positive or were illiterate (an embarrassing claim to make about workers of the state you’re responsible for, as governor), what’s the point she was making? Was it about drug reform, drug treatment, or literacy programs? No, it was about trying to put a check beside a Nikki Haley political agenda item in mandatory drug tests, not fixing a drug problem that’s (allegedly) so rampant that HALF of an agency’s applicants rested positive.
And to give her even more of the benefit of the doubt, if there were some kind of associated treatment program for those who were unemployed AND tested positive for drugs when applying for welfare, that would probably be an easier pill (illegal and non-Rx, of course) to swallow and to pass politically, but that hasn’t been a part of the discussion, as far as I know.
By Krazy Kat September 19, 2011 at 4:58 pm
It’s always someone else’s fault.
By cash September 19, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Pathogical lying disorder all the way. The mentally ill often do not realize their need for help.
By Sam Spence September 19, 2011 at 5:03 pm
To be clear, she did start the drug testing portion in the context of ‘training,’ but then began talking about it as a political agenda item further in the video (http://bit.ly/r9VZ4f)
(It’s also a little strange to automatically tie the alleged drug problem to unskilled workers in need of job training, but that’s a whole other issue…)
By Cid September 19, 2011 at 5:33 pm
When will Nikki and that other goofball friend of hers Michelle Bachmann reveal their mysterious sources
Her own staff has revealed that Michelle sometimes
“makes things up” ie LIES
What’s your excuse Nikki?
By eggaday September 19, 2011 at 5:43 pm
the governot is free to say anything she wants to say. we the little people won’t ever believe her from this point forward anyway. the press however is a different story. they’ll buy her story hook line and sinker and write her a “beautiful” article.
By rick September 19, 2011 at 6:07 pm
The children of the 41% of South Carolinians who approve of the job Haley is doing are the reason our SAT scores are what they are. Dumb breeds dumber. Argue that Tea Partiers.
By Cid September 19, 2011 at 6:11 pm
I’m waiting for “t” to show up and begin his defense of Haleys latest silliness
You know
“not that I support Haley but….”
By Man Dingo September 19, 2011 at 6:12 pm
That doesn’t make her opponents any smarter. Correlation is not causation.
I personally don’t care about the SAT scores. The serfs who like being stupid should be permitted to stay that way. Less competition for me.
By TJ September 19, 2011 at 6:15 pm
You turn in a research paper in any classroom which includes a statistic that is not credited and verified, and the teacher or professor will rip you a new one. Say any fool thing you want as an elected official and you expect to get away with it. Why are students held to a higher standard than our elected officials?
To paraphrase what Captain Walter Henry James said about Winston Churchill, “Haley couldn’t have gone through Clemson- she must have gone under it.” (See, Nikki, that’s how it’s done…)
By smackatee September 19, 2011 at 6:17 pm
I don’t understand the logic of “I want big government out of people’s private lives” then call for government drug testing of private citizens. you can’t reconcile those two statements.
By costcutter September 19, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Her confidence in the state’s labor pool really helps in recruiting industry. Why are her children not attending school in the area where they reside? It would certainly save wear and tear on SLED vehicles and the gas they consume in transporting the children.
By Torch September 19, 2011 at 6:39 pm
I’ll go for her test if we test elected offials (like Thomas Ravenel)and conceled weapons permit holders. Other than that, a waste of money and very costly for taxpayers.
By Media Whiz September 19, 2011 at 7:19 pm
Nikki is on Huffpost again, this time about HPV for SC. She is getting scorched again, poor baby.
By Ransome Williams September 19, 2011 at 7:36 pm
Bring back the old Davenport…someone who really cared about the FACTS !!
By Old Bike Dude September 19, 2011 at 7:54 pm
I repeat the challenge. She can drug test everybody in the fucking Congo, if only she agrees to a public polygraph for herself, her staff, and the senate. What you say Nim?
By Sick of Pandering September 19, 2011 at 7:58 pm
What color is the sky in Nikki’s world??
By jimlewis,owb September 19, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Governor Haley is from a Galaxy called Botog. There is no sky in Botog just space, a whole lot of space.
In Botog there is only one industry and that is Bologna.
Governor Haley is a Bologna Expert. That is way she has traveled from Botog to Earth. She is here to show us Earthlings what Bologna really looks like.
In fact if you spell Haley backwards, it spells Bologna.
By merck man September 19, 2011 at 8:41 pm
did nikki get a gardisil shot and go plum retardo on us?
By Todd September 19, 2011 at 8:55 pm
I did her. She couldn’t lie when her mouth was full of Todd!
By courier72 September 19, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Guv, beware of spouting off sound bites…
By Sccoopster September 19, 2011 at 11:47 pm
RUT RO RAGGY!!!!!!!
By Andy September 20, 2011 at 5:29 am
Until now my criticism of Nikki has been half serious, half tongue in cheek. It now changes to all serious.
“I never felt like I had to back up what people tell me. You assume that you are given good information. And now I’m learning that you have to be careful before you say something”.
Are you shitting me? This is our governor? Did she ever go to middle school? We are in deeper shit than I thought we were.
By Boz Martin September 20, 2011 at 7:07 am
The WORST governor ever in the state of South Carolina. And that’s really saying something.
By Sam September 20, 2011 at 7:35 am
This has gotten out of hand. She should resign and at the least apologize to the citizens of South Carolina for being such a total joke.
By Are you shittin' me? September 20, 2011 at 8:27 am
This is so ridiculous that I have no idea what to say. Does she have any type of education or is she just that dumb? Maybe she needs to be drug tested.
By Huhhh??? September 20, 2011 at 9:26 am
Sic, this is what I want to know:
Did you always know that, despite being sly & conniving, Nikki is really not terribly bright?
Did you always know that she is a pathological liar? If not, how did you miss it?
Did you think these flaws were so minor in a governor that you could just ignore them and endorse and support her candidacy anyway? Why?
Republicans used to be the party of character, is the Libertarian branch you, Tom Davis, Greg Ryberg and others support really just the libertine branch?
By cash September 20, 2011 at 10:19 am
In one word…tacky. Just another velvet Elvis.
By ceilidh10 September 20, 2011 at 10:23 am
Haley is a fool
By cash September 20, 2011 at 10:40 am
Regardless of everything that has happened, she needs professional help. Things will only get worse.
By cash September 20, 2011 at 10:46 am
Used to love SNL. Jane, you ignorant slut!
By norman September 20, 2011 at 12:48 pm
I don’t get it, the DoE folks are federal and not under any state mandates. The contractors are required to operate under DoE rules and regulations. What business is it of the Gov. to get involved in the federal governments hiring on the govt. owned site? Is it fool or stupid?
By Uther Pendragon September 20, 2011 at 1:37 pm
What? I thought I was supposed to steer the ship of state towards the rocks. Someone gave me bad information.
By cash September 20, 2011 at 3:21 pm
Nikki, Christina, and Michelle give female pols. a really bad reputation. I am not a Hillary fan, but at least she is not an embarrassment to her gender.
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