PARTY ACCUMULATES $300,000 DEBT OVER BALLOT ISSUE
Its politicians like to rail against deficit spending … but the South Carolina Republican Party itself has had to borrow more than $300,000 this year to cover legal fees associated with this year’s flood of ballot-related lawsuits.
For those of you who’ve already forgotten this lesson in ass-backward democracy, we’re referring of course to”Ballot-mageddon” – this year’s mass purge of the state’s 2012 primary ballot over the failure of several hundred candidates to fill out their paperwork properly.
We’re the ones who broke this story, by the way … although we had no idea at the time just what a can of worms we were opening.
Anyway, did the SCGOP get value for its investment?
Umm …. not so much.
Not only did hardly any of the party’s primary candidates get reinstated to the ballot, but their lead attorney Kevin Hall was roundly rebuked by the S.C. Supreme Court for his lack of honesty on behalf of the party.
“We’re disappointed in you and your client,” S.C. Chief Justice Jean Toal told Hall. “We feel you’ve let us down in terms of being straight with the court.”
Another Justice said he was “sorely disappointed” in Hall, and accused him of “insulting the intelligence” of the court.
Of course Hall is laughing all the way to the bank now, isn’t he? Yup. In fact his firm is set to receive the lion’s share of this borrowed cash – on top of the tens of thousands of dollars it received prior to the ballot drama as a “retainer.”
How much do they stand to pocket? SCGOP executive director Matt Moore did not respond to our requests for comment, but one of our moles at the party says that Hall’s firm will make “upwards of a quarter million” from the SCGOP this year.
Ah, “Republicans.”
In contrast to all this wasteful spending, the S.C. Democratic Party managed to avoid incurring serious legal costs associated with the ballot drama. How did they manage to do that? For starters, Democrats didn’t try to play fast and loose with the truth – at least not on this issue. Also, SCDP chairman Dick Harpootlian’s firm provided the party with extensive legal assistance for free.
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21 comments
I really like the picture of an elephant wallowing in the mud. It just speaks volumes of the state of the GOP at the national, state and local levels. Lexington, Charleston and Horry Counties immediately come to mind in conjunction with recent stories on this website. Yet, next month we will dutifully go to the polls and cast our ballots and prove just what the pundits say: ‘South Carolina is as red as a baboons ass,’. Now, cue Big T to come here and say what a socialist I am. No one is so blind as he that refuses to see. God forgive us, for we know not what we do………
The State GOP got dealt a terrible hand in all of this. Most of the legal fees were spent defending the county parties.
Where are the Governor and other party leaders in helping? No where to be seen- because the Legislature and Governor were complicit in this mess from the start – by passing a law without thinking it through. I don’t see how Chad Connelly sleeps at night dealing with that Columbia circus.
The SCGOP have their shit as together as the Keystone cops.
The SC Supreme Court overlooked its Anderson and Florence decisions to allow Paul Thurmond, a corrupt politician who didn’t satisfy the Court’s criteria, to “win” the republican primary for senate district 41.
In a 3-2 decision, Toal wrote the majority opinion.
She’s as ethically bankrupt as the elephant in that picture is muddy.
And Thurmond’s campaign theme? “Democrats conspired against me.”
Vote Tinkler.
Bring back Karen Floyd!
So Democrats do believe in volunteerism? Yea, K-Flo could have done just as well if not better with the SC Supremes as K-Hall did.
Obama put us $16 Trillion in debt….Fighting the states so he can CHEAT democrats into offie to spend more…
And FITS is A-OK w/ that….
Nice try, FITS…
once again another fact free post from the village idiot..Obama hasnt added 16 trillion to the debt your fucking idiot..try doing some research Sarah. Are you so proud of your utter stupidity that you must scream it loudly every day?
T I’m no Obama fan but that is the cumulative debt of our government. Obama hasn’t helped it but come on man. Plus Republicans are responsible for roughly half of that debt….
Ok $6-plus Trillion in 3.5 years if that makes you Blithering Dumb@$$#$ feel any better….
And when $90 Billion goes to Solyndra and the sort…you have to be an imbecile to try to defend that…
Mr. BigT, Do your neurons and synapses still contain memory of the phrase “weapons of mass destruction”, “aluminum centrifuge tubes”, and “Iraq” all inside your head?
Bush, Cheney and George Tennant knew it was bad intelligence, but fed it to Colin Powell so well that he went to the UN and got a resolution for all of us to go to war.
The longest, costliest war in our history.
Cheney estimated in 2001 that the cost would be “Something under $50 billion.”
Cost to date: $3 trillion.
So yes, let’s blame Obama for getting us out of the war.
This is why it’s called “Bush’s War.”
….and Romney pledges to increase military spending by at least $2 trillion and idiots like Biggie get their panties all bunched up over 90 million? Hint: That’s a drop in the bucket, T
My bad, it was $527 million that taxpayers lent to the company, but either way, you have no arguement since 90 Billion is just a flat out lie. Look it up…nevermind, I briefly forgot who the fuck I was talking to.
“And when $90 Billion goes to Solyndra and the sort…you have to be an imbecile to try to defend that…”
You would have to be an imbecile to believe or say it’s true. God, how I love using your own words against you…
It looks like you’ve been served BigT.
Ignorance is bliss.
I’ll bet Jakie “Big Oink” Knotts is not on their Christmas lists now.
I don’t suppose BigT has noticed that Obama took office with a fiscal year already 4 months gone, and the annual deficit ended up being $1.41 trillion.
The next two years the annual deficit decreased to about $1.3 trillion, and the fiscal year just ended was down to $1.1 trillion.
Most reasonable observers would call that progress.
Fits,
Connely is an engineer. He can do some pro bono math for the shed the GOP
Is whipping Harp’s boys in.
Speaker Harrell should take his corrupt “super pac” and “bail out” the SCGOP. LOL
Easy solution to this problem: cut overhead. If you’re not working and pulling your own weight, get off the payroll.