S.C. Chief Justice Jean Toal (a.k.a. “Queen Jean”) has been beating a path to the State House this week, groveling before state lawmakers as she faces a credible challenger to her reign over the state’s judicial branch of government.
Is that undignified? Of course it is … but that’s just what happens when the legislative branch is allowed to select candidates for judicial races (and then vote on those candidates).
Associate Supreme Court justice Costa Pleicones has mounted a bid to unseat Toal – an effort that has gathered a good bit more support than we anticipated it would.
According to a S.C. House member who spoke with FITS on condition of anonymity, Toal and Pleicones both have approximately forty votes in the S.C. House – with the remaining 44 members undecided. In the S.C. Senate, Toal is doing better – received the support of close to thirty of the chamber’s forty-six members.
If all 170 members of the S.C. General Assembly were to vote in the election, the winning candidate would need to capture the support of 86 lawmakers to win election.
What precipitated this battle?
Well, Pleicones is furious with Toal for reneging on her promise not to seek another term as chief justice (a story which broke exclusively on FITS). Toal had reportedly agreed to step down and give Pleicones a brief tenure as chief justice prior to his retirement, but then abruptly went back on her word.
Once among the most powerful political figures in the state, Toal has seen her influence wane in recent years. In fact earlier this year she was dealt a humiliating defeat by lawmakers – who narrowly rejected her hand-picked selection for an at-large family court seat.
“People no longer fear the wrath from her,” the lawmaker told us. “They know they can defy her without consequence.”
A longtime liberal (like most recent “Republican” S.C. Supreme Court appointees), Toal has repeatedly demonstrated her susceptibility to corruption – as evidenced by the infamous 2007 bar exam scandal (broken exclusively by FITS) as well as the ongoing shadiness demonstrated by her attorney discipline office.
She’s also been involved in several traffic incidents allegedly involving alcohol …
31 comments
Now THAT’S A FACE only a mother could love.
Assuming her mommy is dead, she’s probably pretty lonely.
Poster child for birth control.
Is it me or are her ears really long… I mean reeeeeeeeeallllllly long. Or is it just that fashion forward hair do that’s rendering the effect?
No, you are correct. She has weird ears. It’s kind like a weird mish-mash of man face, elf/spock ears, & dyke hair.
Almost like a retarded hermaphrodite gay gelfling or something along those lines.
They sort of resemble a couple old worn out vajayjays.
The only “close call” here is it male or female? Ala “PAT” from Saturday Night Live skits— Jean/Gene…??
She offered to be a face donor, but they turned her down. She’s so ugly, she hands out whistles to construction workers. She was at the beauty for four hours shop…that was just for the estimate. Bazinga.
A face so ugly, neither Travis nor Rudy Eugene would eat it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_(chimpanzee)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_cannibal_attack
Are we sure that is not Lou Holtz in a wig?
That’s been extremely kind, she looks more like Captain Lou in a wig.
News flash: Pleicones was also on the SC Supreme Court for the 2007 bar exam fiasco. He was the one who was “vexed” by the questioning of the incident.
Pleicones and the other justices were lied to by Toal and Shearouse. At a little meeting of the justices, Toal said something to the effect, “And, oh yeah, there was an error in the grading of the bar exam. We fixed it.” That was all the other justices knew about it. Then she continued to lie to them. Ask the insiders. They can’t wait to get rid of Toal – and Shearouse.
Toal is a low life vindictive person.
I have no doubt she has influenced the outcome of trials and especially divorces, in which she had an interest.
Toal is smart, underhanded, controlling and meaner than hells fury! A dangerous and very bad combination!
“Toal is smart, underhanded, controlling and meaner than hells fury!”
Oh, I’m sure alcohol tempers all that.
I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
It’s sure cheaper than therapy.
I’d rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy.
-Tom Waits
Wonder if she keeps a bottle in her desk?
Smell that? You smell that?
What?
Roasting Cockroach. Nothing else in the world smells like that –
Jesus, I do love the smell of a cockroach roasting over an open fire
Someday, not tomorrow, not next year but soon all the scurrying little sons of bitches will roast
McConnell’s and Knotts’ political careers are toast, Harrell is in the over and Toal is on the table being salted and peppered as we write
Yep, there is nothing like the smell of a Cockroach roasting-
Getting rid of Jake Knotts was huge blow to her power base. The first election after Sen Pro Tem McConnel carved out a very safe seat for Knotts in 2010 redistricting, he blew it all over blocking a bill to allow late filers on the ballot. With Courson in as Sen Pro Tempore with Attorney General Alan Wilson’s phony resurrection of the Ard ethics violations forcing McConnell to resign fifteen months into his term as Sen Pro Tempore after Ard resigned March 2012, the Lt Gov seat would be vacant for an unprecedented thirty-three months. The length of time nullified any attempt by McConnell to stay in using the 1968 24 month vacancy precedent. Wilson put Courson in charge as Sen Pro Temp, a Richland County resident. Courson will use the 1968 precedent to not step up as Lt Gov citing the 2014 election timetable when McConnell resigns.
All of that sets up this. Wilson’s office will indict Harrell forcing him to step down as Speaker with a real possibility of electing Speaker Pro Tempore Jay Lucas, a congressman from Leatherneck’s neck of the woods in as Speaker putting Lexington’s Kenny Bingham a heartbeat away as Speaker assuming he is not elected to replace Harrel. The consolidation of power would be complete shutting out the upstate and the low country as power brokers. With a Vince Sheheen as Gov, his Daddy was Speaker, will put all state power of two branches under Midlands control. With the election of Toal this year by Courson, Bingham, and Sheheen, forcing out Pleicones, they could elect their own candidate when Toal must retire. This would give Lexington, Richland, Kershaw, and Leatherneck total control over all three branches.
What they do with this power is another story. However you slice it though, AG Wilson and his Rep Joe are a new family dynasty in SC politics as they have become kingmakers using the AG’s office. Good for all involved! We need fresh leadership to get our state moving again. Just sayin….
Vince’s Uncle Bob was speaker. Fred is his daddy.
Close enough. Camden is a very well knit town that has produced leaders in commerce, law, and academia.
A bunch of BS containing so many glaring errors its laughable.Pretty good example of good ol SC paranoia though.
If not Wilson and Courson et. al. behind Ard’s re-investigation, then who? Harpootlian? For Chief Justice Toal to change her mind, she must be in on this as well.
Request: Could we make Columbia Metropolitan Airport into a Jet Port for commerce and small landing craft, link a rail line to the Free Trade Zone across the street, widen Airport Blvd all the way to Harden St and build a spanking new “Spurrier(any name here)” International Airport in the Pelion, Gaston area linked to passenger train lines and connected by a new connector I-520 from I-77 exit one wrapping around to the new International Airport to I-20 weigh station at Calks Ferry? The old Owens Field will become the new loading, unloading grand central station platform linking passenger trains to Columbia from Charleston, MB, Hilton Head, the new International Airport, Orangeburg, Irmo to name a few.
Hey FITS, why don’t you add a poll to this site so the voters in SC can vote for either of these candidates?
Toal the troll, is even politicking the House without a stashed fifth of Wild Turkey in her purse, that’s how tight the race is.
CITIMORTGAGE CLOSES FORT MILL, SC FORECLOSURE UNIT, SELLS MORTGAGE SERVICING RIGHTS TO FANNIE MAE
Citigroup Inc., is cutting 950 jobs in default mortgage servicing after selling foreclosure business to Fannie Mae.
The bank agreed to sell servicing rights “collection rights” and the right to foreclosure on about 64,000 Fannie Mae residential first-mortgage loans and sold the foreclosure rights back to Fannie Mae The loans had an unpaid principal balance of about $10.3 billion
The dismissals include 200 in Fort Mill, South Carolina, and about 50 in Hagerstown, Maryland, CitiMortgage is shuttering its default-servicing operations in those two locations, The CitiMortgage servicing unit was responsible for foreclosures.
An additional 600 job cuts may occur by year-end in Hagerstown, with another 180 in Fort Mill.
Citigroup paid Fannie Mae to limit its liability related to the Foreclosure servicing. The deal “substantially resolved pending and future compensatory fee claims related to Citi’s Foreclosure servicing practices on these loans.
The sale includes the loans in Foreclosure and serviced by Citigroup for Fannie Mae and represents almost 20 percent of the loans serviced by the firm that are 60 days or more past due. The transfer will begin immediately.
CitiMortgage no longer has the right to foreclose on the Fannie Mae owned loans.
Go to hell, you god damn drunk driver!!!!
CITIMORTGAGE PAYS FANNIE MAE TO TAKE FORECLOSURE RIGHTS ON LOANS ALREADY OWNED BY FANNIE MAE
Effort marks Citi’s move to shed potential liability over foreclosure practices
Regulatory requirements have made it difficult for CitiMortgage to foreclose on and service the FANNIE MAE OWNED LOANS.
Citigroup PAID Fannie Mae to limit its liability related to the Foreclosure servicing. The deal “substantially resolved pending and future compensatory fee claims related to Citi’s Foreclosure practices on these loans. Compensatory fees typically refer additional fees Fannie Mae may choose to levy on CitiMortgage when certain set standards are not met.
Compensatory fees can be assessed for delays in the Foreclosure process, late filing of a final request for reimbursement, and other foreclosure and timeline-related matters.
CITIMORTGAGE NO LONGER HAS FORECLOSURE RIGHTS
CITI sells the rights to foreclose on behalf of Fannie Mae, about 64,000 defaulted mortgages
Citi agreed to sell foreclosure rights “collection rights” and the right to foreclosure on about 64,000 Fannie Mae owned residential first-mortgage loans and sold the foreclosure rights back to Fannie Mae The loans had an unpaid principal balance of about $10.3 billion. The unusual transaction was announced, with Citi reaching a definitive agreement with Fannie Mae. The sale includes delinquent loans serviced by CitiMortgage for Fannie Mae. Nearly all of the loans transfered are in foreclosure or are delinquent.
Compensatory fees can be assessed for delays in the Foreclosure process, late filing of a final request for reimbursement, and other foreclosure and timeline-related matters.
The job losses include 200 in Fort Mill, South Carolina, and about 50 in Hagerstown, Maryland, CitiMortgage is shuttering its Foreclosure default-servicing operations in those two locations, the CitiMortgage servicing unit was responsible for foreclosures.
CITI shutters foreclosure default mortgage service unit near Fort Mill, S.C
Fannie Mae — helps provide money for the U.S. housing market by buying residential mortgages and packaging pools of those loans for sale to investors
Toal is off the chain. She is obsessed with her “legacy” and as somebody wrote on the other story, her own self-glorification. She is hiding so much she cannot permit Pleicones to get to the real admin files. She knows that Beatty and Hearn will cover her, but now, Pleicones will not. There are many lawyer-legislators who are afraid of Toal and her vindictiveness. The rest are feeling the heat from the masses as to why do “they” – the legislators keep letting her get away with so much? Pleicones is an honest gentleman and will restore some dignity to the SC Supreme Court – even if Beatty and Hearn continue to play politics. Kittridge is a non-issue. Hiring Coble has hurt Toal. He’s a has-been like Knotts. He has no respect at the State House.