Another State House Spitball Fight

GOP LAWMAKERS BATTLE OVER STAFFER’S “FREELANCING”

|| By FITSNEWS || We’re not “Republicans,” so we don’t really care about the various rules the GOP imposes upon itself.  We know the GOP makes a big deal about Ronald Reagan‘s so-called “Eleventh Commandment,” which holds that “thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

How funny …

These days it’s hard to find a “Republican” worth saying anything good about.

Anyway, South Carolina is a solidly “Republican” state – although that’s essentially a meaningless designation (seeing as the GOP has continued to run the Palmetto State into the ground every bit as effectively as Democrats did).

Which makes the drama that takes place between Palmetto politicians political drama … not real drama.

To that end, relations between the S.C. House of Representatives and State Senate have always been contentious.  The two chambers don’t work well together – at all.  In fact the only significant legislation passed this year requiring cooperation among the leadership from each respective chamber was a domestic violence bill.

One that – like its authors – accomplished very little.

Now comes word that a GOP House Caucus staffer – who some would say ought to be worrying about House members – is helping the  primary opponent run against S.C. Senator Tom Corbin.

Obviously we have zero use for Corbin.  We would encourage anyone who is interested to enter next spring’s GOP primary and take him on.

Virtually every “Republican” in Columbia, S.C. deserves to be challenged … but none more than Corbin.

One prominent Upstate attorney – John White – is doing just that.  In fact our sources tell us White’s rumored bid to unseat the misogynist lawmaker is being aided by S.C. House GOP caucus staffer Chris Slick – an arrangement which has some in the State House shaking their heads.

“If you work for a party you work for a party,” one lawmaker who is offended by the arrangement told us.  “It would be hard to believe (House GOP caucus director) Charles Cannon would okay something like this.  He should know better.”

Slick’s campaign gig has reportedly increase animosity between the two chambers, raising the ire of irascible S.C. Senate “majority” leader Harvey Peeler, among others.

To be clear, Slick is a contract employee.  He’s not paid by taxpayers.  And last time we checked, he can work for whomever he pleases.  But we’ve been informed that S.C. House “majority” leader Bruce Bannister has instituted a new rule for staff saying that no freelancing is allowed.

You know … from now on.

Those familiar with this race tell us S.C. Rep. Gary Clary is behind these maneuvers.  Years ago Clary scored a plum judgeship thanks to his crony, former S.C. Speaker of the House David Wilkins.  After racking up some nice judicial retirement, he was elected to the House.

Even before this latest internal squabble, Clary was neither liked nor trusted by most of the House members we speak with (including those in leadership posts).  In fact one of his colleagues intimated to us that the Pickens, S.C. politician is “not really a Republican” (hardly a distinguishing mark in a chamber full of left-leaning lawmakers).

Clary is one of White’s closest advisors – and he reportedly pushed to keep Slick “on the team” when Bannister balked at the moonlighting arrangement.

Again, we think all of these GOP rules are silly … but Clary has reportedly made a lot of new enemies in the aftermath of this dust-up.  Not to mention fired up the familiar “House versus Senate” acrimony.

Filing for legislative races opens next March.  Personally, we look forward to seeing additional feathers ruffled in the run-up to that date.

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