NAKED, HYPOCRITICAL PARTISANSHIP COULD UNDERMINE INVESTIGATION …
Three times (beginning last September) this website has challenged S.C. first circuit solicitor David Pascoe to broaden his ongoing investigation of alleged corruption at the S.C. State House to include members of the Palmetto State’s Democratic Party.
So far that hasn’t happened …
Now, Democratic party leaders – blind to rampant corruption within their own ranks – are rushing to politicize his probe for partisan gain.
That’s unfortunate, unnecessary … and potentially quite damaging to Pascoe’s efforts.
Such nakedly hypocritical politicking could severely undermine the integrity of this ongoing investigation – potentially allowing those within its crosshairs to evade accountability for their actions.
“Democrats … have started a crusade to brand the S.C. GOP as the party of corruption,” Avery Wilks of The (Columbia, S.C.) State reported this week.
According to Wilks, the goal of this crusade is to “turn the political tables in their favor.”
Is that an accurate assessment? Yes. Just hours after the indictment of long-serving “Republican” S.C. Senator John Courson, the Democratic party issued a statement from its chairman, Jaime Harrison, saying the GOP’s absolute power had “corrupted absolutely.
“Only Democrats can drain the Statehouse (sic) swamp,” Harrison said.
Really? Such a ridiculous statement is not only demonstrably false – it breathes new life into the pushback against Pascoe’s probe.
To be clear: This website is no friend to the GOP. We gave up on the party for good back in 2012 and have continued to blast its leaders for their ongoing hypocrisy on fiscal issues (at both the state and national level).
Having said that, this scandal isn’t about the GOP – it’s about the actions of one particular consulting firm that appears to have veered well out of bounds. For Democrats to brand corruption in the Palmetto State as an exclusively GOP affair is not only false, it advances an existing narrative that Pascoe is not a principled prosecutor but rather a partisan hack.
Partisanship is last thing this investigation needs … and the only thing those currently under Pascoe’s microscope have going for them in the court of public opinion.
Hence our repeated – yet unheeded – warnings to Pascoe, who has reportedly been provided with voluminous, damning information on a wide range of Democratic targets.
South Carolina is an overwhelmingly GOP state – and if Pascoe’s probe is perceived as a partisan witch hunt, then its credibility (and the credibility of the allegations it levels) will suffer.
In the Art of War, Sun Tzu advised generals never to interrupt their enemies when they were making mistakes. Or in the words of Napoleon Bonaparte: “When the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him.”
If Democrats truly wish for Pascoe to be successful in his efforts, they should heed that advice. Based on the reports we’ve heard, they would also be wise to remember the old adage about those who live in glass houses …
Finally, we would encourage Pascoe – for a fourth time – to expand his inquiry across party lines, or at the very least make clear he intends to refer cases involving Democratic officials to legislative ethics committees (at least one of which appears eager to start “draining the swamp” after years of inaction).
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