In the pantheon of South Carolina political sex scandals, there has never – and will never – be anything quite like the William Timmons’ affair. That’s not because Timmons is remotely interesting (he isn’t) or because the circumstances surrounding his alleged dalliance are unique (they aren’t).
Politicians cheat on their spouses all the time … and my longstanding policy is to refrain from caring unless there are improperly appropriated tax dollars, violations of the public trust or glaring hypocrisies mixed in with the extramarital boot-knocking.
Remember, this story only saw the light of day because Timmons issued an unsolicited public statement to my news outlet … quite possibly as part of some sort of interpersonal self-sabotage.
Who knows …
Whatever Timmons’ motivation may have been for publicly addressing the affair, his scandal is all the rage in Greenville, S.C. No thanks to him, though.
The credit for that goes exclusively to real estate developer Ron Rallis – the husband of the congressman’s alleged lover, socialite Paula Dhier.
Rallis has quite simply willed this saga into the Palmetto State’s media consciousness – using social media and performance art as his weapons of choice. Last Friday, Rallis sat with me for his first extended video interview on the Timmons scandal – a conversation which took place inside a west Greenville church he painted pink the night before our arrival.
We previewed this interview in our latest ‘Week in Review’ segment on Saturday, but today we are dropping the full, unedited interview …
Enjoy!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
(Via: FITSNews)
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children. And yes, he has LOTS of hats (including that old school Toronto Blue Jays’ lid pictured above).
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