FIRST OF MANY CALLS ISSUED FOR SOUTH CAROLINA SPEAKER TO STEP DOWN
Well that didn’t take long …
With the ink barely dry on a nine-count public corruption indictment, the first calls for S.C. Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell to resign his office began rolling in.
The first came from Charleston County democratic party chairman Brady Quirk-Garvan …
“The charges against Speaker Harrell are very serious and could potentially result in jail time,” Quirk-Garvan said in a statement. “With these kinds of major distractions, it is now both impossible and inappropriate for Mr. Harrell to remain as Speaker of the House of Representatives and he should resign immediately.”
Expect a lot more of these in the days and weeks to come …
What about us? Shoot … we called on Harrell to resign last February.
“We call on Bobby Harrell to resign his office – immediately,” we wrote at the time. “South Carolina cannot permit yet another one of its high profile leaders to evade responsibility for lawlessness the way Nikki Haley did. For once, Harrell ought to stop acting in his own interests and take a step which will benefit the people of this state.”
UPDATE: S.C. Democratic Party chairman Jamie Harrison is calling on Harrell to step down, saying he “should resign from his role as Speaker of the House of Representatives and abide by state law as it relates to his suspension from the House of Representatives.”
17 comments
Imagine that, the Democrats want a Republican to resign.
Even better is Sic Willie actually thinks his “demands” count.
Let me grab my popcorn! For once, Nikki is right. It’s a great day in South Carolina.
Just read the indictment. It is thin, very thin. Harrell may survive.
Huh, I didn’t read it that way. You don’t include evidence in an indictment anyway. If there is solid evidence he falsely claimed personal expenses as campaign expenditures, he’s toast. If he falsely claimed his administrative assistant was working on his campaign when she was really splitting her time between his campaign and personal business interests, then he’s toast. And those are only two of the charges.
The case never looks better than it does on indictment day. This is thin.
Defense lawyers will cast lots of doubt. Harrell will be ok.
Nope, this is to eat, daytime and receipts either prove or disprove the case and they wouldn’t have returned a true bill without a solid case.
Indictments are usually thin. Any experienced criminal attorney, student of the law knows this.
I have no doubt that Harrell will be found innocent of these allegations. The sad thing is that people (like this site’s Folks) have been calling him guilty for so long, it is an uphill battle to prove his innocence. Wait, I thought it was that they had to prove a person’s guilt??? Just imagine what it would be like for anyone to have to go through this level of scrutiny for years on end. I would never want to run for public office after seeing a good guy like Bobby being run through the ringer.
There will be a deal. Too many dead bodies in the fields and he has the shovel.
Let’s hope not. It’s time we clean up political BS in South Carolina.
Dude, he’s already been caught abusing his campaign funds before – you’d think he’d get a clue.
could potentially result in jail time
That’s cute, they’re pretending like he’s not going to get slapped on the wrist for this.
SECTION 8-13-560. Suspension of House or Senate member under indictment for particular crime; removal upon conviction; reinstatement upon acquittal.
Unless otherwise currently or hereafter provided for by House or Senate rule, as is appropriate:
(1) A member of the General Assembly who is indicted in a state court or a federal court for a crime that is a felony, a crime that involves moral turpitude, a crime that has a sentence of two or more years, or a crime that violates election laws must be suspended immediately without pay by the presiding officer of the House or Senate, as appropriate. The suspension remains in effect until the public official is acquitted, convicted, pleads guilty, or pleads nolo contendere. In the case of a conviction, the office must be declared vacant. In the event of an acquittal or dismissal of charges against the public official, he is entitled to reinstatement and back pay.
(2) If the public official is involved in an election between the time of the suspension and final conclusion of the indictment, the presiding officer of the House or Senate, or the Governor, as appropriate, shall again suspend him at the beginning of his next term. The suspended public official may not participate in the business of his public office.
Thank you thumper – was going to look up statutory section today, but got sidetracked.
Harrell may a good guy, I do not know him personally, but for the best of all, he should agree to a temporary suspension at a minimum. Haley should get suspension wrapped up ASAP and let’s move this on to trial as soon as parties are ready. Everybody else should step out and let it be decided at jury level (when I say everybody, I mean sup. ct., legislature, and any other anybody other than parties, their lawyers and the richland county GS court). Everyone else should move on with trying to move our state in a generally straight line toward some progress.
However, we all know none of this will happen. Every person and entity possible will interfere with this trial process, and SC will once again be the butt of jokes on The Daily Show, etc
What about case law? US Supreme Ct opinions?
Remember — Harrell claims to be missing a bunch of records. Remember – Harrell does not want anyone to audit his records, too.
He is going down. That’s a done deal. What I want to know is, who else will end up indicted from being connected to his other adventures – like the I-526 boondoggle. You know, the land developers in Charleston – the look on their faces … its one of worry and concern.