Talk of more spending cuts trickles down

SEPT. 2, 2011 — With talk of spending cuts being all the rage of Washington, it’s no surprise the infatuation with them has trickled down to state government in South Carolina.

Powerful state Senate leader Glenn McConnell, the Charleston Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has bundled five anti-spending measures into a package to try to spark some legislative momentum.

Tea party zealots are ruining the American dream

AUG. 12, 2011 — The vitriol being spewed by the underinformed acolytes of the tea party is troubling for America’s free future.

You see, these folks are mad (in more ways than one). And they’ll tell anybody they know that they’re mad. At what? It doesn’t really seem to matter. They’re just enraged.

By channeling the tea parties of the Revolution, they shroud their rage and equate it with what was happening in our united states back in the 1770s. The problem is that the two times – then and now – are far from the same.

Fiddling with election law isn’t helpful

AUG. 5, 2011 — Since 2003, the S.C. General Assembly has approved measures that allowed 34 of the state’s 46 counties to reshape, rename or reconfigure precinct lines.

Generally when that’s done, officials point to a state law that says precincts need to be changed when they get bigger than 1,500 voters. They say there’s nothing nefarious about it.

But in some of the state’s larger counties, you’ve got to wonder if reshaping precincts because of growth is the driving force behind line changes. Why? Because when precincts change or get new names, voters have to be notified of the change. Some become confused on election day about where they’re supposed to vote. In the end, some give up because they find it too tough to vote.

Time for Ard to resign

JULY 22, 2011 — By all accounts, Lt. Gov. Ken Ard of Florence is a nice guy. Then again, so is former Gov. Mark Sanford.

But these days Ard, like Sanford two years ago, is facing an angry electorate and legislature. Again, there’s talk about whether he should resign or whether the state voters should have the ability to recall officials who get in trouble, something that has been fairly common throughout the state’s history. These days it seems more frequent for statewide elected officials to become the brunt of some kind of national joke than it does for them to actually do anything substantive to help the people who elect them.

SC needs to rebrand its image

JULY 15, 2011 — One of the first rules of politics is to define yourself and not let your opponent define you.

As a state, we’ve ignored this rule for too long. We’ve become frequent fodder for late-night comedians who poke fun at images we’ve brought upon ourselves — from a philandering governor who redefined what hiking the Appalachian Trail means to the current lieutenant governor who can’t seem to get his story straight on how he uses his campaign money.