Given A Choice, Nikki Haley Chose To Undermine The Country For Trump

Nikki Haley is a politician-- a former governor of South Carolina-- who would like to be president. She has a new book, With All Due Respect, coming out tomorrow, and her publishing company-- with her consent-- promoted it yesterday by leaking the most sizzling hot pages to the Washington Post. Anne Gearan wrote it up yesterday. Haley seems charming or, in her own words, "bad ass," in the CBS Sunday Morning interview (above). But it would behoove you to remember, she's, first and foremost, a conservative Republican-- a Trump apologist-- whose policies are not any different from the Trump Regime's-- crippling to working families. Fortunately, Norah O'Donnell's personality puff piece also went into the Tillerson-Kelly exposé.

Gearan's piece is far more savaged effective than O'Donnell's. She wrote that according to Haley, Tillerson and Kelly "undermined and ignored" Trump "in what they claimed was an effort to 'save the country.'" I guess we know exactly what Anonymous was referring to in his original NY Times editorial. "Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson and former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly sought to recruit her to work around and subvert Trump, but she refused, Haley writes in a new book, With All Due Respect, which also describes Tillerson as 'exhausting' and imperious and Kelly as suspicious of her access to Trump." Instead, she chose to stick with Trump and help him undermine the country.

“Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” Haley wrote.

“It was their decisions, not the president’s, that were in the best interests of America, they said. The president didn’t know what he was doing,” Haley wrote of the views the two men held.

Tillerson also told her that people would die if Trump was unchecked, Haley wrote.

Tillerson did not respond to a request for comment. Kelly declined to comment in detail, but said that if providing the president “with the best and most open, legal and ethical staffing advice from across the [government] so he could make an informed decision is ‘working against Trump,’ then guilty as charged.”

In the book, which was obtained by the Washington Post ahead of its release Tuesday, Haley offers only glancing critiques of her former boss, saying she and others who worked for Trump had an obligation to carry out his wishes since he was the one elected by voters.

The former South Carolina governor, widely viewed by Republicans as a top potential presidential candidate, has repeatedly sought to minimize differences with Trump while distancing herself from his excesses. Haley, 47, writes that she backed most of the foreign policy decisions by Trump that others tried to block or slow down, including withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord and the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

In a New York City interview with The Post coinciding with the book release, Haley also dismissed efforts by House Democrats to impeach Trump. She said she opposes Trump’s efforts to seek foreign help for political investigations in a call with Ukraine’s president, but that the actions are not impeachable.

“There was no heavy demand insisting that something had to happen. So it’s hard for me to understand where the whole impeachment situation is coming from, because what everybody’s up in arms about didn’t happen,” Haley said.

“So, do I think it’s not good practice to talk to foreign governments about investigating Americans? Yes. Do I think the president did something that warrants impeachment? No, because the aid flowed,” she said, referring to nearly $400 million in sidelined military aid.

“And, in turn, the Ukrainians didn’t follow up with the investigation,” Haley said.

In her book, Haley points to several examples of disagreements with Trump. She said she went privately to the president with her concern that he had ceded authority to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin after the two leaders met in Helsinki in 2017 and with her objection to what she called Trump’s “moral equivalence” in response to a deadly white supremacist march in Charlottesville later that summer.

Haley’s experience as governor during the 2015 murders of nine black churchgoers inside a historic African American church in Charleston by an avowed white supremacist made Trump’s reaction to Charlottesville painful, Haley wrote. Trump said “both sides” had been to blame for the violence.

“A leader’s words matter in these situations. And the president’s words had been hurtful and dangerous,” Haley wrote. “I picked up the phone and called the president.”

Haley did not air any objections publicly, however.

Haley also recounts for the first time that she was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder following the Charleston murders. She described bouts of sobbing, loss of appetite and focus, and guilt for feeling that way when the victims and their families had suffered so much more.

In a CBS interview that aired Sunday, Haley said Trump was “not appropriate” to demand that four minority Democratic members of Congress “go back” to their countries. Three of the women were born in the United States and all are U.S. citizens.

But Haley also defended Trump, saying “I can also appreciate where he’s coming from, from the standpoint of, ‘Don’t bash America, over and over and over again, and not do something to try and fix it.’”

...In writing about the administration, Haley recalls a disagreement she had with Tillerson and Kelly following an Oval Office showdown over her suggestion that the United States should withhold funding for the U.N. agency that supports Palestinians.

Kelly and Tillerson argued that cutting aid could lead to violence, greater threats to Israel, loss of U.S. influence and political problems for Arab allies, she writes. That view is common among Middle East watchers and Trump critics, who say the administration's approach is punitive and shortsighted.

Haley said she had the backing of Trump’s Middle East peace envoys, including son-in-law Jared Kushner, but he was not in the room. She did not spell out the views of then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

In the meeting, Haley wrote, Trump seemed to be swinging away from her view, but told the three of them to go resolve their differences elsewhere. In Kelly’s office afterward, Kelly told her, “ ‘I have four secretaries of state: you, H.R., Jared, and Rex,” she wrote. “’I only need one.’”

Tillerson and others had an obligation to carry out the president’s agenda because he had been elected, not them, Haley wrote. If they disagreed strongly enough, she said they should quit.

“I was so shocked I didn’t say anything going home because I just couldn’t get my arms around the fact that here you have two key people in an administration undermining the president,” Haley said in The Post interview.

On another occasion, Haley said Kelly stalled and put her off when she wanted to get in to see Trump. When she went around him, he complained. Kelly also made it clear that he thought Trump’s decision to make Haley a full member of the Cabinet, and have her attend National Security Council meetings, had been “terrible,” and that he would ensure the next U.N. ambassador did not carry that rank, she wrote.

Trump gave Haley a warm send-off last fall, while Kelly’s departure was announced in chillier terms weeks later. Haley’s successor, Kelly Craft, who assumed the U.N. job in September, does not carry the same rank Haley did. Tillerson, meanwhile, was fired by Trump via Twitter in March 2018.

“I have found in politics that when you are a woman in politics you encounter two types of people,” Haley said in the interview, conducted at her publisher’s offices in Lower Manhattan.

“You encounter people who respect you for your skill and your knowledge and the work that you’re trying to do, and support you in that process. Or you encounter people who disregard you and see you as in the way. That would happen at times,” Haley said.

Asked whether she was calling Kelly sexist, Haley said she had no personal quarrel with the retired four-star Marine general, whom she called a patriot.

“It’s a way of saying that sometimes he was not as conscious of the job I was trying to do,” Haley said.

Trump liked her direct approach and was respectful when they disagreed, Haley said.

She wrote that each had taken the other’s measure during the Republican primary, when she first backed Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and publicly called on Trump to release his tax returns. Trump tweeted that “the people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley!”

“Trump had been kicked, and he was hollering. But what he didn’t know then was, when I get kicked, I holler too,” Haley wrote.

She fired back with what she describes as “Southern-woman code.”

“Bless your heart,” she tweeted.

The book’s title is a reference to Haley’s comment last year publicly refuting an assertion by White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow that she had suffered “momentary confusion” about forthcoming U.S. sanctions on Russia.

In a detailed blow-by-blow account, Haley wrote that she had gone on television at the request of the White House to address the U.S. response to a deadly April 2018 Syrian chemical weapons attack and the U.S. view that Russia was complicit. When asked about punitive sanctions, Haley said she answered with the latest information she had, which was that Trump had approved new sanctions that would be announced shortly.

But Trump had changed his mind and no one told her, Haley wrote, and then White House staffers hung her out to dry. The Post reported at the time that Trump changed his mind after Haley spoke.

Haley said when a promised White House statement holding her blameless failed to materialize later that day or the next, she gave Kelly a deadline of the close of the following day-- a Tuesday-- before she went public. Kudlow’s remark to reporters on that Tuesday afternoon was evidence that Kelly did not intend to “fix this,” she wrote.

Bucking some members of her staff who urged her to let it slide, Haley told a reporter: “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”

Kudlow called within 15 minutes to apologize, and then went public with a mea culpa.

“Women are cautious about politics, for good reason,” she wrote. “It’s not a pretty business. It’s often hateful. It would be wonderful if we could change our politics in America to make it less nasty and less personal. But until that happens, especially if you’re a woman, you have to stand up for yourself. Always.”

The book leaves the door open to a potential return to politics, but is silent about any White House ambitions. In the interview, Haley waved off the question. She will evaluate her next steps year by year, she said.

“I’m not even thinking that way. I’m thinking more of, we need to do all we can to get the president reelected. And then from there, deciding how I will use the power of my voice,” Haley said.

“I know I’m too young to stop fighting, I know that. And I know that I need and want to be involved in some way that’s helpful.”

Haley is hardly the only slimy Republican residing in a cesspool of shit and treason against our country. Former Republican Congressman David Jolly of Miami-Dade was on MSNBC explaining just exactly who his old congressional colleagues are... you know... as people, as human beings: "These are, in today's Republican Party, spineless politicians rotten to the core without virtue. Without any level of human integrity, devoid of self-respect, self-reflection, without courage and without the moral compass to recognize their own malevolence." But at least Haley got something for her defense of the indefensible-- a swell tweet for her book yesterday evening:

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

In case you ever thought, even for a second, that Nikki Haley isn't completely full of shit, you can always refer to her own words. Then consider that she also called Jared Kushner a "hidden genius." Yeah that genius is hidden alright, just as much as her own.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

-by Noah

During Sunday night's broadcast of the GRAMMY Awards, former South Carolina Governor and current Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, as you can see above, just couldn't resist reaching for her twitter machine. Ignoramus that she is, she doesn't think politics and music go together. Now, what could have possibly set her off? The answer to that one is that all it took was Hillary Clinton reading a couple of sentences from Michael Wolf's Fire And Fury on the GRAMMY TV show. The fact that, the book is the number one best seller in the known universe, or, as her boss would say, "is getting great ratings, tremendous ratings," no doubt pushed the dagger a littler further in. The uptight little cheerleader for Trump just couldn't take it. And, it wasn't even directed at her, or was it? Maybe just in your mind, Nikki? Is there really something you'd like to tell us?

Music has always made a great match with politics, most likely since humans began to sing. Haley's statement reveals a hole in whatever education she has. It reveals a lack of understanding of how music interfaces with our culture and functions within our society. Politics has always inspired artists to paint, writers to write, and musicians to compose. But, apparently, Nikki feels that music should only be about love (sexless, of course), or maybe nursery rhymes, or, bunnies frolicking in the meadow, or maybe painting a house, or writing instruction manuals for audio and video equipment made in China.

There is one thing I agree with Ms. Haley on, though. When the unsubstantiated rumors recently surfaced that she was having an affair with Señor Trumpanzee, she was quoted as saying that the idea that she was having sex with Trump was, quote "disgusting" and "offensive." I could not agree with Nikki more more. Sex with Trumpanzee couldn't help but be "disgusting" and "offensive."

Maybe Nikki should just stick to other stuff she knows nothing about, like promising to protect Binomo and other countries that don't exist. Meanwhile, I'd like to send her this photo. It seems more appropriate now than ever. It's of a man and his guitar. The man is the great, truly great, Woody Guthrie, a man who focused his art like a laser beam on the evils of people like Nikki Haley. Feel free to tweet this picture to Nikki Haley. It may not make her day, but it sure would have made his. Send it to her fascist boss, too.

2017, A Hell Bound Train, Part 4: A Look At Some Of Trump’s Best People

-by Noah

Señor Trumpanzee assembled quite a team this year. Remember when Trump said he was smart and knew the best people? How could we forget? He said it during the 2016 campaign and he’s been saying it ever since. He even says those who are Nazis and those who march with Nazis are “very fine people.” Ok, to be fair, he didn’t say they were the best. He just said very fine. But that’s all just semantics. It’s the thought that counts.

Maybe Señor Trumpanzee’s selection of people he surrounds himself with is not just a matter of who he feels comfortable with, i.e. white supremacists, Russian mobsters, perverts, fellow sociopathic and even psychotic Republicans, etc. Maybe, it’s just that when he looks at himself honestly, he knows that everyone else he chooses to associate with actually is smarter than himself? Nah! That cannot be true for the simple reason that Trump is incapable of any kind of honesty. He demonstrates that every damn day.

So, is Trump actually smart? Not according to his Wharton professor William T. Kelly who called him “the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.” Is Trump some kind of Forrest Gump, a dumb guy who ends up in the oval office getting the Congressional Medal Of Honor from a real president? Nope. No way. No one can honestly see Trump rescuing any fellow soldiers in Vietnam. In fact, we know that there’s no way Trump would go to Vietnam to begin with. He’d always have those 5 draft deferments and alleged “temporary” bone spurs to fall back on.

"Run, Donnie, run?" I don’t think so! At least not in Vietnam. Not only that, but Forrest Gump built a successful business out of nothing, didn’t need to declare bankruptcy 4 times (or more), and even remembered to take care of his dead buddy’s family when he was under no legal obligation to do so.

No, Donald Trump, you are no Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump is brave and true. Fictional or not, he is a hero to us all. In Mr. Gump’s own words, he says, “I’m not a smart man, but, I know what love is.” Love of anyone but self is alien to you, and no amount of therapy will fix that. You, Donald Trump, are just a complete total jackass who feels comfortable surrounding yourself with fellow dumbasses that have so little self esteem that they will prostitute themselves working for you for as much money as they can grab.



So, Trumpie the Clown, let’s take a look at some of your sycophants, your “best people.” At this point there’s no need to point out the likes of Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, or the piece de resistance of communication, one Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Likewise, there’s no need to throw another spotlight on your budding basket case of a vice president, Mike Pence. I’ll also skip over “Education” Secretary, Betsy DeVos, Linda McMahon, who came from WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) to run the Small Business Association into the ground. Likewise, we already know all we need to know about Rick Perry, aka the Secretary of the Energy Dept. But, how about a few of your lesser known “best people,” all enthusiastically confirmed by $enate Republicans, of course.

1. Wilbur Ross, Secretary Of Commerce- With any luck, we will be hearing a lot about long time Trump associate Wilbur Ross in 2018. No he doesn’t own a talking horse named Ed, but, really, would it surprise you if you heard from your Republican neighbor that he does?

There’s that six degrees of separation thing and then there’s Wilbur Ross. Ross has direct ties to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including Putin’s son-in-law. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may have gotten all the press about being Putin’s besty, but, it appears that when it comes to being in bed with the Russians, no one tops ol’ Wilbur (Of course, if there really is a pee tape, maybe there’s one person who does).

Why might we be hearing more about Wilbur? Well, it seems that he was (is?) a key player on the board of the Bank of Cyprus that is under investigation by Robert Mueller’s team for money laundering, as in Russian money, money that appears to have ties to Paul Manafort and several unsavory Russians. Ross is also the largest shareholder in the bank.



2. United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley- So many of Señor Trumpanzee’s people have demonstrated one true talent, the talent to, much like their boss, fake and con their way to the top. No doubt that’s what he adores about them. This must be the case with our current UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. Like many of Trump’s appointees, Haley’s qualifications for the job were dubious. Her top qualification was that she was elected governor of the state of South Carolina, so, right away, there you go.

But, as I always say, keep the spotlight on these yahoos long enough and they will eventually reveal their inner idiot. In Haley’s case, a few days ago, she thought she was talking to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki about the interference of the Russians in the free elections of the island nation of Binomo. The conversation went like this:

Fake Polish PM- One more matter is island Binomo. It’s not far from Vietnam, in the South China Sea, you know?

Haley- Ok.

Fake Polish PM- You know Binomo?

Haley- Yes, Yes.

Fake Polish PM- They had elections and we suppose Russia had its intervention.

Haley- Yes. Of course they did. Absolutely.

Fake Polish PM- And now this Binomo land makes the situation in the South China Sea even more tense.

Haley- And we’re aware of that and we’ve been watching very closely and we’ll continue to watch that.

So, what’s the problem you ask? Well, first and foremost, the island nation of Binomo doesn’t exist. Haley is the UN Ambassador. Do you need a number two?

Sure a congressperson or a governor might not know about lots of things, but when you are the supposed UN Ambassador and you periodically sit in a room with all of the other UN ambassadors, wouldn’t you even begin to wonder why you hadn’t met the Ambassador from Binomo or met or even seen anyone from the nation’s delegation?

Haley was pranked by the Russian political comedy duo of Vovan and Lexus. They like making fools of politicians of all types. In Haley, they already had a fool so all they had to do was get her on the phone.

Sigh, remember when Kellyanne Conway used to talk about the Bowling Green Massacre? Yeah, that never happened either, except in Republican World. Same with the child labor camps on Mars, 5,000,000 “illegals” voting against Trump, and Hilary’s famous pizza shop pedophile ring in Maryland, and everything else they hear about on Trump’s favorite TV channel.

3. Stephen Miller- Most of us have heard of Stephen Miller, but most of us don’t know much about him. Miller is Trump’s “Senior Advisor For Policy,” whatever that means. He came to Trump via racist Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He was Session’s Communications Director when Sessions was a Senator. Before that, he was a press secretary for… wait for it… Rep. Michelle Bachmann. That’s quite a background. To put it another way: When you gravitate to nuts, you’re probably a nut yourself. So, why not go to work for Trump, too?

Miller is actually Trump’s chief speechwriter. He also authored Trump’s executive order that restricts immigration from seven countries thought to be exporting Muslim terrorists to our country. Saudi Arabia is, very notably, not on the list even though Saudis funded the 9/11 attacks and the jihadists who carried them out were Saudis.

Miller is seen as a kind of brother in arms to the infamous Steve Bannon when it comes to white supremacy. While at North Carolina’s Duke University, Miller, a member of the Duke University Conservative Union, helped out Duke graduate student Richard B. Spencer with promotion and fundraising for a debate on immigration policy. Richard B. Spencer is the current President of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacy think tank.

Will The GOP National Convention In Cleveland Turn Into A Gun Battle?

When asked if he would support Herr Trumpf if Herr wins the GOP nomination, Paul Ryan was ready to cast aside concerns for the well-being of the country in favor of naked narrow partisanship. He told Matt Lauer Wednesday morning, without much enthusiasm, that "Yes, I will. I'll support whoever our nominee is." Tuesday night, though, it was Ryan and his brain trust that crafted the anti-Trump messaging for Nikki Haley's SOTU rebuttal, in which she warned Republicans against following the anti-immigration rhetoric that has propelled Donald Trump to the lead in GOP presidential election polls.

"During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices," she said, without mentioning Mr. Trump or other 2016 candidates by name. "We must resist that temptation."

The first I saw of the anger headed Nikki Haley's way after-- actually during-- her SOTU response came from Ann Coulter, who has attacked her before and, in fact won a PolitiFact Pants on Fire designation for smearing her last summer. In a series of xenophobic and islamophobic tweets, she was enraged at the premise behind Haley's compassionate conservatism approach. Coulter concluded that President Trumpf should deport her. This morning Kasie Hunt was reporting that the backlash from the far right fringe was heating up. And it went beyond just Trumpf fan-girl Coulter. Laura Ingraham condemned Haley because her speech was praised by Van Jones and accused her of missing an opportunity to move the right-wing agenda forward.

The quickly evolving sentiments underscore the deepening divide in the Republican Party-- one that has many so-called "establishment" Republicans increasingly convinced that Trump is on his way to winning the nomination. It's a reality, many believe, that will fundamentally reshape the GOP as it's now known.

Even right-wing Members of Congress, like Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Steve King (R-IA) and Dave Brat (R-VA) were critical of the Haley-Ryan approach. Jeb Bush, Ryan and the establishment brand Republicans-- who are increasingly being called RINOs by the neo-fascist Trump/Cruz end of the party, lauded Haley, as did many independents and Democrats, while the right exploded with their usual vitriol. Establishment shill David Jolly (R-FL): "This isn't a fight for the soul of the party, This is a fight for the dignity of the party and I admire what she did." Herr Trumpf, of course, immediately called Fox and Friends to vent.

"No. 1, she's very weak on illegal immigration. I've known that for a long time. And she certainly has no trouble asking me for campaign contributions. Because over the years, she's asked me for a hell of a lot of money in campaign contributions. So it's sort of interesting to hear her. Perhaps if I weren't running, she'd be in my office asking me for money. But now that I'm running, she wants to take a weak side on immigration. I feel very strongly about illegal immigration. She doesn't."

In his SOTU speech last night, the president made more than one veiled warning about a rise of incipient fascism in the country. Most Americans have no idea what that means. Ryan Grim tried explaining it soon after the speech was completed. Trumpf-- a Willy Loman-meets-P.T. Barnum character who addresses audiences on a 4th grade reading level-- was tweeting that the president's speech was "really boring, slow, lethargic-- very hard to watch!" Of course he had to dismiss it. He understood some of the president's warnings were a little close for comfort.

"Those with money and power will gain greater control over the decisions that could send a young soldier to war, or allow another economic disaster, or roll back the equal rights and voting rights that generations of Americans have fought, even died, to secure. As frustration grows, there will be voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don’t look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background... We can’t afford to go down that path. It won’t deliver the economy we want, or the security we want, but most of all, it contradicts everything that makes us the envy of the world"

The irony to all this attention Trumpf is getting is that it has largely allowed an equal-- if not greater threat-- to largely slide under radar scrutiny. Trumpf is primarily a self-serving blowhard with no real political agenda. Cruz is a demented ideologue with a truly dangerous agenda. And there are some inside the Republican Party who are awakening to how badly a Cruz nomination could hurt the party in November. Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan reported at Politico that GOP pollster Dave Sackett of the Tarrance Group privately told Ryan and his leadership team at an NRCC retreat in Annapolis that "Cruz would be the biggest drag on House Republicans should he win his party’s nomination."

After the presentation to the group of elected Republican leaders, Ryan (R-Wis.) asked Sackett which of the Republican presidential hopefuls would be most detrimental to GOP House candidates on the ballot this year. Sackett replied that Cruz would have the biggest negative effect, citing the Texas senator’s starkly ideological positions, according to six sources who were in the meeting. Sackett told the group that the public’s perception of Cruz could shift if he becomes the nominee.

...Ryan, McCarthy and Scalise have not endorsed in the race, and the speaker did not indicate he was looking to wade into the contest or attempt to change the direction of the primary, according to sources present. Ryan’s office declined to comment, as did the NRCC and Sackett.

But the private comments indicate for the first time Ryan’s active interest in the presidential race and its potential bearing on his House majority. Senior Republican lawmakers such as NRCC Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon have publicly expressed concern that Trump could damage the House GOP’s electoral prospects should he become the nominee.

Sackett’s presentation confirmed those worries. His poll showed that a plurality of respondents-- 48 percent to 40 percent-- would be less likely to vote for a Republican congressional candidate or incumbent if Trump were the nominee. The business mogul and former reality TV star, who has been leading in most GOP polls for months, was the only candidate surveyed on that question, the sources said.

Bottom line: whichever extremist the Republicans nominate-- whether Herr or Cruz-- it's going to kill them down-ticket. And they know it. Ryan sees this as part of the rationale for the brokered convention scenario that hands him the nomination as a "unifier."

Is South Carolina Ready For A Democratic Party Take-Over?

We've been talking about convicted cocaine dealer/ex-Treasurer of South Carolina Tom Ravenel ® and how he is hoping to pivot from ex-con and BRAVO sit com/reality show star to anti-Lindsey Graham general election Senate candidate in November. If he does, he's likely to throw the election to the Democratic candidate. You don't think so? Progressive outsider Jay Stamper has had the Democratic nomination all to himself until Ravenel made it public he was going to run. At that point, the Democratic state Party Establishment got behind hopeless conservative state Senator Brad Hutto who is hoping that Ravenel can deliver the Senate seat to him.

There's a similar dynamic-- minus the cocaine bust-- playing out in the South Carolina gubernatorial race in which ex-Blue Dog-turned Republican Tom Ervin has withdrawn from the GOP primary and is running as an independent against incumbent Gov, Nikki Haley and Establishment Democrat Vince Sheheen. He can probably draw enough votes away from Haley, who is widely disliked by South Carolina voters, to deliver the race to Sheheen, a conservative. Haley's approval rating was only 42%-- with a 49% unfavorable and when voters were asked if the election were held now, only 44% said they would vote to reelect her, as opposed to 46% who would vote to elect Sheheen. With Ervin in the mix, she's cooked.

Tom Ervin, a former Greenville lawmaker and judge, said Friday that he has withdrawn from the Republican primary for governor and will run as a petition candidate in the November election.

Tom Ervin, a former Greenville lawmaker and judge, said Friday that he has withdrawn from the Republican primary for governor and will run as a petition candidate in the November election.

Ervin, a 62-year-old attorney and radio station owner, said he needs more time to share his message and could not accomplish that in the short span before the primary.

“I believe South Carolina is ready for fresh new leadership and ready for a governor who cares about our people and not selfish political ambition,” he said. “Both (Republican Gov.) Nikki Haley and (Democratic challenger) Vince Sheheen are career politicians. I’m a small business owner who will serve as governor and then return home to run my business.”

He said he started gathering signatures of registered voters to have his name added to the November ballot as a “Republican petition candidate.”

"I look forward to offering my vision for South Carolina as a Republican in the general election," he said.

When he joined the race late last month, political experts gave Ervin little shot of unseating Haley, whose popularity has grown in the party since her 2010 election. The governor has $4.3 million to spend.

Ervin has loaned his campaign $420,181, according to state records. He had $271,172 on hand after spending money on a consultant and automated robocalls.

He started a six-figure radio ad campaign this week introducing himself to voters.

Ervin was a Democrat before switching to the Republican Party for a unsuccessful run in the 2005 special election to succeed House Speaker David Wilkins, who had been named the U.S. ambassador to Canada. Ervin has said he became a Republican because he’s pro-life and a born-again Christian.

He has donated to GOP candidates in recent years, but his wife, attorney Kathryn Williams, has contributed to candidates in both parties-- including $4,500 to Sheheen’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign and $50,000 to the S.C. Democratic Party that same year, according to state records.

Ervin said Friday that he believes his being a “fiscal and social conservative with an independent streak” could sway voters.

“I’m running to reform state government and to restore executive competence, honesty and accountability – especially as it relates to protecting our most vulnerable children in harm’s way,” Ervin said.

Ervin gave a good clue to the kind of campaign he'll be running against Haley in his announcement statement Friday: "Four years ago, Nikki Haley promised us transparency and accountability when she became governor. Sadly, Governor Haley has broken those promises. Instead, Haley has delivered four years of missteps, mistakes, scandals and cover-ups – none more disturbing than the ongoing investigation of Governor Haley's cabinet appointee and their gross negligence in failing to protect the children under their watch at DSS. The Bible says we will be judged by how we treat the least of those among us. That means doing everything within our power to right the wrongs being done to our children at risk. Under her watch, Nikki Haley has turned a blind eye to the plight of our children at greatest risk. It is time for Governor Haley to relieve her appointee at DSS for gross incompetence and mismanagement."

Can you imagine the GOP losing both the Senate and gubernatorial races in November? Here's his new radio ad, which is absolutely saturating the airwaves now:

Last Night's Primary Runoffs

North Carolina Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall, yesterday's big winner

The first election to end last night was in South Carolina (7pm), where it was easy to predict the outcomes: in every single runoff in the state a dangerous conservative sociopath would win. I was right. South Carolina, where teabagger= secessionist, is one of the places where being a far right extremist of any stripe appeals to the anger, bigotry, willful ignorance and confusion of so much of the population-- and the vast majority of the Republican base. And as repulsive as a political Palin-- rather than a reality TV show Palin-- is to most Americans, in South Carolina Republican politics, she's a serious political figure. Couple that with the explosion of anger towards GOP Establishment politicos Gresham Barrett and Bob Inglis, and there was no room for surprises last night. Inglis, though a conservative kook by any standards, once publicly berated Glenn Beck-- saying nothing that 80-90% of House Republicans would agree with-- off the record. That was his undoing.

A.P. called the gubernatorial race early. Less than 90 minutes after the polls closed, and with just 36% of the precincts counted, they stuck a fork in Barrett, who wound up with 35%. Palin's candidate beat the Establishment guy. In the two important House runoffs, Tim Scott, an African-American teabagger-- also endorsed by Palin-- beat Establishment fave Paul Thurmond, son of Strom, 68.4-31.6%. And in the very conservative 4th CD, the spawning ground of Jim DeMint, Inglis got trounced by Trey Gowdy 70.6-29.4%, a horrible repudiation for an incumbent.

Conservatives and teabaggers also had their fratricidal spats going in Mississippi's 2nd congressional district (where Bill Marcy won and will face popular incumbent Bennie Thompson in the state's most powerfully Democratic district), in a couple of North Carolina House races and in Utah's Senate race.
The only discernible difference between most of the Republican candidates were like those between a mere sociopath and a full-on psychopath. In NC-08, where worthless and cowardly freshman Dem is among the most vulnerable incumbents, the sociopath, Harold Johnson, beat the psychopath, Tim D'Annunzio, handily, 61.2% to 38.8%. William Randall, another bizarre kook-- who insisted that the Gulf Oil spill was part of an Obama plot, took 58.9% of the vote and will be thoroughly beaten by Democrat Brad Miller in November.

What I was more concerned with, of course, were two important Democratic races. The biggie, for the Democratic nomination to face extremist Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), was won-- and very decisively, by Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, the grassroots populist heavily backed by... well, basically by everyone but the DSCC. Bob Menendez, continuing his losing record, personally recruited some guy named Cal Cunningham-- idea being that North Carolina isn't "ready" for two women senators. North Carolinians didn't agree and the $300,000 plus massive support from DC insiders didn't save Cunningham from an electoral thrashing. He was trounced 60- 40% in a runoff that saw Ken Lewis' primary voters follow Lewis straight into Marshall's camp. Score one-- one big one-- for the good guys. Menendez, who forced this divisive and costly primary on North Carolina Democrats sounded on the inauthentic side last night when he managed to croak out, "Tomorrow, we begin the general election and the choice for North Carolinians could not be any starker. Voters will face a choice between a Democrat who has focused on creating jobs and the needs of North Carolina's middle class and a Republican who puts partisanship ahead of doing what's right." He should resign from the DSCC before its too late. Blue America has been urging progressives to contribute to Marshall from the day that Menendez blatantly inserted himself into the race. And we still are-- let's beat Burr!

And then there was the longshot grassroots primary pitting Claudia Wright, an ex-Mormon, openly lesbian, openly progressive, great great granddaughter of Brigham Young, challenging a rolling in corporate cash Establishment Blue Dog, Jim Matheson. Claudia's feisty challenge saw Matheson voting with Democrats on issues-- like abolishing DADT-- that would have been unthinkable without a vigorous primary. We consider the ads Blue America ran this past week in the St. George area to be the least we could do for a stalwart Democrat taking on such a thankless and odious task. Her first try for public office, Claudia wound up with around a third of the vote. Matheson spent $46.00 for every vote her received; Claudia spent $2.91/vote. Thanks to everyone who stood with her!

Does Nikki Haley Woship Idols? Has Jake Knotts Found A White Sheet Big Enough To Cover Himself With?

Self professed redneck Sen. Jake Knotts used campaign funds to pay his dues for the Sons of Confederate Veterans and then called Nikki Haley & Pres. Obama "ragheads"

You know that place in the Constitution where it says no one can hold office unless they worship Jesus properly? No? Well, go down to South Carolina and they'll show you... or shove it up your ass if you don't just take it on faith. Now, look, I never thought for a minute-- as far back as April, 2009, when Rep. Gresham Barrett got boo-ed off the stage at a teabbager rally-- that South Carolina Republicans were going to pick another Insider as their benighted state's next governor. So even with the vicious and narrow-minded small town buzz in a small town state working overtime that Nikki Haley (a Sikh, originally born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, who now claims to profess both Sikh and Methodist beliefs) has had sex with a string of sleazy Republican operatives, I suspected that if there is one state where a Palin endorsement means something, South Carolina is the place. And Nikki nearly won 50% of the vote against 3 insider white, male Christians (although one is gay so I don't know if that counts-- except that he's closeted which Republicans don't seem to mind that much).

But she's now in what most people thought would be a largely pro-forma runoff against Barrett on June 22 and will then be in another largely pro-forma general against Democrat Vincent Sheheen. And the South Carolina Republicans are starting to ask questions, not about Haley's purported moral turpitude-- nearly every male politician in the state, other than Lindsey Graham and Andre Bauer, claims to have lain with her-- but about her faith. Is she really a Christian? (She claims to have converted, more or less, when she was 24.) Does she worship idols? (Well... isn't Jesus on the cross an idol too?)

"The heritage issue is starting to bubble up on emails," said former Charleston County GOP chairwoman Cyndi Mosteller, who supported Attorney General Henry McMaster in the gubernatorial primary. "I am hearing those questions."

Haley, born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, still attends Sikh services occasionally with her parents and extended family. In 2004, after winning her first term in the state legislature, the Charlotte Observer quoted Haley as saying she and her family attend "both" Methodist and Sikh services.

As routine as that may sound to families of mixed faith, her ties to the Sikh tradition have left some evangelicals in the state uneasy.

Ray Popham, pastor of Oasis Church International in Aiken, said Haley's religion is a "big topic" among his congregants, who have posted notes about her religion on Facebook and have lately approached him for advice about the governor's race.

"She claims to be a Christian but also attends a Sikh temple and was married in a Sikh ceremony, so a lot of people can't figure how you can claim both," Popham told CNN. "I think she needs to be straight up with people, if she is both. If she believes that you can be both, then she should say that up front."

Tony Beam, the interim pastor of Mount Creek Baptist church in Greenville, hosts a radio show called "Christian Worldview Today." He recently posed a question to his listeners: Is Nikki Haley being honest about her faith?

Beam said several callers were not sure if Haley had completely abandoned her Sikh beliefs.

"People want to know if she is being completely forthright about it," said Beam, a Barrett supporter. "Once you commit to Christianity, it excludes other religions. I am not saying she is not who she says she is, but I do know those questions are being raised"

Haley's campaign has taken steps to address the issue. On her campaign website, language about her religion was recently tweaked to emphasize her commitment to Jesus Christ.

In April, under the question "Is Nikki a Christian?" the website quoted Haley as saying: "I believe in the power and grace of Almighty God."

Two months later, after Haley's campaign said it received inquiries about which "Almighty God" was being referenced, the language was altered. Haley is now quoted on her website as saying, "Being a Christian is not about words, but about living for Christ every day."

But other Christian leaders said that while questions about Haley's faith are becoming more common, they are unlikely to influence the election.

Oran Smith, the president of the Palmetto Family Council, said voters often came to him for guidance during the Republican primary. Smith said he told them there was very little difference between the candidates, including Haley or Barrett, on key social issues.

A few voters asked him for more information about Haley's faith, he recalled, but added: "I don't hear a lot of average church people talking about."

"Most people can't even pronounce 'Sikh,' even the ones that are criticizing her," Smith told CNN.

Knotts, the controversial lawmaker, has accused reporters of giving Haley "a free ride" on the religion issue. "Have you ever asked her if she believes in Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savoir and that he died on the cross for her sins?" he asked a reporter from WIS-TV last week.

Anyone know if Jews get a pass in South Carolina politics?

Dear America: Just Go

Written by a shamed South Carolina

Dear America,

I think we both knew this was coming. Sure, we've had some rough spots in our relationship before.  There was that time we tried to secede in 1832. And 1850. And that time we actually did, and let you know by opening fire. But we haven't been happy for a while. As a matter of fact, we've been trying to get you to do our dirty work and dump us before we had to secede. Couldn't you tell? 

You keep electing Democrats, and "trying to do the right thing" and letting wild-ass progressives like Alan Grayson win in swing districts. And we can't abide by that. You got a Democratic majority in 2006, and we wanted out, so we let the state Treasurer do so much blow that he did 10 months on a distribution charge. You didn't care.

So we started spending more of your money than we were paying in. Letting Californians take up the slack for children enrolled in our failing schools, which we don't fund because the corporate income tax here is zero. You didn't seem to mind; as a matter of fact, you elected more Democrats, who wanted to put more money into our failing schools, because children are our future or some bullshit.

We knew we had to raise our game to get you to leave us. So we had our Governor redefine "hiking the Appalachian trail." Even then, you still stood by us. We knew we had to go to the mattresses. 

One of our jackass Congressmen shout at the President, which we're pretty sure was the tipping point in the Tea Party going from "woooo, we're crazy!" to "wooo, let's spit on John Lewis and call him racist names!"

We let Jim-- you know Jim, he lives in that place on C Street-- go endorse some dude for Senate who takes money from neo-Nazis, and disagrees with the Civil Rights Act, and wants to tell our handicapped veterans that they don't need the Americans With Disabilities Act to protect them, because they can get offices on the first floor. After all, who could have foreseen that Rand Paul was a crazy racist? Well, we did. We knew you'd finally leave us then. 

And still, you stood by us, and waited for us to get our act together. 

Well, we'll show you. We'll take America's Princess Sarah Palin and let her endorse a candidate for governor. And then we'll let it become public that that candidate-- who happens to be Governor Argentina's favorite-- was schtupping Governor Argentina's spokesman before he got fired for a domestic violence charge. We've soiled Sarah Palin, America. We're sorry, but you just weren't paying attention.

What we're saying, America, is go. Just go. We cause too much chaos, and too much pain, and we're holding you back. We don't want somebody to help us, or make us better, we want somebody to hate poor people and black people and the foreigners with. Remember the good times? Like with Strom. But they're so far gone, now.

If Rand Paul wins, Kentucky's coming with us. 

Don't call us, we'll call you.

South Carolina

PS, this is from Stephen Budiansky's book, The Bloody Shirt: Terror After the Civil War:

A footnote, but a telling one: To white conservative Southerners, the outrage was never the acts they committed, only the effrontery of having those acts held against them. The outrage was never the “manly” inflicting of “well-deserved” punishment on poltroons, only the craven and sniveling whines of the recipients of their wrath. And the outrage was never the violent defense of “honor” by the aristocrat, only the vulgar rabble-rousing by his social inferior. “The only article the North can retain for herself is that white feather which she has won in every skirmish,” declared one Southerner, speaking of the Sumner–Brooks affair. Only a coward would revel in a token of his own defeat.

The bloody shirt captured the inversion of truth that would characterize the distorted memories of Reconstruction that the nation would hold for generations after. The way it made a victim of the bully and a bully of the victim, turned the very blood of their African American victims into an affront against Southern white decency, turned the very act of Southern white violence into wounded Southern innocence; the way it suggested that the real story was never the atrocities white Southerners committed but only the attempt by their political enemies to make political hay out of it. The mere suggestion that a partisan motive was behind the telling of these tales was enough to satisfy most white Southerners that the events never happened, or were exaggerated, or even that they had been conspiratorially engineered by the victims themselves to gain sympathy or political advantage.

If it was incomprehensible to many Northerners, it made perfect sense to those same white Southerners who, on more than one occasion, blamed the “cowardly negroes” for their unmanliness in having permitted themselves to be massacred by bands of armed white men: it only showed, they argued in complete earnest, that black men lacked the Anglo Saxon virtues indispensable to free men who would exercise the lofty privilege of self-government. Any people who allowed their vote to be taken from them at gunpoint didn’t deserve to keep it. (Of course, when African Americans did fight back, the fury of their white assailants knew no bounds.)

One white South Carolinian, of an old aristocratic family, uttered the truth in 1877. From the safety of anonymity, this voice in the wilderness spoke plainly:

The most horrible tales of negro murders that have ever appeared in radical sheets at the North would pale before the relation of incidents known to every white man in the South. The intimidation of the negroes is a stern and awful fact. Yet what do Southerners say about it? It is the bloody shirt, the lying inventions of unscrupulous politicians, the last gasp of carpet-baggery and radical deviltry. So bitterly do Southerners hate to have the truth come out that it is at the risk of his life that any man dares to speak it. When a political crime is committed, they palliate it, smooth over everything, charge the blame on the murdered victims.

A generation later, a few elder statesmen of the South uttered the truth too. “We had to shoot negroes to get relief from the galling tyranny to which we had been subjected,” baldly declared South Carolina’s “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman, former governor, current United States senator. He was speaking at a 1909 reunion of the ageing “Red Shirts” and white “rifle club” members who had roamed the state as young men in ’76, sixteen-shooter Winchester rifles at their sides and a couple of huge navy pistols stuck in their belts; assassinating African American legislators and town constables, seizing ballot boxes, firing potshots at field hands as a general warning they’d better behave themselves. “It had been the settled purpose of the leading white men,” Tillman went on, to “teach the negroes a lesson; as it was generally believed that nothing but bloodshed and a good deal of it could answer the purpose of redeeming the state from negro and carpet bag rule.”

Another generation on, in the 1920s, one conservative Southern white historian dared break ranks with the lockstep judgment of his peers, and let a bit more of the truth slip out: the 1876 election that had “redeemed” South Carolina, he wrote, “was little more than a ratification of the seizure of power by the rifle clubs in the previous months.”

Such gasps of truth were as rare in the South as polar bears, and as out of place. So thoroughly did Southern myth-making bury the bald facts, turn the blame on the victims, pass off a terrorist coup d’etat as an affair of honor, a restoration—a “redemption”—of the South by its “natural leaders,” that even today, even after a half century of relentless revision by historians determined to bring out what had been repressed, the truth remains furtive, a sly and scared animal skulking through thickets of deception.

A bald fact: Generations would hear how the South suffered “tyranny” under Reconstruction. Conveniently forgotten was the way that word was universally defined by white Southerners at the time: as a synonym for letting black men vote at all. A “remonstrance” issued by South Carolina’s Democratic Central Committee in 1868, personally signed by the leading native white political figures of the state, declared that there was no greater outrage, no greater despotism, than the provision for universal male suffrage just enacted in the state’s new constitution. There was but one possible consequence: “A superior race is put under the rule of an inferior race.” They offered a stark warning: “We do not mean to threaten resistance by arms. But the white people of our State will never quietly submit to negro rule. This is a duty we owe to the proud Caucasian race, whose sovereignty on earth God has ordained.”