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Born May 18, 1953; got saved at Truett Memorial BC in Hayesville, NC 1959. On rigged ballot which I did not rig got Most Intellectual class of 71, Gaffney High School. Furman Grad, Sociology major but it was little tougher than Auburn football players had Had three dates with beautiful women the summer of 1978. Did not marry any of em. Never married anybody cause what was available was undesirable and what was desirable was unaffordable. Unlucky in love as they say and even still it is sometimes heartbreaking. Had a Pakistani Jr. Davis Cupper on the Ropes the summer of 84, City Courts, Rome Georgia I've a baby sitter, watched peoples homes while they were away on Vacation. Freelance writer, local consultant, screenwriter, and the best damn substitute teacher of Floyd County Georgia in mid 80's according to an anonymous kid passed me on main street a few years later when I went back to get a sandwich at Schroeders. Had some good moments in Collinsville as well. Ask Casey Mattox at www.clsnet.org if he will be honest about it. I try my best to make it to Bridges BBQ in Shelby NC at least four times a year.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

South Carolina's Low Country Politics

Here is how they do it in South Carolina; the state that made George W. Bush president in 2000
Many of you will want to read the whole article at www.tnr.com

The current president of Richard Land's SBC, Frank Page, lives in South Carolina. In no way would he approve of these kind of tactics, but are he and Land doing anything to eradicate. Will they speak often against this type of politics and raise the bar for civil discussion; or will they be as silent as Land was in 2000

The link and a lengthy teaser:
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=6b76c3e3-a3f8-432a-9710-56a5e85e3c85

Excerpt:The dirty work of South Carolina politics is conducted by a small crew of operatives who studied at Atwater's elbow. "All of us in this state directly or indirectly trained under him," says Rod Shealy, a veteran GOP consultant not aligned with any campaign. Atwater instilled in his followers a sense of politics as a game with no rules--one in which treachery was a virtue and not a vice. "People here wear dirty tricks like a badge of honor," says Ragley. They are an irascible lot, often rumpled and wearing garb like Hawaiian shirts and safari hats. "They're really unkempt and eccentric--not like Charleston white boys in boat shoes and bow ties," says one local Democrat.
South Carolina operatives tend to congregate in joints with names like the Lizard's Thicket and the Back Porch (co-owned by the son of McCain's consultant Richard Quinn, in fact). Many also have sketchy histories. Shealy himself was once convicted of violating campaign laws after he convinced a black man facing felony charges to join a statewide campaign; the plan was to drive up white voter turnout in favor of Shealy's sister, who was a candidate. Quinn has his association with Southern Partisan. And, to some, the recent anonymous e-mails about Romney recalled a 2002 incident involving Quinn's employee, Trey Walker, John McCain's state campaign manager, who was caught sending an unflattering article about a local candidate from an e-mail address meant to seem like it belonged to Shealy. So goes the internecine world of South Carolina politics.

But, even among this motley crew, Warren Tompkins stands out: "The God of Hell" is how one fellow operative describes him. Tompkins grew up with Atwater, and he is said to most closely emulate his late friend's political style. "Warren is Lee Atwater in a business suit," says University of South Carolina professor Blease Graham, contrasting Atwater's slovenliness with the smooth business demeanor of Tompkins, who has enriched himself in recent years as a corporate lobbyist. Everyone in South Carolina assumes it was Tompkins who stage-managed the savaging of John McCain in 2000, even if he was taking cues from Karl Rove. "I think the mastermind resided someplace else, but I think [Tompkins] was the instrument of it," says former McCain adviser John Weaver. Hence, few people were surprised to learn that the PhoneyFred website was traced back to Tompkins's firm. (Tompkins said a subordinate acted on his own.)

Even with Tompkins as his secret weapon, however, Romney is hardly in the clear. The day after he was endorsed by Bob Jones III, The Greenville News printed an e-mail comment from a "self-described rank-and-file conservative" named Wayne Owens, who declared, "As Christians we should not endorse a cult member as our president." When I read this quote to a Republican with presidential campaign experience in the state, he cackled and declared, "That was probably sent by Rudy Giuliani's county chairman!"

He was joking. But, by South Carolina standards, a bogus e-mail to a reporter would hardly be shocking. Indeed, it may be the new business as usual. As Shealy notes, "The anonymity of the Internet is going to take the whole game to a new and much lower level than thought possible." Last April, one anonymous blog--"McCain SC," the "Unofficial Home for Palmetto State McCainiacs"--hawked a New York tabloid story alleging that Giuliani's wife Judith was "involved in a program that killed innocent puppies" to test medical products. It sounds like the McCain team may have learned its lesson back in 2000, and now knows the secret to victory: When in South Carolina, do as the South Carolinians do.
Michael Crowley is a senior editor at The New Republic.

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