"South Carolina is at war with this federal government and this administration," is what Rick Perry, and not Jefferson Davis, told a wildly-cheering debate audience in my current hometown of Myrtle Beach on January 16, 2012, and not April 12, 1861, during the first Republican debate in South Carolina. As Jon Stewart cracked, "War against the government led by South Carolina! That always has a good ending, right?" Stewart went on to note:
"Let the record show on January 16, 2012, the people of South Carolina booed the Golden Rule."
Stewart was ridiculing that Myrtle Beach debate audience which thought it was a bad idea to do unto other nations the way we would have them do unto us. Wonkette noted that the same GOP audience "boo[ed a] black person for mentioning blacks."
Only a couple of nights later and about 100 miles south on state highway 17, in Charleston, South Carolina, the Great-American GOP audience proved to have been pre-programmed by Fox News:
if you want to get America going again...
(APPLAUSE)
... get America working again.
(APPLAUSE)
... capitalism works. Free enterprise works. And I...
(APPLAUSE)
... America strong.
(APPLAUSE)
... the American way, and...
(APPLAUSE)
I'm standing for freedom.
(APPLAUSE)
... control the border.
(APPLAUSE)
... genuinely pro- life.
(APPLAUSE)
I understand those values.
(APPLAUSE)
These are the same folks who believe that it is job one for unions, and not vulture capitalists, to take jobs away from workers, and who cheered the enthusiastic racism that cheerfully escaped the body of Newt Gingrich during both debates. Imagine my surprise when I learned that a special election was to be held on May 7, 2013 in this very same Tea-Partyingest district to replace then-Congressman, now-Senator Tim Scott, and a Democrat named Elizabeth Colbert Busch had a real chance. Not only that, she was leading in the only poll that has been made public to date.
(photo by CBC Institute)
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is already on board with a diary at dkos supporting the Colbert Busch candidacy. Senator Gillibrand has also put her PAC behind the Colbert candidacy. Influential Congressmen like John Lewis and James Clyburn have endorsed her run. This is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as SC-01 voted 60-40 for Romney, and it has recently seen the worst of the Tea Partiers. Most of the Republicans are so Tea Party around here they refuse to identify themselves as Republicans in campaign ads.
A win by Elizabeth Colbert Busch would be a shock to the political system akin to what was experienced with Scott Brown's win in the Massachusetts Senate special election of 2010. Except there is supposedly no wave of pro-ObamaCare sentiment sweeping South Carolina. Candidate Colbert Busch has promised to not toe the party line, and she's already panned President Obama's budget. Check her out here and below, and if you have a few spare dollars, help her out here please.
The latest news is that Mark Sanford's ex-wife, the one who was left behind as he tackled the Appalachian Trail solo, is
not endorsing either candidate in this special election.