The campaign of White House hopeful Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) said they canned their “Super Trooper,” former Director of Operations Jay Garrity. But a visit to Saluda County Friday proved that Team Romney continues to think they are not only ABOVE the law, but that they ARE the law.

The motorcade of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney exceeded speed limits and went through stop lights Friday as local law officers escorted him, blue lights flashing, to campaign events in two South Carolina counties.

Traffic pulled over for Romney’s caravan as Saluda County Sheriff Jason Booth, a Romney supporter, led the candidate’s motor home and staff cars with his blue lights running from the Aiken County line through Saluda County to the Newberry city limits, according to an Associated Press reporter following the candidate.

The caravan traveled between 10 mph and 15 mph over posted speed limits. …

Asked whether it’s proper to use flashing police lights to escort a candidate, he said, “I’m not getting into this with you, sir. I have no comment.” Booth, a former supporter of Arizona Sen. John McCain, switched to Romney in April. [JIM DAVENPORT - AP]

If the amount of money Romney blew on the Ames Straw Poll is any indicator, we can’t even imagine how much was “invested” in this little escapade. We predict that either the Saluda Sheriff’s Department will soon have a brand new fleet of vehicles, or Sheriff Booth will have a brand new wing added to his home.

The posting will be light for the next few days at The Palmetto Scoop as we get ready to enjoy the return of football and the Leisure Day weekend.

If you’re going to the Gamecocks game tomorrow though, be sure to keep an eye out for presidential candidate Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). His campaign announced that he will hold a “Tailgate and Talk” Saturday from 5:30 p.m to 6:45 p.m at Williams Brice Stadium Parking Lot Space #633 - near the south west side entrance.

Have a great one y’all!

We broke the story Sunday that Attorney General Henry McMaster may launch an inquiry into whether or not high radioactive pollution levels at the Barnwell Chem-Nuclear site were intentionally concealed from state legislators deliberating the future of the facility. The State newspaper later confirmed that McMaster summoned representatives of landfill operator Chem-Nuclear and officials from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to his office Wednesday to discuss the matter.

And Thursday the Charleston Post and Courier issued a scathing rebuke of those responsible for possibly covering up the full scope of the problems at the Barnwell dump site and praised McMaster for his efforts.

In view of the recent revelations about contamination, the state should consider closing the dump altogether until Mr. McMaster gets some answers.

South Carolina long has served as a dumping ground for toxic waste from the around the nation, while state residents were assured there was no need to worry.

For 36 years, South Carolina has allowed radioactive waste disposal at the Barnwell site — a service that only a few states have been willing to provide. South Carolina shouldn’t have to sustain unsafe levels of contamination as a result of the dump’s operation.

Mr. McMaster has begun asking the hard questions about public health and safety associated with the operation of the Barnwell nuclear waste site — and about the extent to which DHEC has been providing the necessary attention and public disclosure. The state deserves a full explanation and corrective action. [Charleston Post and Courier]

Rule No. 1 when trying to win the South Carolina primary as a Republican presidential candidate: If you do nothing else, you MUST campaign in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties.

Even John Cox knows that.

Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) Thursday released a schedule for his “Three-State Campaign Tour,” during which he plans to announce his intention to run for president. The tour will roll through Charleston on the morning of Monday, Sept. 10, and Columbia that afternoon. But for South Carolina, that’s it.

No visit to Greenville. No visit to Spartanburg. No visit anywhere near the largest and most active GOP base in the state.

And worse yet, he’s spending three days in Iowa, two days in New Hampshire and less than one day in South Carolina.

So either he has bad intel as to how to run a campaign in this state, or he is nervous about competing in the Upstate. There may other reasons, but whatever they are, this could be a very unfortunate mistake.

UPDATE: A reader has pointed us to American Solutions for Winning the Future, the organization promoting the “Nine 90s in Nine” debate series discussed by Gingrich in the video below. The pledge, which asks candidates to partake in nine 90-minute debates in the final nine weeks of the 2008 presidential general election, was signed by former Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee last week.

The group will also be holding a “Solutions Day” consisting of more than 25 workshops in South Carolina on September 29th which will be broadcast on the internet and on the DISH Satellite network.
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In pointing out that 21st century politics has become a business of boiled-down 30-second sound bites and communication campaigns of clever catch phrases, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) challenges the party nominees, whoever they are, to hold one 90 minute discussion per week from Labor Day through Election Day. Not just debates, but open, honest dialog with logically sound ideas. It will never happen, but it’s an interesting thought nonetheless.

And as Gingrich notes in this YouTube clip, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held SEVEN debate at THREE HOURS a piece.

We admit that we’ve probably had a little too much fun with the whole Laurin Caitlin Upton thing and it may have run it’s course. But this ‘tube map’ courtesy of The Morning Toast is just too darn funny NOT to post:

HUCKABEE MOVES TO TOP TIER IN PALMETTO STATE

The American Research Group has released its August 2007 numbers for the South Carolina presidential primaries.

For Republicans, Rudy Giuliani held the top spot dropping two percent, while Fred Thompson stayed in second place but dropped six points; a sign that supporters may be growing frustrated with his failure to commit. Both John McCain and Mitt Romney picked up two points and held onto third and fourth, respectively.

But by far the biggest mover was Mike Huckabee, who gained six points to tie Romney for fourth. This essentially makes Huckabee a “top tier candidate” and widens the GOP frontrunner pack to five.

Unlike the Republicans, Democrats experienced a HUGE change at the top. Hillary Clinton is back in first, gaining four points to topple Barack Obama, who fell 12 percent into third place. John Edwards picked up six points to slide into second.

The Republican field seems to be wide open between the top five candidates, while the Democrats have narrowed it down to three, but have a much higher number of undecided voters.

REPUBLICANS:

Rudy Giuliani - 26%
Fred Thompson - 21%
John McCain - 12%
Mike Huckabee - 9%
Mitt Romney - 9%
Newt Gingrich - 6%
Sam Brownback - 2%
Ron Paul - 2%
Tom Tancredo - 1%
Duncan Hunter - 0%
Undecided - 12%

DEMOCRATS:

Hillary Clinton - 32%
John Edwards - 24%
Barack Obama - 21%
Joe Biden - 2%
Dennis Kucinich - 2%
Bill Richardson - 2%
Chris Dodd - 1%
Undecided - 17%

The presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), looking to get back to the front of the GOP primary pack, has released a new video detailing McCain’s service and time as a prisoner of war. The 12-minute video features stories from the campaign trail, as well as photos from his POW days and interviews with friends, family and fellow servicemen.

It’s well worth the watch:

Say what you want about McCain, but it’s tough to watch this and not feel the emotion. The descriptions of his torture are gut-wrenching, but the way he turns such horrific events into positive ideas is inspiring. And the personal feel of the message reminds us of the 2000 John McCain; the grassroots maverick that would sit down and have a chat with anyone and everyone about anything and everything.

We’ve seen over the last few months that not everyone agrees with McCain on everything. We’ve seen that fighting for what’s right isn’t always popular and won’t always win votes. But regardless, this is a reminder to all of us that, no matter what we think about John McCain the politician, we should at least show him the respect he deserves - even when criticizing him.

The guy gave five and a half years of his life, tortured and abused for his country and his brothers in arms. Let’s think about that a little before we