Mitt Romney has drawn the ire of the Sons of Confederate Veterans for his “That’s not a flag that I recognize” rant at Wednesday’s CNN/YouTube GOP debate.

“This will kick off a concerted effort by the SCV to let scalawags and carpetbaggers know that the road to the White House hits a dead end when they smear the good name of our Southern ancestors,” Don Gordon, an official with the state division of the organization, said in a statement.

Romney’s South Carolina spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The flag, long seen as a symbol of racism by some and as an emblem of Southern pride by others, once flew atop the Capitol in this early voting state. A 2000 compromise removed it from the dome, though it remains on the Statehouse grounds and flies next to a Confederate soldier memorial beside one of the busiest streets in the city. [AP]

In most states, Romney’s comments wouldn’t be a problem. In South Carolina however, this could be the kiss of death for a candidate relying on conservative voters.

And don’t be surprised to see a few more groups make statements along the same lines as the SCV in the days to come.

It’s been about two months since we’ve had a video of the day. Why? I don’t know. Don’t ask such stupid questions.

And speaking of stupid questions, here’s a painful clip of former American Idol contestant and current country music star Kellie Pickler doing her best Miss Teen South Carolina impression… only it’s not an impersonation, it’s the real deal.

From the Boston Globe:

A man walked into Hillary Clinton’s campaign office in Rochester, N.H., this afternoon with what looked like a bomb strapped to his body and is holding two volunteers hostage, according to police and a campaign official.

The man walked into the office on North Main Street at about 12:55 p.m., said Captain Anthony Colarusso of the Dover Police Department, which is part of a regional tactical response team. Police have been in contact with the man inside the office, Colarusso said.

Bill Shaheen, a top state campaign official, said that the man was holding two volunteers hostage, according to the Associated Press.

According to television reports, heavily armed police holding riot shields and wearing helmets arrived on the street in an armored truck at about 3 p.m. Nearby businesses have been evacuated.

Rochester police Captain Paul Callahan said in a live interview on New England Cable News that police received a call just after 1 p.m.

“Right now we are handling this as a hostage situation,” Callahan said.

Callahan would not say whether the person had a weapon or how many people were being held hostage. Clinton is not in New Hampshire today. She is scheduled to speak at the Democratic Party’s annual fall meeting in Vienna, Va. [JAMES PINDELL - Boston Globe]

MSNBC is reporting that the campaigns of Barack Obama, John Edwards, Mitt Romney and John McCain, all of whom have nearby offices, have either been evacuated or are “on lockdown.”

In politics things get dirty, and the words can be harsh, but it should never turn to violence or threats of physcial injury. I hope and pray this will be resolved without anyone being harmed.

I’m glad to see that Dan Hoover remembered that he has a blog and has decided to post something again after a two week hiatus. Upon his return, he’s been doing some speculating on the 2010 gubernatorial race.

Hoover first writes about the Wilkins brothers, who are both rumored to be eying the governor’s mansion.

Judge William Wilkins will address the GOP’s First Monday Club, next Monday, of course, but don’t read anything into it.

It’s not a gubernatorial coming out party, Wilkins says, just a speech on judicial activism by a senior judge of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Wilkins says he’s aware of the speculation, but has no plans for the 2010 race and just wants to enjoy the more relaxed life that senior status allows.

And Hoover is also contemplating the consequences of one likely candidate’s choice to run.

With increasingly strong expectations that 3rd District U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett will run for governor in 2010, speculation is rising as to potential would-be successors.

“I’d certainly give it serious reflection,” says state Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, of a possible open seat.

Barrett, of Westminster, has been making the rounds far beyond his district’s boundaries and while he’s still playing it cagey, some constituents think the decision has been all but made.

Other names being circulated include state Sen. Tom Alexander, R-Walhalla; state Reps. Rex Rice, R-Easley; Jeff Duncan, R-Laurens; and Michael Thompson, R-Anderson, plus Pendleton Mayor Carol Burdette.

While all this speculating is fantastic, what it really comes down to are the odds, baby. So with that, I present my incomplete, unexplained and unscientific tote board for the 2010 Republican primary:

1. Attorney General Henry McMaster………………… 2:1
2. Congressman Gresham Barrett……………………. 4:1
3. House Speaker Bobby Harrell……………………….. 5:1
4. Ambassador David Wilkins……………………………. 11:1
5. Lt. Governor Andre Bauer…………………………….. 27:2
6. State Senator Jim Ritchie………………………………. 19:1
7. Judge Billy Wilkins………………………………………….. 66:1
8. Nobody Rick Beltram……………………………………… 276,319,520,923:1

If you disagree, then good for you.

If you care about GOP politics in South Carolina, and you are at all concerned with the inner-structure of the state’s Republican Party, then boy have I got news for you! Actually, it’s not really exciting enough to warrant the exclamation point, but it’s a shred of news on an otherwise slow Friday.

According to SC Hotline, South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson is expected to announce Jay W. Ragley as the party’s next Executive Director at the State Executive Committee meeting Saturday. I don’t know what the executive director of the SCGOP does per se, but it sounds important so congratulations to Monsieur Ragley.

Ragley leaves his previous position as, yes, the executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business (note: if you’re interested in applying for this position, it’s currently listed on Monster.com). Maybe he’s just a career director of executives.

And this isn’t Ragley’s first stint with the SCGOP. Prior to the NFIB gig, he was the party’s political director, where presumably he directed politics. Even more priorist to that, Ragley worked as a legislative assistant for Rep. Gresham Barrett.

As for his predecessor, Hogan Gidley, I can only assume he got a sweeter deal with someone else. And you know what happens when I assume… I’m always right!

(Hogan, if you’re reading this, you can tell me all about your sweet new job via e-mail at editor at palmettoscoop dot com)
________

Photo: Jay Ragley. Courtesy of NFIB.

I wrote Tuesday that Sen. Jake Knotts and WCBD-TV submitted Freedom of Information requests for the Carolinians for Reform organization, a nonprofit group that received a very generous donation of $101,524 from Gov. Mark Sanford.  But that money came from a leftover coffer of public money raised for last year’s National Governors Association meeting in Charleston, and in turn should not have been used to promote Sanford’s political agenda.

Now FITSNews is reporting that the governor will be officially investigated by a Senate panel as early as January.

A well-placed source within the S.C. Senate says that a formal investigation of Gov. Mark Sanford’s competitive grant “scandal” will be announced “as soon as the legislature reconvenes (in the second week of January), if not sooner.” [FITSNews]

With the ongoing war between Sanford and the legislature at it’s height, expect this to get real ugly.

He’s been a U.S. Senate candidate — if you can even really call him that — for less than three weeks now in an election that’s more than six months away, but former RNC National Committeeman Buddy Witherspoon is already embroiled in a mess that threatens to sink his fledgling campaign. And rather than deal with it, he’s chosen to take the Bill Clinton approach and deny, deny, deny.

The Palmetto Scoop wrote Tuesday that Witherspoon has alleged ties to the Ku Klux Klan and is a card-carrying member of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC), from which he was asked to resign by numerous national and state party officials. But on Wednesday, he vehemently denied those charges, telling the Spartanburg Herald Journal that it was “absurd” to suggest he was ever a member of such a group.

Some political Web sites on Tuesday claimed that Witherspoon had ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens as recently as 1999. The organization has been branded a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League and says in its mission statement that it opposes “all efforts to mix the races of mankind.”

The group’s Web site posted Witherspoon’s campaign schedule.

“Those claims are totally absurd,” Witherspoon said. “It’s unfortunate that just because you disagree with an individual and stand up to the plate that this sort of thing happens. I’ve been to one meeting years ago where I introduced a U.S. congressman, and that was it.” [CHRISTINE BOUSH - Herald Journal]

But in 1999, Witherspoon was quoted in the Washington Post as saying he belonged to the group, which the story said was created from the ashes of the segregationist White Citizens Councils, the John Birch Society and activists in the presidential campaigns of then-Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace.

In South Carolina, Republican National Committeeman Buddy Witherspoon is a member of the group. It was at his invitation that Barr addressed a national council meeting in Charleston last year.

Witherspoon said: “I’m a member. I’m not that active, I don’t go to all the things.” He described the organization as a regular conservative advocacy group. “They have always been people I have had no problem with,” he said. “Everything to me is fine from what I see and hear.” [THOMAS B. EDSALL - Washington Post]

Yes, a “regular conservative advocacy group” that claims it’s mission is to “oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called ‘affirmative action’ and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.”

Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the kind of advocacy South Carolinians want from their U.S. Senator.

________

Photo: Buddy Witherspoon. Courtesy of Spartanburg Herald Journal.

It’s hard to say who I would root for in a matchup between the American Civil Liberties Union and Clemson University. On one hand, you have a group of over-the-top, malevolent communists who use taxpayer dollars to fund their radical anti-American agenda, and on the other hand you have the ACLU.

I’m kidding of course… or am I?

Anyway, it turns out that we may get to see this epic battle unfold not on the gridiron, but in the courtroom. That’s because the ACLU doesn’t like the fact that Clemson head football coach Tommy Bowden encourages his players to attend a church service prior to the preseason.

That criticism has prompted the university to change a policy related to that annual event.

ACLU officials said that they have gotten complaints from some football players in recent years about Bowden’s “Church Day” tradition.

“We’ve been told he exerted some pressure on his football players to attend church as a mandatory event,” ACLU Religious Liberties Task Force chairman Neil Caesar said. “Apparently it was a different church each year . The students were strongly encouraged to attend.”

Clemson officials provided WYFF News 4 a copy of the letter Bowden sent out to parents earlier this summer, before the ACLU contacted the school.

“My Christian faith is something I take seriously, but it is not my position to impose this on someone else,” Bowden said in the letter. “Having said this, I strongly recommend attendance at a local church once per year as a team.

Clemson spokeswoman Cathy Sams said that the University has not received any complaints about the practice, but that university-owned buses will not be used to take the players to the services, which Sams stressed are voluntary.

“We don’t believe there is a violation of any laws or student rights,” Sams said. “In the past years, university buses were used and we do feel that’s probably not appropriate. In the future students will provide their own transportation.” [WYFF]

Exerted pressure to attend church? Give me a freaking break. What Bowden needs to do is use his fist to exert some pressure to this Caesar dude’s face.

Seriously, just because this guy’s name is Caesar he thinks he can go around harassing Christians? Someone needs to teach Mr. “Task Force Chairman” a history lesson because I think Caesar got assassinated for that kind of stuff.

I’m not sure what legal grounds they have to take the school to court, but rest assured that wherever there’s someone practicing Christianity, the ACLU will be there to stop them (And wherever there’s someone practicing the distribution-of-child-porn religion, the ACLU will be there to protect them as well).

So what’s my prediction? The ACLU will play a strong first quarter but Clemson’s defense will eventually prove too tough. Look for a close score at halftime with Clemson dominating the second half because the ACLU are basically a bunch of NAMBLA-loving sissies. Clemson wins by at least four votes.

_______

(h/t S.C. Appellate Law Blog)