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SNARKYNESS IS GETTING OLD
In the Republican corner of South Carolina politics, it’s always been important to have traits shared by our elephant mascot: A thick skin and a long memory. That thick skin and long memory has undoubtedly come in handy recently as South Carolina’s political Twitterland and its brethren blogosphere have been nothing more than one giant spit ball fight filled snarky comments from all factions of the left and the right.
A casual observer would almost think that South Carolina’s political operative class was nothing more than a group of folks who shared the smarts and sophomoric sophistication of Anchorman’s most erudite reporter Brick Tamland, who famously invited the future Mrs. Ron Burgandy, Veronica Corningstone, to “the pants party.”
The purpose of this piece is not to point fingers — we’ve all made our comments, yours truly included — but to draw attention to the fact that we’re all above the behavior of late.
One South Carolina political operative, former Joe Wilson Campaign Manager Michael Rentiers, had it right the other evening when Twitter was burning up with the crossfire of yet another audio-visual club spit-ball fight.
Staying within the succinct confines of Twitter’s 140 character cap, Rentiers stated, “logging in to see folks with no cajones in the real world all trash talking each other on Twitter. Keyboard jockeys…”
Rentiers is right.
For those who had better things to do on a Monday evening than watch Tweets ping back and forth, the entire thing started with The Palmetto Scoop’s esteemed editor Adam Fogle posting a dry but harmless Tweet about SC Senate GOP Communications Director Wes Donehue’s Twit Pic of his new hat.
Fogle sarcastically mocked Donehue by saying, “Now this is a hat that wins races.”
I sincerely doubt that Fogle intended anything more than a mild jab or to play upon the comments from one of his blog posts which inspired Donehue to begin a series on his blog entitled, “Things I’m Jacked up about.”
Normally, such a Tweet would go unanswered. And it did for about two hours.
But like any good bar room brawl, this audio-visual club cage match began with essentially a sucker punch of a Tweet from Wes Wolfe — a freelance journalist who used to write for the Free-Times who has now become the blogland mouthpiece for First Tuesday Strategies, Warren Tompkins and Terry Sullivan.
Wolfe responded to Fogle by saying, “Yeah, you guys would not know anything about winning races, right? Maybe you should get Piper off Twitter for five minutes.”
The gloves then came flying off as Fogle retorted, “Terry Sullivan called. He said you left your lipstick at his place.”
That comment was greeted with much Twitter laughter and a re-Tweet from CNN producer and a former temporary South Carolina resident Peter Hamby, who used Fogle’s Tweet to espouse why he misses South Carolina politics.
Then came Wolfe’s next bit. “Hey, nobody likes a loser, big boy,” Wolfe wrote. “Maybe you guys should double down and get back to work.”
The audio-visual club shenanigans were finally broken up by Rentiers’ aforementioned Tweet.
The comedy of Wolfe’s Tweet is that he has never been in the arena of a campaign and until now has enjoyed the calm utopia of spewing his snarky comments from the ivory tower of the fourth estate.
While many a political operative is in need of a little ego deflation, the fact is that operatives have been in the arena, worked on campaigns, and toiled for their beliefs in the trenches of democracy.
Then there is this new class of seemingly omniscient bloggers who have never been in the arena, never toiled in the trenches, and never been active in the process. This group is nothing more than the arm chair quarterbacking heckler at a football game or the war protester screaming inanities while our troops are in harm’s way.
Wolfe is one of those hecklers who has never been in the arena but thinks he can coach a football
game or even win a title because he’s undefeated on his version of EA Sports’ Madden 2009.
As a heckler, Wolfe’s comments haven’t been limited to just one rival or another. While many have been directed at those of us who work at 1600 Gervais Street, Wolfe has had his fair share of jeers for folks like South Carolina Republican Party Executive Director Jay W. Ragley as well.
Last night, Wolfe directed this Tweet at Ragley: “Ragley is a moron. You should not argue with morons.”
Wolfe calling Ragley a moron accomplishes nothing and his attacks on the Grand Old Party are not new.
The current culture of the blog wars, Twitter fights, and everything else going on among the political operative class is petty. It’s time for all of us to count to ten before we Tweet whatever caustic thought we have or to abide by the old adage of “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
The only thing more ridiculous than the original actions is dignifying it with a thorough rehashing in the post above
Wes Wolfe was not worth this article.
This line needs to be moved to the top of the article though. “Terry Sullivan called. He said you left your lipstick at his place.”
Thanks for the attention. But, you really should stop getting your panties in a wad and get back to your jobs, which, I thought, were running campaigns. But, if Rick is paying you to talk shit about me on a regular basis, then I guess he is getting his money’s worth.
OK, I apologize for that. No need to escalate the battle.
I will say that Wes Wolfe was man enough to call me after his previous comment to correct some factual inaccuracies in my post.
So here is the correction:
- Wes Wolfe has been in the campaign “arena” before and helped the Democrats in there efforts in 1998 as well as having involvement in some State House campaigns in Florida while at USC.
- Wes also does not play Madden and sold his X-Box.
Wes, if you’re reading this, I do look forward to Wes Wolfe’s future blog post on a proposed detante for the SC Blogosphere and finding ways to rise above the fray.
In eleven franchise seasons on Madden 08, my beloved Colts have lost just once – in a game “last year” to the Philadelphia Eagles. That is at “All-Pro” level, baby. I create and name my players. I make custom jerseys for them to wear. I make sure they all have team color ankle tape. I worry about whether certain imaginary receivers are getting the ball enough. I signed former Gamecock Sidney Rice to a long-term deal, even though in the year 2020 he’s pushing 40.
I have a problem. I am a loser.
Wait, are we supposed to be talking about politics?
Wes,
You are clearly the fat kid from middle school who was picked on a lot. Then you got a computer and pretended to be Harden Gervais or John Vierdsen so that you could let out some of your pent up rage and insecurity from being the kid who stood alone in the corner at the 8th grade dance wearing a Hawaiian t-shirt, cargo shorts, and Chuck Taylor’s with no socks.
I don’t see the connection between Wes Wolfe and the Warren Tompkins/First Tuesday. As far as I can tell Wes Wolfe is a former reporter for an alternative liberal-leaning newspaper in Columbia who has also worked on Democratic campaigns. Now his blog is somehow connected to or affiliated with one of the top GOP consultants in SC?
We wonder why the level of discourse in politial campaigns in SC has sunk to such levels. SC has created this subculture of political “operatives”. I’d be willing to bet that most of these folks were the fat kid in the corner at the dance.
Have we gotten so pathetic as a state that a person cannot simply run a campaign with dedicated volunteers. I know that is naive, but all these self-important, pompous asses strutting around in their ill-fitting suits, wearing bow ties they just learned how to tie, or even worse, ascots, makes me sick to the stomach.
Riley, you obviously don’t read his blog. I don’t blame you… nobody else reads it either.
One can read this stuff and just feel the love. Thank God I work in the private sector, where we don’t engage in these kinds of pissing matches with our competitors.
Some years ago I was in [a foreign country] having a nice lunch at a quaint outdoor cafe with [a local offical]. Down the street about a half block away a fight broke out. First between two guys, then several others joined in. “I wonder what that’s about.” I said to my companion. He looked at the brawl for a few seconds then at his watch. “One o’clock.” he said, returning to his meal
“They’re fighting over the time of day?”
“No. It’s one o’clock. It’s what those people do at one o’clock.”
The juvenile nonsense above reminded me of that. I wonder why?
Garnet, your theory is as good as anything I can think of.