Loading ...
CRITICS SAY GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE USING BLOGGER TO ATTACK HOUSE SPEAKER
The local blog FITSNews has recently unleashed a particularly nasty barrage of attacks on South Carolina House Speaker Bobby Harrell.
And critics charge that it may not be about issues, but rather part of a calculated campaign strategy by gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley to make the Speaker a target.
“She knows there’s no way she can truly take on the big three gubernatorial candidates, so she’s going to campaign against someone who isn’t even running,” a source told The Palmetto Scoop. “It’s kind of a sad strategy, but I guess it’s the best she’s got.”
So Haley has allegedly turned to FITSNews blogger Bill Folks, who has a long history of writing overly-flattering posts about the Lexington County representative and last year received at least $700 from her State House campaign for consulting and other services.
The source particularly referenced a Wednesday hit piece on Harrell which claimed the Speaker went on a “tirade” after the State Republican Party Convention last month.
The alleged target of Harrell’s anger? According to Folks (no stranger to tirades himself), “the ‘Ron Paul wing’ of the Republican Party” — not coincidentally, the very people Haley is hoping will bolster her candidacy.
“Harrell… was received at the convention with cool, detached formality – in large part because most of the people in the room knew he didn’t belong there,” Folks wrote. “That tepid reception wasn’t lost on the thin-skinned RINOcrat Speaker, who reportedly vented his spleen at the next meeting of House Republican whips.”
Folks continued, “Calling SCGOP convention-goers ‘fringe’ Republicans, Harrell also reportedly referred to them collectively as the ‘Ron Paul wing’ of the Republican Party. He is then said to have mocked Gov. [Mark] Sanford’s repeated portrayals of fiscal conservatives as a ’silent majority,’ saying they were a ‘vocal minority’ in his book.”
But State Rep. Bill Herbkersman (R-Beaufort), who called the whips meeting at which Harrell is alleged to have made the remarks, said the “tirade” never happened.
“Nothing like that was ever said. It’s not the arena for that type of conversation,” Herbkersman said. “In a whips meeting, you talk about who the whips are. There’s no room or time to talk about anything else.”
Herbkersman added that “if it was brought up at any point, it was between the Speaker and [another member].”
According to a source who spoke with TPS, the FITSNews post took Harrell’s comments and “actually reversed the position the Speaker took on it.”
Said the source, “One member, in talking about many of the Ron Paul-type supporters there, referred to them as a ‘fringe group.’ The Speaker actually spoke up for them giving them credence.
“He said that, while they may be a minority in the party, they were a very vocal group and we should not write them off,” the source continued. “Being such a strong voice in our party, they should be heard.”
So why would Haley and Folks make such blatantly questionable attacks on the Speaker of the House? Critics say they are trying to elevate Harrell to be target in the gubernatorial race.
“She’s going to be running against Bobby Harrell for governor even though he’s not running,” our source said. “He can’t define himself in a race he’s not even involved in, so they’re going to define him and then try to beat him.”
The only straw man I see here is the anonymous claim that Haleys campaign strategy is to run against Bobby Harrell.
You know this post really has nothing to do with Representative Haley, right? All you do is attack Folks throughout and try to link Haley by mentioning a campaign consulting fee from LAST election. You never mention any direct attacks made by Haley.
And while you link to the FITSNew’s “long history” of writing pro-Haley articles, you forgot to mention the equally long history of anti-Harrell articles as well (http://www.fitsnews.com/?s=Bobby+Harrell&x=0&y=0). These attacks have been occurring well before Haley announced her candidacy.
And then you write this:
“So why would Haley and Folks make such blatantly questionable attacks on the Speaker of the House? Critics say they are trying to elevate Harrell to be target in the gubernatorial race.”
“Haley and Folks”? When in your article did you prove that Haley had anything to do with the attacks?
And “critics”? Who are these critics? By my count you only had one anonymous source mentioned in the article that claimed Haley was making the Speaker a target. Where are the rest?
Does the author of this blog still work for a political consulting company that is currently has a retainer with Henry McMaster and is and will be doing work on his gubernatorial campaign? If so then I would have appreciated a disclaimer on this article. That would have been appropriate.
But remember, We the People are tired of the establishment.
The ” big three” candidates as you call them are all losers, lousy , and none should be elected in this state.
I don’t know a thing about Ms. Haley but I do know something about McMaster, Barrett and Bauer.
None of the above get any attention from me because they are all losers, elite, part of our continuing problem in this state.
SC will get better when a human being runs the joint
Representative Haley will be a breath of freash air to this race. She is intelligent, articulate and more important, a conservative. Her record and reputation show that she may be exactly what this state needs.
The allegation against Haley & Folk are too bizarre by half for an
obvious reason:
. TPS has drawn more public attention to the episode than it would have or could have otherwise received or meritted.
More likely, this is some feeble shenanigans by Bobby Harrell’s backers (the parasitic lawyer lobby) attempting to crush Haley (a real producer with potential to be S.C.’s Bobby Jindal) before she gains real momentum.
Haley (a real producer with potential to be S.C.’s Bobby Jindal) before she gains real momentum.*Dino
God help South Carolina if Rep Haley decides to get a sex change operation and become another Booby Jindal Speech Therapist on National Republican politics…..
Doc on Call- Girl, you are a Cary, N.C. lawyer & former judicial candidate who lost her job. Do your erstwhile passtimes include inflicting scurrilous inuendo on other state’s politicians?
Your writings, rather rants seem a bit prolix, if I may say so. How gratuitously you trashed Jindal and Haley in only one, meaningless sentance fragment (above), however.
My suggestion: try journalism where your unsupported blather will be welcomed.
- A South Carolina independent voter, who has a major problem with lawyers of any political bent in politics.