Columbia needs to get together ( Mark Sanford and the House)
The Democrats are laughing at us. We have to unify now others we will have a rough night come Novemeber. Mark Sanford and the State Legisalture needs to come together and from some type of truce.
Sanford-House relationship hits new low
By CINDI ROSS SCOPPE
Associate Editor
BACK IN 1988, the Capitol was in a state of shock when a back-bench Republican stood at the House lectern and referred dismissively to then-Gov. Carroll Campbell as “the sovereign downstairs.”
Last week, the House’s Republican majority leader stood on that same spot and told his colleagues that “it’s good to stick our finger in the governor’s eye, and he deserves it quite frankly.”
That’s not the astounding part. The astounding part is that Rep. Jim Merrill’s comments prefaced his effort to rally the House to support fellow Republican Gov. Mark Sanford. Or at least, that was the closest anyone came to supporting the governor’s demand that lawmakers return to Columbia a week earlier than usual, so they could override his budget vetoes before the primary.
The raucous session was punctuated by applause as the voting board lit up in green defiance of the governor. Even mild-mannered Rep. Ted Pitts urged fellow Republicans to reject Mr. Sanford’s attempt “to politically try to box us in on this.” That prompted lawmakers to chant “Call his bluff! Call his bluff!” Final tally: Sanford 21; House 80.
It was the most extraordinary repudiation of a governor that I’ve seen in nearly two decades covering the General Assembly. And that includes the times the governor’s party was in the minority.
Other votes against governors have been at least related to policy differences. When lawmakers override Mr. Sanford’s vetoes, they’re not just rejecting his ideas; they’re also standing up for bills they already voted to pass.
But this time it was different. The House was in open revolt.
Speaker Bobby Harrell sponsored the proposal to acquiesce to the governor. He told me the next day he was struck not just by the Wednesday evening uprising but by the number of House members who thanked him afterwards for not trying to browbeat them into going along.
“It really shows you the undercurrent of feelings in here,” he said. “There’s a difference between being willing to work together — and members of the House are willing to work with the governor — and how you feel about someone personally. What you saw last night was a reflection of those feelings.... It’s sad.”
“The frustration,” Mr. Harrell said, “is every time I think we’re about to get along better, the governor’s office does something that just hits people wrong.”
Things weren’t actually starting to get better this time. The uprising came a day after Mr. Sanford’s opponent in next week’s primary, Dr. Oscar Lovelace, showed up on the House floor to be introduced as “doctor of the day,” through a program run by the S.C. Medical Association. He was greeted by wild applause from House Republicans.
Rep. Joe Neal told me later that he and most other Democrats sat on their hands, staring at each other in amazement at the display. “This hatred of the governor has almost gotten to the point that it is maniacal,” he said. “They hate him. They hate him.”
It’s the Senate that has traditionally been unable to get along with governors. But the fact that there have been no similar outbursts across the hall probably has less to do with any warmth toward the governor than with senators’ confidence.
When Mr. Sanford threatened to call a special session, Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell gathered senior senators from both parties and began devising the plan that ultimately made it impossible for the governor to act. “The Senate, much more than being angry, was determined,” he said.
Mr. Sanford is unfazed by the uproar. At first, he dismissed it, saying “people get so excitable about disagreeing.” Then the man whose most memorable insult to the House involved carrying squealing, defecating piglets up to the House chamber added, “people say a stuck hog squeals.”
The way the governor sees it, lawmakers are angry because he’s pushing so hard to bring transparency and accountability to government.
The way Mr. McConnell sees it, the governor just made it a lot harder for him to convince fellow senators “that they need to give the executive more power.”
The way Mr. Harrell sees it, the governor and his staff need to read How to Win Friends and Influence People. “On second thought,” he said, “they could just read the title: how to influence people by winning friends.”
Sanford-House relationship hits new low
By CINDI ROSS SCOPPE
Associate Editor
BACK IN 1988, the Capitol was in a state of shock when a back-bench Republican stood at the House lectern and referred dismissively to then-Gov. Carroll Campbell as “the sovereign downstairs.”
Last week, the House’s Republican majority leader stood on that same spot and told his colleagues that “it’s good to stick our finger in the governor’s eye, and he deserves it quite frankly.”
That’s not the astounding part. The astounding part is that Rep. Jim Merrill’s comments prefaced his effort to rally the House to support fellow Republican Gov. Mark Sanford. Or at least, that was the closest anyone came to supporting the governor’s demand that lawmakers return to Columbia a week earlier than usual, so they could override his budget vetoes before the primary.
The raucous session was punctuated by applause as the voting board lit up in green defiance of the governor. Even mild-mannered Rep. Ted Pitts urged fellow Republicans to reject Mr. Sanford’s attempt “to politically try to box us in on this.” That prompted lawmakers to chant “Call his bluff! Call his bluff!” Final tally: Sanford 21; House 80.
It was the most extraordinary repudiation of a governor that I’ve seen in nearly two decades covering the General Assembly. And that includes the times the governor’s party was in the minority.
Other votes against governors have been at least related to policy differences. When lawmakers override Mr. Sanford’s vetoes, they’re not just rejecting his ideas; they’re also standing up for bills they already voted to pass.
But this time it was different. The House was in open revolt.
Speaker Bobby Harrell sponsored the proposal to acquiesce to the governor. He told me the next day he was struck not just by the Wednesday evening uprising but by the number of House members who thanked him afterwards for not trying to browbeat them into going along.
“It really shows you the undercurrent of feelings in here,” he said. “There’s a difference between being willing to work together — and members of the House are willing to work with the governor — and how you feel about someone personally. What you saw last night was a reflection of those feelings.... It’s sad.”
“The frustration,” Mr. Harrell said, “is every time I think we’re about to get along better, the governor’s office does something that just hits people wrong.”
Things weren’t actually starting to get better this time. The uprising came a day after Mr. Sanford’s opponent in next week’s primary, Dr. Oscar Lovelace, showed up on the House floor to be introduced as “doctor of the day,” through a program run by the S.C. Medical Association. He was greeted by wild applause from House Republicans.
Rep. Joe Neal told me later that he and most other Democrats sat on their hands, staring at each other in amazement at the display. “This hatred of the governor has almost gotten to the point that it is maniacal,” he said. “They hate him. They hate him.”
It’s the Senate that has traditionally been unable to get along with governors. But the fact that there have been no similar outbursts across the hall probably has less to do with any warmth toward the governor than with senators’ confidence.
When Mr. Sanford threatened to call a special session, Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell gathered senior senators from both parties and began devising the plan that ultimately made it impossible for the governor to act. “The Senate, much more than being angry, was determined,” he said.
Mr. Sanford is unfazed by the uproar. At first, he dismissed it, saying “people get so excitable about disagreeing.” Then the man whose most memorable insult to the House involved carrying squealing, defecating piglets up to the House chamber added, “people say a stuck hog squeals.”
The way the governor sees it, lawmakers are angry because he’s pushing so hard to bring transparency and accountability to government.
The way Mr. McConnell sees it, the governor just made it a lot harder for him to convince fellow senators “that they need to give the executive more power.”
The way Mr. Harrell sees it, the governor and his staff need to read How to Win Friends and Influence People. “On second thought,” he said, “they could just read the title: how to influence people by winning friends.”
posted by SCGOP at 5:04 AM
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