Graham speaks out against Senate healthcare plan

Graham says backroom deals on health care will end bi-partisanship

JANUARY 19, 2010 4:17 p.m. (0)

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham came back to Greenville today and urged Democrats in Washington to “stop and start over” on healthcare reform.

The Senate plan under consideration would expand Medicaid benefits to millions of Americans by raising the income level to qualify while introducing cost savings that the bill’s advocates say would allow about $480 billion in cuts to Medicare.  Continue reading...

 

Who is Jim DeMint?

The senator from South Carolina

OCTOBER 22, 2010 8:39 a.m. (2)

Jim DeMint is riding a tea party wave into national prominence that could see him go from Republican outsider to a powerbroker in the United States Senate, political observers said last week.

If DeMint’s stable of tea party insurgents win on Nov. 2, he could become the leader of a coalition of hyper-conservatives with tremendous power in a sharply divided Senate.

Currently, he enjoys regular Republican support from Sens. Tom Coburn and James Inhofe, both of Oklahoma.  Continue reading...

 

"Now it's our turn"

Immigration, health care repeal on governor elect's to-do list

NOVEMBER 4, 2010 12:02 p.m. (0)

Governing South Carolina next year won’t be for the faint of heart and Tuesday night Nikki Haley looked like she was so ready to jump in she was giddy.

Consider: South Carolina’s unemployment rate is 11 percent, sixth highest in the nation.

State government likely will have $1 billion less to spend. This year’s budget is $21 billion.  Continue reading...

 

Gowdy goes to Washington

The freshman congressman talks values, voting and his dream for District 4

NOVEMBER 16, 2010 8:18 a.m. (4)

You can almost see Jimmy Stewart in his role as Jefferson Smith smiling in the background when Trey Gowdy talks about his plans as the newly minted Congressman from the 4th District.

On a surface level, at least, there are seeming similarities between Gowdy’s vision of his role as a congressman and the naïveté of the Boy Ranger leader turned senator portrayed by Stewart in “Mr. Smith goes to Washington.”

Certainly, there is dead-ringer likeness between Gowdy and the movie character in passion for ideals and it was ideals that propelled Gowdy to his stunningly one-sided victory over veteran congressman Bob Inglis in the June primary runoff.  Continue reading...

 

Let the politics begin

Charles Sowell blogs from the GOP debate: UPDATED 10:35 pm:

MAY 5, 2011 10:13 p.m. (3)

10:35 pm: The big surprises in tonight's debate were how well Herman Cain and Tim Pawlenty played before mainstream South Carolina Republicans. Ron Paul will come out of tonight's debate with his tea party base intact. How far that will carry him through the primary season remains to be seen. In the end, Obama holds the bully pulpit of incumbency against a still unformed GOP field.

10:30 pm: We're down to the joke questions now, the feel good kind of stuff that's designed to take some of the sting out of earlier questioning. Not that there was much sting in this particular debate – unless you happen to be President Obama.

10:18 pm: Ron Paul defends his stance on freedom of choice (he's for personal freedom to use drugs if a state allows it) by comparing it to First Amendment rights. "We don't have the First Amendment to talk about the weather. We have it so we can talk about controversial things." Former New Mexico Gov. Johnson took a similar stance. How that will play with socially conservative South Carolinians remains to be seen, outside of the tea party.  Continue reading...

 

Religious leaders stay out of GOP contest

No presidential hopefuls have visited former campaign staple Bob Jones University

JANUARY 19, 2012 1:33 p.m. (0)

The religious right and tea party are badly fragmented going into Saturday’s South Carolina Republican Primary with usual power brokers like Bob Jones III and Southern Baptist leaders wielding little influence over their flocks, political observers say.

Bob Jones University has, for decades, been what has been termed one of the stations of the cross for Republican presidential hopefuls hoping to make an impression in socially conservative South Carolina.

This year not a single presidential hopeful has visited the campus and Jones hasn’t endorsed Gov. Mitt Romney’s bid as he did in 2008. Romney, who was about a 10 minute drive from the BJU campus last week in Greer, didn’t bother to come over to see Jones.  Continue reading...