Yeah, yeah, so people may be wondering what it is about South Carolina. First, Gov. Mark Sanford didn't hike the Appalachian Trail. Now, some blogger is saying he had something going on with guberatorial candidate (and Republican frontrunner) Nikki Haley.
And The New York Times, that stodgy newspaper from way back, is picking up on it. Here's the skinny from NewsBusters:
N.Y. Times Published Unproven Adultery Claims of Nikki Haley -- After a John Edwards Blackout: "
Clay Waters of MRC's Times Watch project noticed this week that the The New York Times was just as guilty as The Washington Post of jumping on the unsubstantiated adultery charges against female GOP gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley in South Carolina:
[Reporter Shaila] Dewan used the sex scandal of former South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford as an excuse to suggest, without substance like emails or phone messages, that the claims by blogger Will Folks fit a pattern of sexual bad behavior in the Palmetto State: “Scandal Rattles Politics In South Carolina, Again.” The text box to Wednesday's print story worked in the party identification: “A blogger says he had an affair with a G.O.P. candidate for governor.”
The treatment of a fairly obscure Republican politician stands in sharp contrast to the paper's blackout of the amply documented affair of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. The Times totally ignored the Edwards affair until the candidate himself confessed on ABC News, then, when its own public editor criticized the paper's lack of coverage, editors made hypocritical excuses.
Dewan certainly didn't do much hedging around the claims of blogger Will Folks, relaying the accusation with a tone of near-giddiness:
Virginia may be for lovers, but sultry South Carolina is beginning to earn a reputation as the state for extramarital madness.
This state was just starting to shake off the embarrassing spectacle of Gov. Mark Sanford, who is limping out of office after admitting to an affair last year, giving late-night hosts a new laugh line with his initial cover-up: that he had been hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
But now, one of Mr. Sanford’s political allies -- who is a top contender to succeed him -- finds herself embroiled in a possible sex scandal of her own.
Only two weeks before a highly competitive Republican primary for governor, the candidate, State Representative Nikki Haley, has been hit by charges, leveled by one of her supporters, that she had an “inappropriate physical relationship” with him three years ago.
On Tuesday the supporter, Will Folks, a blogger and political consultant, promised to document claims that he had had a relationship with Ms. Haley.
Ms. Haley, who leapt to frontrunner status last week, days after an endorsement by Sarah Palin, issued a strong denial, saying, “I have been 100 percent faithful to my husband throughout our 13 years of marriage.”
A couple of thoughts here. Nothing's proved yet, and the accuser, a Columbia-based blogger named Will Folks, who calls himself "Sic Willie," is highly suspect. Check out his blog (which he bills as "unfair, imbalanced") sometime. Folks himself -- well, the word is he's pretty sketchy. Don't know whether it's his 2005 guilty plea to a domestic violence charge or his "hot as hell" description of Haley in 2008 that feeds this.
According to Sic Willie:
"We’re frequently accused of showing a little too much love to S.C. Rep. Nikki Haley, to which we can only say “we wish” (ba doom ching) ... but seriously, why wouldn’t we show love to Nikki? In addition to being one of the few fiscal conservatives in state government willing to stand up for what she believes in, Haley is hot as hell, people, and if showering her with our unceasing affection is wrong, we don’t wanna be right ..."
Folks sounds like one of those NATO types to me:
No Action, Talk Only.
And it seems like a lot of voters are seeing right through him. Haley still holds a 10-point lead in the Republican primary; that has not budged. She's picked up endorsements from the Republican Liberty Caucus and Myrtle Beach TEA Party just within the past couple of days.
If rumors of an affair are true, than Haley should probably step out of the race.
For having bad taste.
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