South Carolina: Where the rubber meets the road

Atlanta, the metropolis, identifies with several well-established brands -- Coca-Cola and CNN among them -- and is capital of the South itself, with Georgia generally known for peaches and peanuts. So Georgia feeds its people two ways, with the fruits of the earth and with intelligence about their world.

North Carolina transitioned from tobacco and marine fisheries to Research Triangle Park, merging entrepreneurial high-tech with the highest standards of public and private higher education, and the fine furniture mecca of the eastern seaboard. No mean feat: North Carolina, we might say, has made itself a leader in equipping its population with the best of interior and exterior living.

And we -- we, here in South Carolina -- we've been so proud to let our tourism industry do the heavy lifting on the coast, and to help BMW build monuments to itself in the Upstate, that we neglected to notice how our own standing in our world has shifted. Tourism gives tourists attractions to visit; BMW gives them fine conveyances by which to get here and to leave.

Let's not quibble over Boeing with its Dreamliner 787 in North Charleston; who in South Carolina expects to ride a Dreamliner 787 from Charleston to Columbia? From Myrtle Beach to Greenville? From Aiken to Rock Hill? Indeed, the example of Boeing's contribution to our social and cultural lives is almost the worst: Through Boeing, we in South Carolina produce fine airplanes for faraway people who will enjoy them, not for ourselves.

Yes, Boeing is almost the worst example, but there's a worse one now.

Might we begin changing the signs at the border now? "Welcome to South Carolina, Where The Rubber Meets the Road"?

South Carolina is fast becoming the leading producer and exporter of tires in the United States, overshadowing once-mighty Ohio as the Tire Capital of America.

The Palmetto State recently overtook Ohio – home of Akron, Goodyear and its iconic blimp – as the nation’s No. 1 tire exporter.

In a year or two, experts predict, the state will achieve an even more impressive milestone – it could roll past Oklahoma as the nation’s No. 1 tire manufacturer.

South Carolina has nine active tire plants and two more on the way – more than any other state.

“Clearly, South Carolina is doing a very good job at demonstrating to our manufacturers it’s a very good place to be,” said Dan Zielinski, senior vice president of the Rubber Manufacturers Association, the Washington, D.C., lobbying firm that represents the eight largest tire manufacturers in North American.

So why is South Carolina outpacing other states, even Ohio, for the title of Tire Capital?

“Many say the reason is that South Carolina has a ‘business friendly environment’ – that means it’s a right-to-work state, non-union,” said Bruce Davis, who has covered the tire industry for 33 years at the Akron-based Tire Business magazine. “You can definitely make a case for that. … But there is no one single factor. It’s just the ease of doing business down there, from top to bottom.”

The state’s anti-union stance coupled with low taxes, a ready, comparatively cheap work force, a major port and a central location on the East Coast with substantial interstate highways and rail hubs all are part of the winning formula, experts said.

This is amazing, in that the same words could have been used to describe us during slavery: "a ready, comparatively cheap work force," "a major port and a central location on the East Coast."

In a century -- two centuries, even three centuries -- all that we've changed are the names in charge. And everybody knows it.

“The state is good for getting heavy stuff out and raw materials in,” Davis said.

Those factors allowed South Carolina to nearly triple the number of tires Ohio shipped overseas in 2011, in the process capturing about a third of the nation’s entire export market for tires. The state in 2011 also passed neighboring North Carolina for the No. 2 spot on the tire manufacturing list – for both domestic and foreign markets – and is closing in on No. 1 Oklahoma.

But experts added that the willingness of state, county and municipal governments to work one-on-one with company officials to locate plants, the judicious use of state incentives – others would say generous – along with offers of free land and other local perks are the closers in competitions with other states.

Free land? Free land?

We're giving away free land to corporate masters to locate their factories here, to bring low-paying jobs here? To bring all the air and water pollution that comes with processing raw materials and producing finished vulcanized rubber tires here? Free land, really?

Where exactly is this free land, and why isn't it free to the taxpayers who already live here and pay taxes in South Carolina?

“The state government, county governments and local governments all seem to be mobilizing more resources (than other states),” Davis said. “And it’s not just money.”

I interpret this happytalk to mean that South Carolina's leaders all seem to be selling us and our children cheap to corporate entities who will guarantee life as usual in our frozen-in-place state.

Mark Cook, of the Washington, D.C.,-based Tire Industry Association, agreed that the combination of a business-friendly environment, a strong transportation system, workforce training and incentives – along with personal attention from the mayor’s office and county council chamber to the governor’s mansion and the State House – is paying off.

“That … has all come together to create a perfect storm for South Carolina,” he said. “And those are big factors in its rise in manufacturing overall.”

As an exporter, South Carolina is on a roll across the board:

The state currently holds a 30 percent share of U.S. tire exports.

• Car and light truck/SUV exports were up 52 percent in 2011.

• Overall, the state’s exports increased 21.4 percent in 2011 over 2010, making it the 17th largest exporting state.

• In total, South Carolina shipped some $24.6 billion in goods to 198 countries around the world.

“We are so in the game now,” said Lewis Gossett, chief executive of the S.C. Manufacturing Alliance. “They are all coming for the same reason. They are close to market – whether it’s direct to the customer or to the port. If they need a quality work force, we can get what we need from the technical colleges. These guys can come to South Carolina and get the best service imaginable.”

Did you catch that? "If they need a quality work force, we can get what we need from the technical colleges," the fellow says.

I addressed this point a while back, but it bears repeating:

As South Carolina gradually becomes the vulcanized rubber processor for the nation's automobile industry, the Journal salivates over our willingness to turn our technical colleges into tire-factory training facilities -- and our willingness to fund the training!

What suckers we must look like.

So long as the folks at the top are satisfied, I reckon it'll remain this way.

And those tire export and production numbers will be going up.

All three of the state’s tire companies – Bridgestone, Michelin and now Continental – made major announcements of new plants or expansions in the past year.

• Michelin announced Tuesday it will expand its Earthmover tire plant in Lexington County and build a plant to make the 4-ton tires for heavy construction equipment in Anderson County. The company’s announcement brings its total investment in the state in the past year to about $1 billion and more than 750 new jobs.

• Continental Tire recently broke ground on a $500 million plant in Sumter County that promises 1,600 new jobs by 2021.

• And Bridgestone is investing $1.2 billion to expand its Aiken County operations and hire 850 more workers – the biggest single corporate investment in state history.

For those three projects, the state offered the companies a total of $55 million in incentives, mostly for site preparation. That doesn’t include job-creation tax credits that the companies can apply for later.

“You’re planting a seed and letting it grow,” S.C. Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt said in an interview with The State. “Investment is important, but I’m more interested in the jobs than investment.”

For good reason. The state’s jobless rate has been one of the highest in the nation.

However, South Carolina’s employment rate dropped for the seventh month in a row in February, to 9.1 percent. That’s down 2 full percentage points from its Great Recession-high of 11.1 percent in August 2011.

That and the recent announcements led a North Carolina journalist to pen a blog headlined: “When It Comes to Jobs, the Other Carolina is Ahead.”

Manufacturing was credited with much of that improvement, leading the state’s recovery by adding 28,000 jobs over the past year.

“All sorts of manufacturing jobs are coming here,” said USC economist Joey Von Nessen, adding, as a result, "We’re seeing improving economic conditions across the state."

The numbers are good news for Gov. Nikki Haley, whose approval rating was at 34.5 percent, according to a Winthrop Poll released in December. Republicans insist, however, that subsequent internal polls show her tracking much better.

Haley has made job creation the top priority of her administration, and pundits have said the number of big announcements, led by tire manufacturing, has buoyed her reputation at home as a job creator, while her book tour is ingratiating her with the national media.

“I never knew I loved tires so much,” she said at last week’s Michelin announcement.

If only it was so easy to send our present governor to live elsewhere, I think several hundred thousand of us might spring for a quartet of tires to help her on her way.

In an interview with The State last week, Haley credited her fierce opposition to unions – “we have to keep pushing them out” – and the state’s work force and incentives for the successes.

When I see the word "union," I think of hardworking men and women. In this regard, Haley is absolutely correct: By pushing hardworking men and women away from the table, by keeping hardworking men and women away from the American Dream, she guarantees that corporate masters continue to reign supreme in her state.

But that doesn't make us a democracy, does it? It doesn't even make us a republic. It makes us fascist state. I recall that one of the first things dictators like to do upon seizing control is prohibiting the rights of hardworking men and women to organize themselves.

In fact, I think it was 79 years ago today that the new chancellor of Germany banned union organizing in his country.

The world decided he was a dictator.

What sort of tires do you think a dictator would buy for his own ride?

Pure speculation, of course, but I imagine they'd be tires manufactured with minimal environmental regulations and cheap labor in the best possible business climate.

Welcome to South Carolina, Where the Rubber Meets the Road.

Haley's cleared after threatening legislators

Corey Hutchens of Columbia's Free Times fills us in:

South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley’s defense against an ethics probe into alleged improper behavior as a lawmaker could be summed up succinctly: Clear me or I’ll throw you all under the bus.

According to a copy of Haley’s defense obtained by Free Times, the governor’s lawyer wrote on March 30 to the chairman of the House Ethics Committee that was investigating her that Haley’s “business activities and conduct are commonplace in the Legislature.”

The lawyer also wrote, “To find otherwise would not only impugn the integrity of many other members of the General Assembly, but also that of many of South Carolina's best corporate partners: BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Michelin, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and several others.”

Haley has been under investigation by the secretive legislative ethics panel for a month. Yesterday, the House voted to allow ethics inquiries to become public if the panel finds probable cause for an investigation.

The panel investigated whether Gov. Nikki Haley broke any laws as a House member either by lobbying a state agency on behalf of her employer Lexington Medical Center or by doing secret consulting work for Wilbur Smith and failing to properly abstain from legislation benefiting the engineering firm. Both occurred during the time she represented Lexington County as a Republican in the S.C. House prior to becoming governor in 2010.

Longtime Republican fundraiser John Rainey filed the complaint.

Members of the committee voted 5-1 today to clear Haley of wrongdoing. The lone holdout was the only Democrat serving on the six-member panel.

The committee essentially took Haley’s attorneys and an attorney for the Lexington Medical Center at their word, said House Ethics Committee Chairman Ronald Smith, an Aiken Republican, during an interview with Free Times.

“Were they pleased with everything? No. Did they find cause to proceed further for example to the attorney general’s office … or law enforcement? The committee didn’t find that.”

Smith said the committee didn't do much in the form of an independent investigation into the claims.

"Do we have an investigator on our staff who can go out there and do an investigation like the State Ethics [Commission]? No," he said. "We have one full-time employee."

The State newspaper is reporting the same outcome, but its report includes none of the details of Haley's defense. It offers an anemic quote from Ethics Committee chair Roland Smith, and an explanation from the dissenter, Rep. Laurie Slade Funderburk:

"We found no evidence that she lobbied," said Rep. Roland Smith, R-Aiken and chairman of the committee.

Rep. Laurie Funderburk, D-Kershaw, said a hearing is needed to further dig into the issue, but she was overruled. She cast the sole dissenting vote against dismissing the complaint.

"I was not comfortable dismissing without more facts," Funderburk said. "A hearing would have determined whether there was any wrongdoing."

Score one more against transparency and due process.

Bamberg trustees address lunch money problems

I can understand the need to allow students to charge their meals. Children in poor, rural counties are likely the children of under-employed South Carolinians.

If Governor Nikki Haley finds a spare minute in her day -- I know it must be crowded with national media requests and fashion photographers, all clamoring for an audience with her grace -- she might give some thought to improving the plight of children in her native county.

For now, trustees of the Bamberg school district are left dealing with how to collect lunch money and how to keep the school lunch program afloat with meager resources.

The news comes from reporter Jerry Halmon of the Advertizer-Herald:

There is “a significant problem” in this district collecting lunch money; Bamberg School District One Superintendent Phyllis Schwarting told trustee board members at their March meeting. In offering an administrative rule to go along with policy that is presently in place, the Superintendent noted that by policy students in middle school and elementary school are allowed to charge up to $10 only for meals.

Now students are charging up to $25 worth of meals and are receiving bills of $100 or $200 in the middle, elementary and primary schools. “This has created a significant cash deficit for the food service,” Schwarting commented, adding “we do have to look at something to help us.”

It was noted that typically from $ 8,000 to $ 10,000 is owed to the food service program (which is supposed to be self sufficient) each year. Profits earned in the food service program go to the district to cover part of the $180,000 it (the food lunch program) owed the district a few years ago, but has “come down some the last few years.”

The Superintendent stated the district needed to look at lowering the amount a student could owe for meals to $10, noting that most people could come up with $10 more so than $25 or $50. Board Chair Rita Sease wanted to know if the same policy would apply to adults as well as students, noting that she did not think adults and students should be treated the same.

Superintendent Schwarting said she will bring back a separate policy to address adult lunches, noting that she did not think any changes in the policy could be implemented until next year.

Fashion magazine photographs our present leader

I keep looking for some information in all of this coverage that benefits the children of South Carolina, especially the 700,000 children who attend South Carolina's public schools. But I don't find any.

On her recent media tour to Manhattan, I found chuckle-lines about her stiletto heels being useful in our state's political environment. I found trivia about our state's beverage on "The Colbert Report." I found a foolish controversy over contraception on Barbara Walter's chat-show "The View." I found an inscrutible love-fest prepared for our governor on Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club."

Now I find a glamour magazine describing our governor as "fit and attractive, with a face free of worry lines."

That's worrisome to the children who live in South Carolina's Corridor of Shame, just to name a few tens of thousands. In media mileage, our Corridor of Shame is, let's estimate, a million light years from the glossy pages of a fashion magazine.

Here's what The State had to say about it, by reporter Gina Smith:

The fashion magazine Vogue is featuring Gov. Nikki Haley in its May issue, part of her national promotion of her new book.

The article focuses on Haley’s time in office and includes two photos: one of her on a Lake Murray dock in a striped shirt, the other a leggy Haley leading a staff meeting.

The issue hits newsstands Tuesday.

“Haley in person looks even younger than her age: fit and attractive, with a face free of worry lines,” writes Christopher Cox in Vogue. “She and her advisers stand out from the rest of the Republicans in state government, a chummy bunch of white-haired men who spend a lot of time in the hallways of the state house telling jokes and greeting one another with intimate arm grasps.”

The article had the State House abuzz Thursday — and spawned a new round of sharp words from critics.

“What is the benefit to the working people of this state for their governor to be standing on some beach, wherever it is, taking pictures?” said House Minority Leader Harry Ott, D-Calhoun.

Haley spent two weeks this month – while House members were furloughed – promoting her memoir, “Can’t Is Not An Option,” on a national media tour and at book signings in South Carolina. The Senate also was furloughed one of those weeks.

Haley told The State she was monitoring state government, via phone and meetings, while on tour.

Former first lady Jenny Sanford also appeared in Vogue in September 2009, where she discussed the infidelity of then-husband, Gov. Mark Sanford.

It defies rational thought and good taste.

The Vogue text itself is, to be polite, embarrassing.

On a warm morning in early March, governor Nikki Haley calls three members of the South Carolina state legislature into her office. They look like truants sent in to see the principal: Haley is earnest and stern, smartly turned out in a black-and-white ruffled jacket, black pencil skirt, and platform stilettos, while the legislators, in baggy suits and cowboy boots, fidget and make excuses.

Let's read this as the audience outside South Carolina reads this: South Carolina's lawmakers are errant children up to no good; Haley is an icy headmistress, a disciplinarian with a sharp fashion sense.

The stakes seem pretty low -- they are arguing over a restructuring of the department of transportation that would give Haley more control over it -- but one gray-haired representative gets so angry his hands start to shake. He sulkily asks the governor whether she will even be around much longer to see through the agenda she is pressing on them.

The question of who will oversee and control multi-billion-dollar transportation projects in a rural state is such an unimportant one to journalists who cover more impactful issues of the day, like the construction of a smart dinner jacket, and how low this season's hemline will be, and which accessories from last year's collections are being jettisoned as gauche by the hottest new designers.

And, has anyone determined, who exactly was this gray-haired representative whose hands shook in anger at our governor's power grab?

The unspoken assumption here is that Haley, who had endorsed Mitt Romney for president before the South Carolina primary a few weeks earlier, has her eye on a spot on the Romney ticket. Haley assures the representative that she is in South Carolina to stay. “People ask the question, ‘If you’re offered VP, would you take it?’ ” she says after the legislators have left. “No, I won’t take it. I’m not going to leave the people that just gave me this chance.”

How self-serving of our leader.

Conventional wisdom determined months ago that Mitt Romney would prove himself a fool to invite Haley onto his ticket, for approximately 27 pragmatic reasons. But it suits Haley's ambition and narcissism to keep the fires stoked, and to hold herself up as a paragon of principle for declaring herself wedded to South Carolina's people for the long haul.

We have only to ask John Rainey for comment on Haley's principles.

As for sticking by South Carolina's people for the long haul, the people might appreciate a transition in the chief executive's office earlier rather than later.

For nearly 232 years, South Carolinians reliably selected a white male to be their governor, but somehow, in 2010, they chose Haley: 38, Indian-American, a woman. (It might have helped that her predecessor, Mark Sanford, had recently showcased the hazards of allowing men into the highest seat of power.) In her campaign for the nomination she secured the endorsement of both Romney and Sarah Palin -- a pairing you probably won’t see again anytime soon. Since then, she’s routinely been called a rising star in the party, which, when you’re talking about a governor, is code for White House–bound.

Her office, on the ground floor of the state house in Columbia, is just feet away from a Civil War memorial that flies the Confederate flag, but inside it is a different South Carolina.

"A different South Carolina?" A bold pronouncement from a glamour magazine, I'd say. We elected the conservative marked "R" on the ballot, rather than the conservative marked "D"? Checking our history, I'd say that's happened routinely, at least since Haley was in middle school.

On a shelf is the July 12, 2010, issue of Newsweek, with Haley on the cover striking a confident pose next to the words “The face of the new South.”

Using one magazine's deadline-headline to support the case of another: double self-aggrandizement -- and laughable, as the label of "New South" has been commonly misapplied since the 1920s.

Behind her desk sits a model of a Boeing 787 from an assembly facility that opened near Charleston last June.

A toy airplane in the headmistress's office?

And bustling in and out are her staff, who look as though they were piped in directly from a College Republicans meeting. The governor herself is relentlessly upbeat: On the stump she can sound like a motivational speaker. She has trained her team to answer the phone with “It’s a great day in South Carolina!” She repeats the phrase many times over the course of the day.

Haley in person looks even younger than her age: fit and attractive, with a face free of worry lines. She and her advisers stand out from the rest of the Republicans in state government, a chummy bunch of white-haired men who spend a lot of time in the hallways of the state house telling jokes and greeting one another with intimate arm grasps. When I ask her if her colleagues still treat her like a freshman legislator, she insists that “they do recognize that I’m the governor now.”

No doubt. The colloquial phrase for this recognition is "buyer's remorse."

But still, she continues, leaning forward confidingly, “it’s different for the guys upstairs. This is the first time they’ve had a female governor; it’s the first time they’ve had a minority governor.”

Ah, we're back again to minority status in Haleyworld.

Haley is the youngest governor in the nation, one of the scrappy radicals swept into office by the Tea Party in November 2010, and she’s tried to retain the vigor of those heady days.

Scrappy? Made of scraps? Is that really what the writer meant?

The transition has been a struggle: How do you govern after promising revolution? In Washington, the answer is simple: Throw your body against the gears of President Obama’s government. But in South Carolina, Haley has a state to run, hence the diligent courting of the legislators in her office.

The Tea Party, though, may be the most easily disappointed group of voters in the country. As soon it became clear that Haley would not simply hang a for sale sign on the state house and call it a day, her supporters began to desert her. Then her endorsement of Romney (a perceived moderate) really enraged them, leading several to claim they were duped by the governor—that she wasn’t a true conservative at all. Karen Martin, a Tea Party organizer who supported Haley’s election bid, told Bloomberg News that the state’s conservatives were “angry, disappointed, betrayed, hurt.” Haley, though, was convinced that Romney would be the nominee: “I think he’s going to get bruised and battered, but I think that’s what the public wanted to see. They wanted to see somebody that could take that.”

The truth is that Haley may be facing the same sort of battle herself. One statewide poll taken in December had her approval rating at 35 percent.

I'd swear that's inflated.

When Romney was routed by Newt Gingrich in the state primary, a former supporter posted a message on Haley’s Facebook wall: “never forget who elected you Ms Haley—the TEA PARTY just spoke loud and clear to you.” The governor is in danger of pleasing no one: too conservative for Democrats and independents, and too pragmatic for the people who voted her into office.

So, what is she -- exactly what we needed, or too far ahead of her time?

Haley has just written a memoir, Can’t Is Not an Option, that recounts her remarkable rise in South Carolina politics. She was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa in 1972 in Bamberg, a town of a few thousand people midway between Charleston and Columbia. Her parents are from the Punjab, and moved to South Carolina in 1969, raising four children there. Her older brother Mitti remembers Nikki as a happy-go-lucky tomboy with a knack for bringing people together. “She always said she wanted to be the mayor of Bamberg,” he tells me.

What might have been.

The article drones on, but I haven't the stomach, and South Carolina's children haven't the time. They need our attention more.

The self-mythologizing of Nikki Haley

Let's imagine, for a moment, a fashion magazine photo spread featuring the bare legs of former Governor David Beasley, the upswept coiffure of former Governor Carroll Campbell, the smoky come-hither glance of former Governor Mark Sanford.

Across the partisan divide, let's imagine former Governor Jim Hodges squinting icily at a sunset from the bow of a yacht, or former Governor Dick Riley dominating a silk Victorian settee in a fine, tailored smoking jacket and slippers.

Hard to imagine, you say?

Laughable, even?

Perhaps so, as none of these governors offered themselves up as cheesecake to be given the gauzy-filter treatment by a glossy magazine. They were, presumably, about the business of governing South Carolina, not burnishing the imagery of their own mythologies as vaguely-sexualized minor gods.

Governors are photographed, no doubt. All politicians are, and few are immune to the charms of creating one's own legacy. Abraham Lincoln, president during the bloom of photography, made time regularly to be photographed in various locations -- even on the battlefield, flanked by his posing generals.

Having said that, I don't think I ever saw a photo of Lincoln in stilettos and a skirt -- the hem riding just above the knee -- after some obvious time in the hair-stylist's chair, benefitting from a good amount of volumizer and very likely a salon-grade blow dryer.

But I have seen precisely such a photo of our Governor's Mansion's present occupant, Nikki Haley.

If it ever could have been said that Haley never traded on her gender to win the attention of voters, that illusion is good and dead now.

And she needn't reject the critique as rank sexism from those men who have raised the issue. I doubt anyone would say that such serious stateswomen and leaders as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and Condoleeza Rice, former Irish President Mary Robinson, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano or former Attorney General Janet Reno -- just to name a few -- ever stooped to smile for a fashion mag in tight white pencil jeans beneath an oversized, candy-stripe oxford smock, stretched open to the third button to accentuate their necklines.

On a pier.

At something approximating the wan white light presaging dawn.

South Carolina may as well have elected no governor in 2010, but elected instead South Carolina's next top model governor -- not the real thing, only the runway version.

The narcissism is nothing new; Haley announced only weeks after her inauguration that she'd signed a book deal, and she's hawking the florid final product in only her fourteenth full month in office. Like another politician with a thin record of public service who rode an anti-establishment wave into a governor's office and seized the opportunity to promote herself as the savior of a "movement," Haley is her own biggest fan.

What makes this move in Vogue different is the brazenness. Those in Columbia's orbit and the political world at large have only had a gut-sense of her self-love before now; with this edition's release, Haley proves herself determined to top herself, and top herself again, then set and surmount her own new standards of shameless self-promotion.

Mind you, this is no promotion of her state, as her mouthpieces might try to suggest. Selling South Carolina is easy, and it requires no inclusion of Haley's image in soft light. This is precisely what the photographs reveal -- the most recent in a long line of brazen pleas for attention, in the same vein as graceless Rielle Hunter's GQ spread, pregnant Demi Moore's famous Vanity Fair cover, Brooke Shields's seductive Calvin Klein jean ad, and Jane Russell's racy promo shots for "The Outlaw."

The trend goes further back than our fashion magazines and advertiser's cameras. Check Manet's "The Picnic" of 1862, Vermeer's "Girl with a pearl earring" of 1667 or Titian's "Venus of Urbino" of 1538 and you'll see a woman captured in a seductive stare at the viewer, completely aware of what she's doing and the attention she's collecting from you. In them, Haley will find her self-promoting predecessors.

America, at this moment, has a collection of distinguished women in chief executive offices. Arizona has Jan Brewer; North Carolina has Bev Perdue; New Mexico has Susana Martinez; Washington has Christine Gregoire; and Oklahoma has Mary Fallin.

In each of these cases, these governors are, first and foremost, governors.

Our own Haley is paid to serve as our chief executive, but that's clearly only her day job.

Her primary focus is, of course, herself.

South Carolina tops Georgia, North Carolina

In teenage pregnancy, that is.

Yes, in a national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, South Carolina now ranks 11th in the nation in teenage pregnancy. While we're not the highest representative from the South -- Mississippi takes the top spot, thus diverting attention from us again -- we still beat our neighbors to the north and west resoundingly.

It's spelled out in today's edition of the New York Times.

Nearly every state saw a decline in teen births from 2007 to 2010, with the biggest drop in Arizona at 29 percent. Rates stayed about the same in three states: Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously reported that U.S. births by mothers of all ages had dropped in 2010 for the third straight year. Experts think the economy is a factor.

The rate for teenage moms reached its lowest point since record-keeping began in 1940. The rate fell 9 percent to about 34 per 1,000 girls ages 15 through 19. The decline was seen among all racial and ethnic groups.

The CDC report released Tuesday focused on state figures. The authors say the teen declines have been attributed to pregnancy prevention efforts. They note that a recent government survey showed more use of contraception by teens.

Even as it leads the nation with 55 teen births per 1,000 girls, Mississippi's rate has been falling like everywhere else. It dropped 21 percent over three years. New Hampshire has the lowest teen birth rate at just under 16.

Since 1991, the overall teen rate has dropped by 44 percent. Without that decline, the authors calculated, there would have been 3.4 million more babies born to girls by 2010.

State list with the rate per 1,000 teenage girls:

1. Mississippi 55

2. New Mexico 52.9

3. Arkansas 52.5

4. Texas 52.2

5. Oklahoma 50.4

6. Louisiana 47.7

7. Kentucky 46.2

8. West Virginia 44.8

9. Alabama 43.6

10. Tennessee 43.2

11. South Carolina 42.5

12. Arizona 42.4

13. Georgia 41.4

14. Kansas 39.2

15. Wyoming 39

16. Nevada 38.6

17. Alaska 38.3

17. North Carolina 38.3

19. Indiana 37.3

20. Missouri 37.1

As we learned yesterday in a study from Auburn University, teenage pregnancy is directly correlated with low educational attainment and poverty. So South Carolina has, depending on one's perspective, a lot of work to do, or a lot to be proud of, as our present budget priorities keep us locked in a trifecta of shame: Inadequate support for public education, inadequate attention to poverty and inadequate prevention of teenage pregnancy.

But our governor is selling books, so it's a great day in South Carolina.

Editors question Haley's motives to publish

One of the benefits of small-town newspapers: Common sense, lack of pretense, no artifice.

Editors of the Greenwood Index-Journal have taken a circumspect look at Governor Nikki Haley's national book tour and observed that not only may Haley have jumped the gun as an author-politico, but she likely has taken valuable time away from the people who elected her Queen to serve her own interests.

But they do so with such an even temper and tone that it hardly seems a critique.

Anyone, it seems, can be an author these days. Whether it's launching a website, posting blogs or finding that publisher who is more than happy to print volumes of what anyone has to say - for a price - everyone can potentially be an author.

Gov. Nikki Haley has become an author, which is not to equate her newly released book, "Can't Is Not an Option," with the many self-published works available.

What generosity the editors display.

I, in fact, do equate Haley's text with the many self-published works available -- ones commonly called "vanity" projects -- as it was not an all-purpose, general publisher that published her notes, but one established solely for the purpose of publishing conservatives hawking their vanity projects. I discussed the products of the publisher known as Sentinel HC here. Its stable of "authors" includes such unliterary names as Bachmann, Limbaugh, Rumsfeld, Gingrich and Dole.

No doubt the governor has a story to share. The book delves into, as the subtitle "My American Story" suggests, her life growing up in South Carolina as the daughter of Indian immigrants. And the former state House member has a story to share about her political beliefs and philosophy, spelled out as she writes of her alignment with the tea party.

In addition to amassing piles of money to spend on campaigning, it seems another requirement of politicians these days is to crank out a book about themselves. Sure, it's rather expected from presidents after they have served their terms in office. Perhaps that pattern trickled down to others, including those who only have aspirations of being president or vice president.

Was there a single candidate for president this year who hasn't published a vanity project in an attempt to establish some intellectual gravitas? There must be something about adding "author" to one's resume that makes him or her extra-qualified to serve in the highest offices of the land.

I wonder, did Franklin Roosevelt publish a book before running for office? Did Abraham Lincoln? Certainly, it's well-known that John Kennedy did (or, perhaps, Kennedy did with the aid of speechwriter Ted Sorenson), but Kennedy's book wasn't about himself -- it wasn't a mem-wah -- but was instead a collection of eight biographies of political leaders who crossed party lines, defied their political base to make tough but right choices and who suffered loss of popular support for it. And, perhaps most significantly, Kennedy's text won a Pulitzer Prize.

Hard to imagine that Haley's vanity project will rise to that occasion.

Sarah Palin has done well for herself, for example. She might have failed to be the current vice president as she ran on the 2008 ticket with John McCain, but who can deny she has parlayed that into a more lucrative success story? She did not even have to complete her term as governor of Alaska to do so. Speaking engagements, a book and book-signing tours, a reality TV show and more have kept Palin in the limelight and filled her bank account well.

So what can we make of Haley authoring a book and releasing it barely a year into her term in office as governor?

If the book is only a way to share her story of how she faced challenges growing up in Bamberg, how she fought her way in the corporate and political world as a woman and outline her political philosophy, then why now? It seems it would be more appropriate, perhaps even more fulfilling, to wait until her term as governor is nearly up to publish her story.

This is common sense, but it defies marketing sense. Let's recall that Haley's book deal was announced very shortly after her inauguration. For a variety of reasons, she was then still a novelty act, and novelty gets attention; novelty sells products. It's easy to imagine a marketing expert selling Haley on the notion that a fawning public demanded to know her views on everything from health care reform to soap flakes.

It's equally easy to imagine that Haley agreed with the premise.

Marketing is about moving products, and products are most easily moved when they are still hot -- witness the red neon signs advertising "Hot Doughnuts" at 6 a.m. Cold product is harder to move; it winds up in the remainder bin at a deeply-discounted price.

Publishing a mem-wah halfway through her term of office demonstrates that Haley understands at least that premise. Trying to foist her story and her opinions on the public after they've had a thorough airing and been dismissed as nutty is not a successful marketing strategy.

"Can't Is Not an Option," in title and in the timing of its release, is more than a tale of Haley's personal and political paths; it is a clear indicator of the governor's higher political aspirations.

I shudder to think.

To her credit, Haley has risen through social and political ranks in South Carolina. She has experienced prejudice and she has succeeded in state politics. You don't have to like her politics to acknowledge how deftly she rocketed to become the state's first woman governor.

As she is fond of telling Pat Robertson, Stephen Colbert, the hostesses of "The View" and others, it says a lot about South Carolina that Haley was able to become governor.

I wholeheartedly agree that it says a lot about us. But I'm confident that my conclusion of what it says about us is different from Haley's conclusion of what it says about us.

Such a tale is one that fits like a glove for anyone such as Mitt Romney who very probably has to consider whether a Romney-Haley ticket is his ticket to the White House.

Perish the thought.

Even if Haley is not considering such a role, her book's release clearly indicates she has her sights set on more than one, or even two, terms in office as the Palmetto State's governor.

Must we suffer it? Must the children wait another whole generation for capable leadership?

That is neither good nor bad. We just hope writing the book did not take up too much valuable time that could have been spent on the duties of being governor. The political world must be vastly different from the normal business world. Not many CEOs have the time to produce an autobiography their first year on the job.

An astute observation that clearly contrasts our governor from a capable CEO.

South Carolina software company soon to be Canadian

Did anyone know that South Carolina was home to a $55 million-dollar education software company called Computer Software Innovations?

I didn't.

According to the media in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, it's about to be gobbled up by a much larger Canadian software company called Constellation Software.

Where's Governor Nikki Haley? Isn't she the self-appointed protector of South Carolina jobs?

If we lose this heretofore-unknown high-tech company to Canada -- of all nations -- how many jobs is that going to cost us?

O, no. I foresee a double-dip recession. We're about to see our unemployment number rise again, just as Haley finishes her triumphant book tour of Manhattan and The 700 Club.



Here's the news with the gory details, from the Ottawa Citizen -- because apparently no media outlet in South Carolina knew we were home to a software company, either.

Constellation Software, the booming Toronto company with a big Ottawa operation, has launched a hostile takeover bid for a South Carolina education system software company. The $13-million bid is unusual because Constellation has grown quickly with a string of much smaller and usually friendly acquisitions of other public-sector software companies.

Computer Software Innovations, however, is an inviting target, with strong potential but problems that need fixing and will likely depress the price.

Sales rose five per cent to $55.1 million in 2011 but profits were cut in half to just $243,000 on higher selling costs. It supplies school boards and local governments across the U.S. southeast.

Constellation has the weapons for a battle. It has doubled available credit to $300 million to help drive an aggressive acquisition strategy. Constellation is a hot stock, soaring 30 per cent so far this year. After flirting with the $100 mark, the stock slipped back to the $88 range.

The latest Constellation results provide little reason for worry for investors despite a rough patch last fall. Sales of a public sector software group, which supplies municipalities, utilities and school boards, rose 13 per cent to $144.6 million in the December quarter.

A smaller private sector software group grew even faster and overall profits surged a sparkling 72 per cent. Twenty acquisitions during 2011 were a big factor driving growth.

Organic gains, which excludes the impact of the takeovers, rose a robust seven per cent. The Ottawa-based Harris Operating Group was a significant performer, contributing $4 million of the $9 million in organic sales growth in the quarter. Constellation continues to snap up small companies, including three deals for about $8 million this year.

However, it cautioned that the pace of growth this year could be slower because the acquired base of new companies grew slower than in previous years.

Apparently, when you gobble up too many smaller companies too fast, you get indigestion.

By the way, did you catch Pat's dig at Bamberg, and Haley's agreement with his question?

"Examiner" pushes Haley as vice presidential material

I've never heard of the Examiner but it bills itself as a "dynamic entertainment, news and lifestyle network that serves more than 20 million monthly readers across the U.S. and around the world." It calls its writers "examiners," "thousands of writers who are self-motivated independent contributors."

One of these is Anthony Martin, who labels himself a "conservative examiner" and is described by the Examiner this way: "As an original foot-soldier in 'the Reagan Revolution' that led to the election of Ronald Reagan, Anthony G. Martin is no stranger to politics, particularly in the state of his birth, South Carolina."

I explain these things because today, the Examiner published an item by Martin which suggests our governor has made it to Mitt Romney's short list for vice presidential contenders and is, drum roll please, being "vetted."

Surely hearts are palpitating throughout the State House. At least, on the first floor. Come to think of it, maybe they're palpitating only on the west wing of the first floor.

Martin's report:

A link posted by the Drudge Report today indicates that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has reportedly placed South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on his short list of potential running mates, should he win the GOP nomination to face Barack Obama in November.

Haley's presence on the short list is significant. Politicos refer to the "short list" as the top two or three persons who are the most preferred out of a much longer list of potential running mates.

But who is Nikki Haley?

Incisive question.

As a South Carolina native, this reporter has amassed information first hand on the rise of Nikki Haley to national prominence.

No better vetter!

In 2010 Haley surprised everyone, including the pundits, by beating out three veteran politicians for the Republican nomination for the Governor of South Carolina, including a sitting U.S. Congressman, the sitting Lieutenant Governor, and the popular sitting Attorney General of the State, Henry McMaster. She went on to beat a well known Democrat in the general gubernatorial election.

Her victory was seen as a breakthrough into the so called "good old boys" network. For the first time Republicans in South Carolina had chosen not only a female but a female with an ethnic and religious heritage that placed her well outside the norm for a conservative southern state.

Haley's parents are natives of India and are members of the Sikh religion. But as a native born American, reared in Bamberg, South Carolina, Haley later decided to become part of the Christian faith. She and her husband and two children are members of a Methodist Church.

The Governor is known for her strong conservative stance on fiscal, immigration, and election issues. She supports balanced budgets and fiscal restraint, although she, like her predecessor, finds it difficult in getting some of her initiatives passed through a state legislature that often exhibits the wild overspending for which Democrats are known, in spite of the fact that there are strong Republican majorities in both chambers of the state assembly.

Wild overspending? Really? If what our legislature accomplishes can be characterized as "wild overspending," I'd hate to see a state budget adopted by liberals.

In 2011 Haley pushed for and got an anti illegal immigration law, which she signed in June of last year. She also supports the concept of Voter I.D. laws.

I thought it was ALEC that pushed for and got the anti-immigration and voter restrictions. Maybe the author is giving Haley the credit for shepherding ALEC's agenda, which would qualify her as a good manager.

Throughout her tenure as a state legislator she became known for her pro life position on abortion, her desire to lower the tax burden on residents, and her creative proposals to reduce the costs and wastes associated with education while at the same time implementing quality controls. She has continued with this philosophy as Governor although, again, she has run into roadblocks set by the state legislature.

"Costs and wastes associated with education." This phrase is worthy of indepth graduate studies. I'm not familiar with another state that would align itself with the notion that education brings "costs and wastes."

As an attractive woman with an engaging, friendly personality, Haley has been the subject of allegations leveled against her regarding her personal life. During the campaign of 2010, she faced charges of several affairs. When questioned by the local media concerning the allegations, Haley refused to answer. It was later discovered that the two men who made the allegations had connections with the campaign of one of her opponents for the Republican nomination for Governor. The controversy did not appear to have a negative impact on her campaign.

After being elected as Governor she also faced allegations of wrongdoing, which reportedly prompted an IRS investigation. That investigation revealed no violations of the law, although it was widely reported in the mainstream media that Haley was on the brink of being indicted. That report was shown to be false.

By now, we've crossed into the sort of twilight state that comes with large doses of Versed. "Widely reported in the mainstream media that Haley was on the brink of being indicted?" I cannot recall a mainstream news outlet that published such a prediction; and none that mentioned a potential indictment without sourcing the rumor to a blog.

This vetting process begins to sound like the one performed by John McCain's team in 2008...

Haley drew national attention in 2010 when she openly and personally challenged Barack Obama face to face on the new healthcare law, demanding that the President show a willingness to grant waivers to the states that did not wish to participate. She stated that the plan would eventually place the state in dire financial straits once the bill fully takes effect in a few years.

"Personally challenged"? "Face to face"? Is this a reference to the briefing given by the President at the White House, at which all the nation's governors were given an opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions?

Does that qualify as "personally challenging" the President "face to face"?

I saw the photograph of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer with her index finger raised at the President during a meeting on the tarmac in Phoenix, and I'd accept that as being "personally challenging," and certainly "face to face."

But these heroic characterizations, applied favorably to Haley, suggest that the vetter may have gotten some inspiration for this column from someone very near the State House, first floor, west wing.

Democrats blasted the Governor over her stance, claiming that she wished to harm the poor. Haley countered that within a few years the state would be forced cut benefits to those who cannot afford health insurance, which will do more harm to them in the long run--a consequence the states face as a result of the ObamaCare law.

Haley further took the lead in opposing Obama's lawsuit against Boeing for opening a new facility in South Carolina--a 'right to work' state. Haley and the state fought the National Labor Relations Board on the issue, and won.

Although Haley has denied interest in becoming Romney's running mate, she curiously traveled to New York to appear on Fox News and other networks at the same time the Romney campaign announced she was on the infamous short list. She was also one of the very first southern governors to endorse Romney.

Um, she was the governor of the first Southern state to hold a presidential primary, and subsequently the first of many Southern states to deny Romney a victory.

I thought the vetting process was supposed to be comprehensive.

But then, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin made it to a vice presidential nomination, too.

Haley opts for cant in her vanity project

"Cant" is defined at Dictionary.com thusly:

noun
1. insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety.
2. the private language of the underworld.
3. the phraseology peculiar to a particular class, party, profession, etc.
4. whining or singsong speech, especially of beggars.

verb (used without object)
5. to talk hypocritically.
6. to speak in the whining or singsong tone of a beggar; beg.

All of which gives the reader the appropriate frame through which to view Governor Nikki Haley's vanity project, a mem-wah titled "Can't Is Not An Option."

Such doorstoppers have become de rigueur for aspring politicos. One can't be taken seriously as a candidate until one has published a book with a trite but lofty title. It somehow proves one's literacy, and it shows that one has the tenacity and determination to write two hundred pages on a topic, which is especially misleading when the topic is oneself.

Might it be a better use of a governor's time to serve as governor than to generate one's own pablum while serving in office? For a governor who likes to brag that she spends all of her days trying to bring economic development to South Carolina, she seems to have spent an inordinate chunk of the people's time drafting a pros-y self-portrait. Let's recall that soon after the announcement of her book deal, she was caught tapping on her iPad in the White House itself, during a speech to the nation's assembled governors by the President of the United States.

Which is the definition of gauche, it turns out.

In this week's edition of Statehouse Report, Charlestonian Andy Brack publishes a respectful and straightforward review of Haley's attempt -- which leads me to respect Brack even more, as I've not been able to bear looking at the thing.

Gov. Nikki Haley's new book is sure to cause three differing reactions:

Tea partiers will fall in love with Haley again for wearing their white hat and repetitively incanting the rhetoric of limited government that bashes the political establishment.

Mainstream Republicans and moderates will spend a lot of time rolling their eyes at the 200-plus pages of gratuitous, preening arrogance, inane recollections and my-way-or-the-highway declarations of revisionism.

Liberals won't be able to finish it because it's such an obvious political attempt to propel the governor to Washington, sooner as a vice-presidential candidate (despite lots of protest by her) or later as a U.S. senator.

If you like Haley and want to be pumped up, go ahead and spend $28 for what seems more like a transcribed version of a lot of self-taped conversations than a book. Otherwise, don't bother. Haley is trying too hard to be a real-life fairy tale.

Nevertheless, here are some observations of Haley's “Can't Is Not an Option:”

Childhood tale. The best part of the book is the beginning in which Haley delves into her childhood as a member of the only Indian family in Bamberg. She talks convincingly about challenges, goodness and the American Dream without too much tea party propaganda.

Philosophical insight. When you read about how Haley worked as a bookkeeper as a teen-ager for her mother's store, you get a better understanding of the anti-government rhetoric that fuels her politics. One such lesson:

“I learned early that we couldn't control our revenue stream – we couldn't control who decided to walk in the door of the store and spend their money. All we could control was our expenditures. So we were constantly focused on tightening our overhead. … I noticed how hard it was to make a dollar and how easy it was for government to take it away.”

What rankles about this statement by Haley, a self-professed policy wonk, is its naiveté about government. Unlike business, government can control revenue streams by raising or lowering taxes, or by providing incentives to bring in more businesses, all of which will increase the amount of money put in the state's pot.

Second, government can't always be run like a business, regardless of the GOP talking points. Sometimes, government is the only entity that's large enough or has enough of a cushion to do really big things, such as provide electricity to rural areas, build interstate roads, provide affordable college opportunities to millions, take care of the health of old people and more. For Haley, government is not a pathway to progress, but an impediment that has to be overcome. In the long term, that kind of vision of government isn't in South Carolina's best interest.

Courage. In the book, Haley often describes how she had courage to take on the establishment which “blackballed, demoted and humiliated” her for trying to get recorded roll call votes to boost accountability in the state House. Interestingly, she did not name the leader of the establishment, House Speaker Bobby Harrell, although she cut at him left and right for eight pages. Then in prose that would gag even a teen romance writer, she celebrated a “turnabout is fair play” moment as governor when she signed into law the bill she had pushed while in the House:

“The day didn't belong to me. It belonged to the people. I looked out and saw my parents, and I thought of what they had always taught me: If you fight for the right things, God will take care of the rest. It had taken a little while, but in the end my parents were right. The people had fought. Their cause was just. And now God was smiling down on South Carolina.”

Playing the victim. Haley also complained about people who saw themselves as victims, but within pages she would paint herself as a victim of Harrell, Gov. Mark Sanford or something else. After a while, it got more than a little monotonous.

Bottom line: Plant a garden. It's spring. There are better things to do than read this book.

Governor vetoes voucher expansion bill -- in Arizona

Sometimes, the day's news leaves the rational reader feeling light-headed, dizzy.

Among red states, Arizona takes a back seat to no one.

In fact, the historian and social scientist in me points out that the population of the Southwest reflects the western-most migration of eighteenth-century South Carolinians. Travel through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arizona, and you'll see many of South Carolina's place names and family names.

As evidence, Mississippi's Trent Lott's first name -- Chester -- reflects his grandparents' origins in Chester County, South Carolina. Arizona's John McCain is descended from Mississippi planters. Seeds of ideologies sown in South Carolina nearly 300 years ago have blown due west, which explains many invisible kinships across the southern belt of the nation.

Which makes today's news from Phoenix so disorienting: "Arizona's Gov. Brewer Vetoes Voucher Expansion," reads the headline at Education Week's blog this morning.

Arizona's governor? Jan Brewer? The same governor who pushed for radical immigration reform, and who upbraided President Barack Obama on the tarmac when he last visited her state?

She has vetoed a voucher bill?

That's the news, which I happily, but confusedly, offer you here:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has vetoed legislation that would have allowed a major expansion of school vouchers in her state, citing concerns about its costs and "artificially manipulating" the market of public and private schools.

Unbelieveable -- a principled free-market ideologue!

The Republican governor's decision is certain to flummox and disappoint backers of private school vouchers, who had hailed the legislature's recent passage of the measure as an important step for school choice.

Yet Brewer said she objected to increasing costs for taxpayers before a state budget is approved, according to a letter explaining her veto. And she also cited broader, philosophical concerns about skewing the balance between public and private schools, in an effort to promote school choice.

"The state of Arizona needs to work towards a system of different educational settings to cater to the different ways in which our students learn," Brewer wrote. "A well-equipped system with choice competition and innovation—these are the keys to our educational system. Local school districts, charter schools, home school, private and parochial schools all have an important role to play."

But Brewer, while describing herself as a long-time advocate of school choice—citing other legislation she has signed promoting educational competition—also said "there is a careful balance we have to maintain."

"We must enhance educational options wherever we can, but we must also ensure that government is not artificially manipulating the market through state budget or tax policy that would make an otherwise viable option so unattractive that it undermines rational choice in a competitive market," the governor explained.

Arizona currently allows families of children with disabilities to use accounts of public money to cover private school tuition and other costs. The legislation would have expanded the program to a broader student population, by making students in struggling schools—specifically rated "D" or "F" schools—eligible for taxpayer funds.

This is not the first time Brewer has nixed a voucher proposal that emerged from the GOP-dominated legislature.

Last year, she vetoed a measure that would have awarded tax credits to entities that supported private school scholarships—also because she had concerns over the program's costs.

Sometimes, it's better to accept good news without studying too closely the reasons for it.

Strange as it sounds to say, Brewer made a great decision for her public schoolchildren today, and she deserves the thanks of them, their parents and their educators.

Here's hoping Governor Nikki Haley will take note.

How is Nikki Haley like a potato? Ask Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney, our governor's favorite candidate for president, visited Jay Leno last week -- apparently to shore up his numbers among cranky conservative insomniacs -- and played a little word-association game using a random list of contemporary American politicos.

So reports The State in a recent edition:

Here is what Romney said when Leno asked him to say what came to mind.

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie: “Indomitable ... man of girth.” U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida: “The American dream.” U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin: “Creative.” New York developer Donald Trump: “Huge.” Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania: “Press secretary.”

And, drum roll, please: South Carolina’s own Gov. Nikki Haley: “Energetic.”

Aah, gosh, and, even with her endorsement, the Mittster lost South Carolina.

In a landslide.

Energetic.

Romney's answer reminded me of two things.

One is how Queen Elizabeth II strained to find something pleasant to say about her former daughter-in-law after Diana's death in 1997; she finally said that Diana had been a "remarkable" woman. Which was accurate enough, as people certainly talked a lot about Diana. It said nothing, however, about the Queen's real feelings for her grandsons' mother.

The other thought came from childhood, when my science teacher demonstrated the potential to derive energy from various organic material, including potatoes and lemons. Poke the sensors of an Ohm meter into an Idaho gold and you'll see what I mean: It's energetic, too.

According to Wiki.answers.com, Romney's compliment wasn't much of one. Ask it "What has energy?" and it will tell you, "Every thing in the universe has energy."

Mmm. Florida Senator Marco Rubio is "the American dream," but Governor Nikki Haley is like cosmic dust, potatoes, citrus fruit and decaying organic matter -- she's "energetic."

Reckon that means she's no longer on Romney's short list for vee-pee?

Did Stephen Colbert have the last laugh on Haley?

The present occupier of our governor's office, traipsing across America in search of buyers for her new mem-wah, stopped last night in New York City to appear on "The Colbert Report." Fitting, I thought, that she kicked off her media tour on the cable network named Comedy Central.

O, a fine time was had by all, as native son Colbert played a parlor game of state trivia with Nikki Haley, who taught him that our state beverage is milk and our state snack is boiled peanuts. (Or did she say bolled peanuts? Hard to tell.)

On topics of politics, Haley bragged that she wore high heels that double as "ammunition" "for kicking" in the "blood sport" that is politics in our state. For his part, Colbert likened politics in South Carolina to being "one notch above Honduras." Hee-haw.

But Haley, perhaps unknowingly, opened wide a gate for Colbert to march through early in her interview, delivering to him a Clemson University football helmet signed by Dabo Swinney. Colbert told her he has family that works for Clemson at a wind turbine testing facility in Charleston.

And here's where Corey Hutchens, reporter for Columbia's Free Times, finds a fascinating story that make you wonder: Did Colbert purposefully ding Haley, and was she capable of knowing she was being dinged?

Republican Gov. Nikki Haley yukked it up with Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central last night, agreeing with him that South Carolina could lead the world in wind turbine power, an industry that employs Colbert’s sister at Clemson University.

But as a House member, Haley proposed cutting funding for the very facility that employs Colbert’s sister.

Haley appeared on The Colbert Report in support of her new book Can’t is Not an Option. During the interview she presented the satirical talk show host with a Clemson University football helmet signed by coach Dabo Swinney.

“I got family that work for Clemson,” Colbert beamed. “My sister works at the drivetrain facility down in Charleston where they’re testing the new wind turbines.”

Colbert’s sister, Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, works as director of business development for the Clemson University Restoration Institute and director of sales and marketing for the wind turbine drivetrain testing facility.

On his show, Colbert said the facility could be the largest drivetrain test facility in the world for wind turbines.

“Are we going to lead the world in wind power?” Colbert asked Haley.

“Yes,” Haley replied enthusiastically.

Charleston Democratic Rep. Leon Stavrinakis agrees, but says it’s no thanks to Haley.

During a floor debate on March 17, 2010 about the very facility Colbert was talking about, Haley proposed eliminating state funding for it, according to the House journal. Her measure failed by a vote of 108 to four.

The amount lawmakers voted on would have been $7 million, or 7.1 percent of the total project, according to its director of communications, Peter Hull.

“That was the element … that Governor Haley, when she was in the House, voted against,” he says. “It was a very important component … we were very pleased they voted yes overall.”
...
The apparent disconnect between Haley's public support for something on TV and her vote in the House to redirect funds from it doesn't represent the first time she's done so.

In 2010, Haley appeared on the TV evening drama Army Wives, which is filmed in Charleston, even though she had voted against tax incentives for the program to film in the Palmetto State.

About Haley’s drivetrain test facility vote, Stavrinakis says it was part of a “concerted effort to try to get all that stuff that most of us viewed as economic development, but for some reason she viewed as waste, out of the budget.”

And about how she portrayed the facility on The Colbert Report?

“I think it’s pretty typical for her to take some credit for things that she not only had nothing to do with putting in place but often times was against and often to be on the wrong side of investment in things that create jobs for South Carolina,” he says.

Just as she refused to give credit to President Barack Obama for the improvement in South Carolina's employment rates.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Nikki Haley
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Haley attacks Rainey, hides behind secrecy rules

Despite his service as chairman of the state's Board of Economic Advisors, John Rainey is likely best known in South Carolina politics as the man who recruited Mark Sanford to run for governor in 2002. To put that decision in context, Sanford's reputation in 2002 was as a principled ultra-conservative -- even Libertarian -- Republican who was famous for limiting himself to three terms in Congress and sleeping in his Congressional office to save federal dollars.

As Sanford's mentor, Rainey cemented his reputation as a conservative godfather. So, say what one may about Rainey, but no sentient being would ever accuse him of being liberal, even progressive.

Yet Governor Nikki Haley has attacked Rainey this week in the most vicious political and personal terms to date. Through her mouthpiece, Haley called Rainey "an embittered old man with a political vendetta."

Haley is lashing out at Rainey in large part because of his principles on ethics -- principles that were, unfortunately for her, reinforced by Sanford when critics questioned his use of public funds during her term in office. At that time, Sanford waived his rights to confidentiality throughout the ethics investigation, ensuring that the media and the public would have access to findings.

Now that Haley is the focus of ethical questions -- questions posed by Rainey in the form of litigation -- her legislative critics have asked Haley to follow Sanford's lead and cooperate fully and openly.

But Haley has chosen a very different pair of strategies: First, stonewall and hide; second, attack Rainey.

Gov. Nikki Haley on Tuesday rebuffed House Democrats’ call for her to waive confidentiality in a possible ethics investigation, calling questions about work she did for a pair of her pre-gubernatorial employers a “waste of time.”

Through a spokesman, Haley said she would abandon confidentiality only if lawmakers want to change state law so that all past and future ethics complaints are public.

Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Harry Ott of Calhoun, said the first-term Republican governor who made increasing transparency a central plank in her 2010 campaign should “let some sunshine in.”

“Nobody is here to say that any laws have been broken, but the public has a right to know,” he said.

“It is time that we hold ourself to a higher standard.”

Democrats are pushing Haley to drop confidentiality after a circuit judge last week dismissed a complaint by GOP activist and former state Board of Economic Advisers Chairman John Rainey.

The complaint alleged that Haley used her state office during her time as a state representative from Lexington County to lobby in violation of state law while serving as a fundraiser for the Lexington Medical Center foundation.

Let's keep in mind that when she was hired by the Lexington Medical Center as a fundraiser, she had no experience as a corporate fundraiser and no background in the health care industry. Her only qualification for the job seems to have been that she occupied a seat in the state legislature.

The filing also accused the governor of failing to disclose her work for another pre-gubernatorial employer on state campaign disclosure forms.

The judge didn’t rule on the merits of Rainey’s complaint, instead deciding that under state law, the House Ethics Committee must handle ethics issues involving a current or former state House member.

Any investigation of Haley by the committee would have to be triggered by a formal complaint, which any South Carolinian can file.

But the public is kept in the dark throughout much of the process.

By law, committee members and anybody who’s filed a complaint cannot comment on any investigation or complaint or face penalties.

Rainey cited that law in declining to comment Tuesday on whether he’s filed a complaint with the committee.

The longtime committee chairman, state Rep. Roland Smith, R-Aiken, said Tuesday that the subject of any investigation can drop confidentiality, making the process “open.”

Democrats said Haley should follow in the footsteps of her one-time political mentor, former Gov. Mark Sanford, in waiving confidentiality in the event of a committee investigation, which would likely center on the charges presented in Rainey’s lawsuit.

A spokesman for Haley said Tuesday that Rainey is “an embittered man with a political vendetta.”

“He has already wasted the time of the courts,” Rob Godfrey said in a statement. “He can try to waste the time of the General Assembly. He will not waste any of the governor’s time.”

Godfrey said questions about the allegations lobbed by Rainey already have been answered and that the regular procedures should be followed if there is an ethics complaint.

This response fits the definition of a "fig leaf." Go back to the date that these questions were originally asked, and you'll find that Haley and her ilk dismissed the questions as baseless, just political theater. Now, when questions are raised, the response is that the questions are old and were addressed long ago. This is taught in Basic Political Obfuscation 101.

“We’re confident that the ethics committee will come to the same conclusion as every other entity that Mr. Rainey has shopped this nonsense to — that it is entirely baseless,” Godfrey said.

House Democrats unveiled a package of bills last week that included a measure to eliminate the state House and Senate ethics committees and turn investigations of previous and current lawmakers over to the State Ethics Commission.

Reporter Robert Kittle of WSPA added a bit more to the day's coverage, further illustration of the obfuscation strategy:

"If there is an ethics complaint about matters that took place years ago – and that have already been answered again and again – the regular procedures should be followed," Godfrey wrote in a news release Tuesday. "Regular procedures" mean the public won't know whether a complaint has been filed.

In other words, it's the same-old, same-old -- the very status quo that Haley campaigned against, when transparency was her favorite word.

The possibility of an ethics complaint stems from a lawsuit against the governor by John Rainey, a leading Republican fundraiser and former chairman of the Board of Economic Advisors under Gov. Mark Sanford. He filed the lawsuit in state Circuit Court, but Judge Casey Manning dismissed the suit last week, saying the matter was for the State Ethics Commission or legislative Ethics Committees to decide.

The suit alleges Haley illegally lobbied state lawmakers and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control while she was a member of the House and was working for Lexington Medical Center, which was trying to get state approval for a new open-heart surgery center.

The suit also claims she failed to disclose on her campaign filings that she also worked for Wilber Smith, an engineering firm with state contracts. Haley has denied any wrongdoing, and said previously that state law did not require her to report her work for Wilbur Smith.

Since the lawsuit was dismissed and the judge explained the proper venues for the complaints, it's expected that Rainey will file a complaint with either the State Election Commission or House Ethics Committee.

House Democrats on Tuesday afternoon called on the governor to waive confidentiality.

"Nobody is here today to say that any rules were broken, but we are here to say that the public has a right to know," said Rep. Harry Ott, D-St. Matthews, House Minority Leader. "We believe Gov. Haley, particularly after running on a platform of transparency in government, needs to be the transparent governor that she wants to be and say to the people of South Carolina, 'I have nothing to hide. I'm going to waive my confidentiality clause and let the public know what is or is not going on.'"

It has happened before. Then-governor Mark Sanford waived confidentiality when he faced ethics charges before the State Ethics Commission over his use of state airplanes and state travel money.

When asked by 7 On Your Side Tuesday morning whether she would waive confidentiality, Gov. Haley said she wouldn't talk about it unless there was a complaint. When told there was no way to know whether a complaint had been filed, she said, "Well, when there is one you can let me know."

This is laughable. Our state's chief potentate does a two-step around the media, inviting them to let her know if a confidential ethics investigation is initiated against her.

Why are ethics complaints confidential? Rep. J. Roland Smith, R-Warrenville, chairman of the House Ethics Committee, says it's state law. Don't taxpayers have a right to know whether the elected officials being paid by their tax dollars have ethics complaints against them?

"I will not disagree with you, but we have to abide by the law and the law says that it's confidential," he says. "I can't even acknowledge if there is a complaint at any time or if there's not a complaint."

Godfrey, Haley's spokesman, says of the lawsuit and possible ethics complaint,

"John Rainey is an embittered man with a political vendetta. He has already wasted the time of the courts. He can try to waste the time of the General Assembly. He will not waste any of the governor’s time. If there is an ethics complaint about matters that took place years ago – and that have already been answered again and again – the regular procedures should be followed, and we’re confident that the ethics committee will come to the same conclusion as every other entity that Mr. Rainey has shopped this nonsense to – that it is entirely baseless."

Baseless.

As baseless as were Haley's qualifications for South Carolina's highest public office?