The Opinion Blog

The Bailey Bailout

Sunday’s editorial criticizes North Myrtle Beach leaders for allowing a culture of insularity to thrive inside city government.

“Lieutenant, have you ever been disciplined for lying?”

Local defense attorneys must certainly already be practicing this question after the North Myrtle Beach’s Department of Public Safety’s ill-considered decision to demote director William Bailey to a lieutenant this week. Imagine sitting on a jury in a trial where the original location of a key piece of evidence – a weapon, perhaps – is disputed. What would your reaction be when you found out the supervisor who signed off on the investigating officer’s report had once lied about the circumstances surrounding the theft of his own gun?

A Second Opinion

Saturday’s editorial holds President Obama to his word that he’s willing to take another look at bipartisan health care reform proposals.

As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we’ve proposed. There’s a reason why many doctors, nurses, and health care experts who know our system best consider this approach a vast improvement over the status quo. But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.

- President Obama, State of the Union address, Jan. 27

Senator Graham?

Could you please introduce the President to your friends, Mr. Wyden of Oregon and Mr. Bennett of Utah? And maybe, just for a touch of political theater, bring the new guy from the Bay State along? Maybe even your old friend John McCain as well?

WEEKEND OPEN FORUM

Here's the weekend's open forum. Be civil and enjoy.

Here comes the ad dump

Friday’s editorial suggests that increased disclosure requirements are the key to keeping elections clean in the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of more corporate political ads.

Indulge us, for a moment, in a bout of hyperbolic political fiction and pretend the evil Carolina OmegaDump Inc. wants to build a giant landfill for used diapers and fish carcasses a block off the beach.

FRIDAY OPEN FORUM

Here's Friday's open forum. Be civil and enjoy.

The GOP gubernatorial debate in 60 seconds

It's late, but I thought I'd jot down a few highlights from last night's debate before I forget them.

Most informative question: Which U.S. senator are you more like - Lindsey Graham or Jim DeMint - and do you support the Charleston County Republican Party's censure of Graham?

• U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett said "both," and when the moderator complained that that wasn't a good enough answer to his question, Barrett wittily replied to the effect that "it's your question, but it's my answer." Barrett said he has differences with both - specifically Graham on cap and trade - but that the party is big enough for a range of ideas. And he would not have censured Graham.
• Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer simply replied "DeMint," then made a remark about politicians not giving straight answers.
• State Rep. Nikki Haley also chose DeMint, said she would have censured Graham and that she hopes he "comes around."
• S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster said he wouldn't take the "bait," being a former S.C. Republican Party chair, and invoked Reagan's 11th amendment not to speak ill of fellow Republicans.

Perhaps the most interesting dynamic accompanied the predictable but necessary questions about Bauer's recent invocation of "stray animals" in a diatribe about welfare recipients. Bauer vigorously defended the remark, saying everyone in the room agreed with him and insisting that the media manufactured the controversy.

He admitted that given a chance to do it again, he would word it difrerently. When pressed as to how he could justify comparing poor people to stray animals, he shot back simply that it was a "metaphor."

None of the other candidates really criticized Bauer's remarks. McMaster repeated his official statement that many conservatives share concerns about the cycle of dependency, but also said we should remember we're all created "in God's image." Barrett said that parents of children on free lunches should be held accountable for their participation in the child's schooling, but when pressed as to how it could be done without penalizing the child, he struggled to answer. Finally, Haley called the word choice "regrettable" but quickly and adroitly moved on to talking about broader conservative issues.

Also of note was all four candidates' pretty strong endorsement of Sanford's term as governor (he was in the front row, which might have played a role). Haley was asked first about their well-known pre-Argentina ideological alliance (she had all but received his endorsement already), and she drew a line between his personal failings and his political successes, saying in particular that there were a lot of boondoggles the legislature never even tried because he was governor. Barrett also praised Sanford, remarking particularly on his efforts toward governmental transparency, but said his own leadership style would be as more of a consensus-builder than Sanford. Bauer and McMaster also had nice things to say about him.

The moderator, conservative MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, asked the interesting question that if Sanford had done all the right things for the state, why is unemployment third-highest in the state? No really memorable answers there, unfortunately. I suspect this line of conversation will be more interesting during the general election.

One other note: State Rep. Thad Viers says via Twitter that McMaster touched on the port of Georgetown during a question about the state port system. Unfortunately, my kids were acting up during that question and I missed it. I'll try to find a reference to see whether it was anything substantial.

Ah! just found a link to debate video: http://www2.wspa.com/spa/news/local/article/watch_the_gop_candidates_for_governors_debate/32524/

I didn't repeat here a lot of what I'd heard in previous debates, but I'd be curious if you guys find anything else that seems newsworthy or helps differentiate these four.

Stray Comment?

Thursday’s editorial ascribes Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer’s controversial recent remark about welfare to a general lack of understanding of the issue.

“My grandmother … told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.”

- Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer

It took a craven description of the poor as lazy, oversexed, overfed stray animals, but Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer finally got some coverage for his criticism of welfare recipients. The gubernatorial hopeful has been sounding softer variations on this theme for months on the campaign trail, usually accompanied by boasting that he's the only one talking about it.

He got the last part right, but the silence he hears has nothing to do with the “political correctness” he blames. Instead, the other candidates apparently understand that welfare is far from the state’s most serious problem.

THURSDAY OPEN FORUM

Here's Thursday's open forum. Be civil and enjoy.

War Vets Visit Area

Wednesday’s editorial praises the many groups rolling out Myrtle Beach’s welcome mat  for a group of wounded veterans.

After Christina Shealy visited a wounded soldier at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, she felt compelled to return at Thanksgiving that year with traditional holiday food including pumpkin pie. The veteran she visited couldn’t eat the pumpkin pie because his jaw was wired shut at the time. He had been wounded in Afghanistan.

Shealy says she got the idea to help Reed veterans smell the pumpkin pies and that resulted in her founding a nonprofit organization called Scents for Soldiers. Shealy first found pumpkin scented candles, quickly learned she could not light candles at the medical center and tried other things including bowls of scented rocks. The Myrtle Beach resident thought she was in trouble when a colonel approached her but the officer “told me not to stop what you’re doing.”

About those ‘special interests’

By Ron Harris

The older I get, the more I dislike the label of “special interests,” a sneering indictment implied when the media and public sling expletives at the trolls manipulating political contributions and pork barrel payoffs and moneychangers in the lobbying temples.

Almost always those “special interests” are perceived to be, for examples, Big Auto Companies, Big Oil, Big Insurance, Big Labor Unions, Big Pharma, Big Trial Lawyers, Big Dog Owners and Big Blowhards Bragging about Bagging a Billion Bucks in Bonuses (betcha can’t say that rapidly three times).

It just kinda rankles me that those Big entities get the “special” designation.  I’m a senior citizen, and I think (no, I know) that myself and my fellow seniors are special.  In fact, you could say with accuracy that we’re the largest “special interest” in the nation.

Consider these statistics:

On July 1, 2007, there were 37.9 million of us greybeards 65-and-older, which was 13% of the total population.  The Census Bureau predicts there will be 88.5 million of us by 2050.  (But, unless Obamacare is passed, it is unlikely I’ll be around in 2050 to affirm or refute that prediction.)

Our voting bloc is huge, and our political contributions are reflected in volume rather than “fat cat” prominence, i.e. 16% of President Obama’s 3.7 million campaign donors ($200 and under) were 65 and older, while 53% of John McCain’s 827,000 small donors were in our age group.  You do the math.  (And I’m sure someone will, and hit me with how much more 16% of 3.7 million is than 53% of 827,000 – pshaw and balderdash, I say.)

Those stats don’t prove that most of us are Republican, just that many of us, having paid our dues in life, don’t particularly like the probability of Democrats and Big Government (the ultimate ‘special interest’) redistributing our nest-eggs to those who believe they shouldn’t have to pay dues.  That’s just an “old” thing learned in the University of Diverse Crises (UDC, previously “School of Hard Knocks”).  You young(er) folks probably wouldn’t understand.

In the 2008 Presidential election, 78% of the 65-older crowd was registered to vote, and it is estimated that 63% of those registered did vote.  Seniors consider voting a privilege and civic responsibility, while many in the 18 - 45 demographic consider it an annoying chore, if they vote at all.

In 2007, nine million of us were military veterans. That number continues to decrease due to the attrition rate of WWII vets, and -- a reality that saddens me -- we’re all going to be the worse for it when the last of the “Greatest Generation” passes.

And don’t make the mistake of believing that all us “geezers” 65-and-older are retired sloths guzzling from the government trough of Social Security, Medicare, et al.  In 2007 some 15% of our 37.9 million was still in the work force.  I dare say it’s larger today.

The Department of Labor notes:  “Between 1977 and 2007, employment of workers 65 and over increased 101 percent, compared to a much smaller increase of 59 percent for total employment (16 and over). The number of employed men 65 and over rose 75 percent, but employment of women 65 and older increased by nearly twice as much, climbing 147 percent. While the number of employed people age 75 and over is relatively small (0.8 percent of the employed in 2007), this group had the most dramatic gain, increasing 172 percent between 1977 and 2007.”

Why do employers like seniors as employees?  Because we are, for the most part, steady, reliable, trustworthy, know the value of a dollar and the importance of creating value, and we bring a key asset – experience, even if only from that aforementioned UDC. 

Granted, we have to have a bathroom or Porta-Potty within eyesight and/or quick-step distance, but other than that, seniors are often the best workers a boss can have.  Of course, it also helps when that senior is un-opinionated, patient, diplomatic in dealing with customers and other employees, and never argues with the boss.  No problem, aren’t all seniors like that?

Therefore, I’m going on an all-out lobbying campaign to convince the media and their talking-heads to include us senior citizens in that “special interest” category they so love to denigrate.

The current crop of elected politicians in Washington and their challengers in this election year ignore us at their peril. Those politicians would be wise to remember the immortal words of one of our most beloved leaders (may he R.I.P.), Howard Beale, who taught us:

“Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad! You've got to say, [screaming] I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE.' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: [screaming at the top of your lungs] "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

Howard, the people of Massachusetts heard you and thank you.  That state’s folks got out of their chairs and took action.  Many more, including scores of us “special interests,” will do likewise come November.

My thanks to the websites of Federal Election Commission,  Dep’t of Labor, Census Bureau, seniorjournal.com, and 1976’s ‘Network’ newsman Howard Beale for contributing to this column.