Is there any purpose left to Lindsey
Graham’s continued and now-obstructive alarm calls about Benghazi other than energizing his base and
raising his profile ahead of next year’s election? We don’t think so:
Dead horse, meet S.C. Sen. Lindsey
Graham.
Clearly, a number of things went
horribly wrong at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi,
Libya, on Sept.
11, 2012. Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were
killed in a pair of terrorist attacks on U.S. compounds.
Should federal
money collected for harbor maintenance be used to pay for harbor maintenance?
We sure think so:
As much as
pundits and politicians might like to say otherwise, there is almost nothing
clear-cut or straightforward about our nation’s spending problems. Managing a
nation of more than 300 million people with a federal budget now approaching $4
trillion a year is a monumental task of nuance, judgment calls and hard
decisions.
But sometimes
the intent of government budgeting seems so heart-breakingly simple that it’s
just all the more frustrating when that intent is ignored.
Sunday’s
editorial takes on the tried and true topic of nullification. Remember that
from your high school history textbooks?
South
Carolina has a proud tradition of obstinacy. In the federal family, we’re the
child who automatically responds to every suggestion with an emphatic “nuh-uh”
or “make me.” Ingrained over centuries, stubborn refusal has become our gut
feeling, our knee-jerk reaction. The federal government says po-tay-to and we
say po-tah-to. Of course, if the feds at any point changed course and started
saying po-tah-to, we’d immediately insist that real Americans say po-tay-to.
This
disdain for and distrust of authority has led us into confrontations of all
sizes, from bloody wars to congressmen who publicly call the president a liar
during a State of the Union address. The recent calls by state legislators for
reviving nullification only adds to this long tradition of digging in our
heels.
Thursday’s first editorial praises the recent vote for
Hurricane Sandy relief and urges our delegation to support next week’s recovery
funds as well:
Kudos to Rep. Tom Rice for breaking with the rest of the
state’s GOP delegation last week and supporting federal funds for Superstorm
Sandy relief.
The
nearly $10 billion bill approved Friday goes to the national flood insurance
program to help pay claims associated with the massive storm that devastated New York, New
Jersey and other parts of the Northeast. It’s a good
start.
Tuesday’s editorial has some
appreciation for the words of our newest congressman and urges those leaders in
D.C. to get a national gameplan in place and then follow through on it.
There’s nothing like starting your
job smack dab in the middle of a crisis. New U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, R-Myrtle Beach, and new U.S. Sen. Tim Scott,
R-North Charleston, took their oaths on Thursday as the nation they seek to
help lead struggles through a particularly nasty patch of partisan bickering
and stonewalling.
Governing has taken a back seat to
mud-slinging and shouting. Rather than work together to improve the United
States, Congress has settled for lurching from crisis to crisis, barely
averting each fresh disaster just days or hours before it happens. What a
reality to encounter on your first day on the job.
After a relentless and popular
grass-roots campaign by Comedy Central TV host and S.C. native Stephen Colbert
to be named the replacement for Sen. Jim DeMint, Gov. Nikki Haley responded
Thursday afternoon by saying she believes in doing her “full due diligence” and
releasing her office’s background “vetting”
of the comedian.
Thursday’s editorial applauds the
governor’s intention to appoint more than a pretty face and a seat filler in
DeMint’s place:
Sen. Jim DeMint’s surprise
resignation last week instantly put plenty of pressure on Gov. Nikki Haley, who
will appoint his immediate successor until an election is held in 2014.
Haley has responded well thus far,
particularly with her announcement that she would not be appointing a
placeholder, somebody to simply fill the seat for two years until the election.
Friday’s first editorial urges our
politicians to stop signing those silly pledges:
Call us old fashioned, but we like
political leaders who can make their own decisions.
Accordingly, we’ve never been a fan
of political pledges such as the anti-tax promise
promulgated by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform. It’s not that we’re
a fan of taxes. If our leaders can figure out how to pay for our government
work without raising taxes, bully for them. But that simply won’t be the case
from here until eternity, all day every day. Populations change. The economy
changes. Needs change.
Sunday’s editorial offers the
editorial board’s thoughts on the presidential election:
Few things about this presidential
election have lent themselves to unambiguous, clear decisions, despite what the
campaigns and their diehard supporters might like us to believe. Neither of the
major candidates is a miraculous savior or unmitigated fiend. Both stand before
U.S.
voters with significant high and low points, and nobody has managed to leap to
the fore as the obviously better choice.
For proof, you need look no further
than the latest polling data. We give our fellow Americans credit for being
fairly smart and invested in the future of this nation, and as such, if the
decision on picking our next leader were an easy one, we wouldn’t be coming
down to the wire with two candidates that are still neck and neck.
Saturday’s editorial shares our
recommendation for who should be the first representative from our new 7th
Congressional District:
Color us frustrated, exasperated and
disappointed.
After having high hopes for Democrat
Gloria Bromell Tinubu, who has many of the qualities necessary to succeed in
Congress, her recent behavior has revealed enough of her character to sour us
on her campaign.
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