SCHotline

by Andrew Citizen

Have you ever had someone you love and respect publicly do something, shall we say, less than smart? You know that sinking feeling you get in your gut when you find yourself saying, “Not again!”? Well, it happened to me Thursday. Dr. James Dobson, one of the most influential child psychologists of the last 50 years and founder of Focus on the Family, came out with guns blazing in a diatribe against Sen. Fred Thompson.

Here is what all the fuss is about:

“Isn’t Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won’t talk at all about what he believes, and can’t speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail? He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent ‘want to.’ And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!”

Let’s take those points one by one, shall we?

Thompson isn’t opposed to a Constitutional amendment defending real/traditional marriage. He has used his bully pulpit since 1994 to defend marriage—and while we’re at it, the unborn as well. Please show me a vote from his years in the Senate in which Thompson stood against any pro-family legislation. He has been stalwart in defending “family values”—so much so that last March, Dobson declared that he “appreciates Sen. Thompson’s solid, pro-family voting record and his position that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.”

Thompson is a federalist who believes that powers not granted to the federal government belong to the states. He wants to see an amendment that would keep the judiciary from legislating anything the people would never vote for at the ballet box. To him, the type of marriage protection amendment we should have is the question—not whether we should have one or not. Thompson deserves praise for standing firm in this cultural context, not a cheap shot.

McCain-Feingold has been a thorn in the hindquarters of conservatives like me for some time. Thompson supported it, and he was wrong to do so. But what is disturbing in this context is that Thompson has admitted that McCain- Feingold hasn’t worked, and that it has had unintended consequences—such as limiting speech, particularly on ads before an election. Is Dobson even aware of Thompson’s change on this issue? Apparently not.

“Cheap shot” is not the term that normally comes to mind when I think of Jim Dobson. Usually, it’s terms like “defender of the family,” “go-to guru for advice on how to raise my four (!) girls,” and “leader of those looking for direction in a land becoming a cultural wilderness.” That’s the Dr. Dobson I normally think of. That is why his cheap shot on Thompson must be addressed.

I, like so many of you, know that this is the most important election of our lives. Threats from global Islamofascism, weakness at home in political leadership, unsecured borders, runaway spending, looming economic crises and a judiciary set on legislating from the bench—these are critical issues that call for strong leadership. We need leaders who have at their core the principles that made America’s founding and flourishing possible.

I have personally attended every Thompson event in South Carolina since June. He has spoken forcefully as a proven social and fiscal conservative; those standing ovations didn’t come from the MoveOn.org crowd. No other candidate with an approval margin over 3 percent has been as consistent on our issues as he has. Thompson also brings the ability to put the left on its heels in ‘08—never underestimate the power of the media in this cultural context. It may not be fair, but Thompson’s exposure over the last 15 years in movies and TV shows helps put blue states in play in ways no other candidate can without compromising conservative principles. In his fine response to Dr. Dobson’s email, former presidential candidate Gary Bauer noted that “as we approach November of next year, I believe every faith-based voter … has to ponder what a Hillary Clinton presidency will do to our cause … I cannot bring myself to trash candidates who may represent our only chance to stop a Hillary disaster.”

Primaries are about proving oneself—not just for candidates, but also those who lead movements. They present opportunities to question and determine who we will nominate as a candidate for the highest office in the world. Once the process has played out, we unite behind that candidate and hopefully, get four years to positively impact the present and future of this great nation. Those in leadership who have a say in that process need to guard that trust well—not behave like those they say are part of the problem.

Andrew Citizen is a conservative activist who resides in Clover with his wife and four daughters. He has been featured in Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family’s Citizen Magazine.

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SCHotline Developing Story: [UPDATED 10pm today]
SCHotline.com has learned from reliable sources that former U.S. Attorney Pete Strom has filed a class-action lawsuit involving pay-day lending groups and that no fewer than nine co-counsels are listed.

Sources tell SCHotline.com that the same co-counsels are current South Carolina State Legislators and some with previous votes favoring the pay-day lending industry and having accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the pay-day lending industry PAC’s, affiliated organizations and campaign contribution bundlers.

SCHotline will continue to follow this developing story

Relative Pending Legislation: S 0398, H 3294, H 3419, H 3448

[UPDATE]

The Advance America Complaint Copy [PDF]

Update: Verified Contributions of Co-Counsels

Hutto for Senate May, 2007 $1000

Senator Thomas for LG June, 2002 $2,500
Senator Thomas for LG June, 2003 $14,000
Thomas for LG June, 2005 $5,000
Palmetto Pride (Thomas’ Request) Sept & Oct, 2006 $10,000
Total for Thomas: $31,500

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[Related Print]

The State: Payday lender sued again
http://www.thestate.com/business/story/178623.html

The State: Payday lender closing 103 U.S. branches
http://www.thestate.com/business/story/179617.html

WISTV: SC’s payday lenders facing class action suit
http://wistv.com/Global/story.asp?s=7102239

September 17, 2007

Does Fred Thompson dislike South Carolina (football)?

Will college football impact the primary votes of South Carolinians?

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) — If there’s one thing that rivals presidential politics in South Carolina in the fall, it’s college football. In fact, between the two, college football probably triumphs.

So what happens when a presidential candidate’s college football allegiances conflict with those of football-crazy voters in early primary states?

It’s a question that former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson was faced with on his recent trip to Florida, which currently has its primary scheduled for January 29th.

According to The Politico, when Thompson was asked by a football fan whether he supports the Florida Gators or the Tennessee Volunteers, who played each other last weekend, Thompson said: “I’m too old to change now, I’ve been a Vol all my life … But, I’ll tell you what, we can both do our best to beat the ole ballcoach.”

The “ballcoach,” of course, is Steve Spurrier, the former Florida head coach that followers of Southeastern Conference football love to hate.

But now, Spurrier happens to be the head football coach at the University of South Carolina, whose football team is riding high at 3-0, ranked number 12 in the nation. South Carolina is also the primary state that has backed the eventual GOP nominee every year since Republicans started holding a primary here in 1980.

So if Thompson wants South Carolina to lose … what are Gamecock football fans to think?

According to one football fan, Bryce Murch of Columbia, “you just don’t say that.”

“Saying that in South Carolina is bad news,” he said.

Then again, most South Carolina fans CNN spoke to said that while the comment bothered them, it likely won’t affect their vote.

For the record, Thompson’s communications director Todd Harris told CNN that Thompson’s top two teams are Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

— CNN South Carolina Producer Peter Hamby

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SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, another story we’re following here, a surprising turn on the presidential race on the Republican side, anyway. Look at the new CNN/Public Opinion Research poll. Giuliani and “Law & Order” star Fred Thompson are basically tied. That’s a huge difference since before Thompson entered the race last week. Thompson jumped seven percent. Look who comes in a distant third and fourth. John McCain and then Mitt Romney.

Now it looks like Thompson has some people so scared they’re turning to mudslinging at this point. Who? Well, we’ll get into that. It’s the modern way of mudslinging, though, because we’re talking about the internet. In fact, check out this Web page. This is from phoneyfred.org. That’s what it’s called. It’s a site devoted to attacking Thompson’s personal life and his politics. The site has been taken down, by the way, but it was so nasty, in fact, Romney’s campaign is telling anyone who will listen, we, the Romney camp, had nothing to do with this.

That’s not what they say on the other side, except the guy who created the Web site is in business with one of Romney’s top advisers in South Carolina. Let’s talk politics now. Frank Donatelli, he is a former adviser to President Reagan.

Thanks so much, Frank, for joining us. Let’s try to break this down for the viewer. Because I think it gets a little confusing. The guy who apparently put this information out is a guy who worked as a consultant for somebody who worked as a consultant for Romney. His name is Wesley Donohue (ph). This firm was paid thousands and thousands of dollars. That’s the background. From the Romney camp, by the way. Is that enough for us to go on to assume that they may have had some connection to Romney in doing something like this or do these things just happen as rogue acts?

FRANK DONATELLI, FORMER ADVISER TO PRESIDENT REAGAN: Rick, it may be true that the high command of Romney campaign didn’t know anything about this, but if indeed someone who is on the payroll of one of the consultants to the campaign put this up, I think that there is some culpability on the part of the Romney campaign. And my advice would be to cut ties immediately because it’s not going to get any better. This is going to continue as a story.

SANCHEZ: Cut ties all together. That’s interesting you would say that. As a matter of fact, will, let’s go to the big wall. Sometimes you have to look at these things. We can’t take you to the Internet and take you through it. So we kind of broke it down for you this way. That’s what it looks like. That’s the banner of what this Web site looks like. Phoney Fred. Then it has different segments, across the top, Hollywood Fred, Washington Fred, Pimp Fred, McCain Fred.

Come on back. Look down here. We pulled this out of the actual Web site, flip-flop Fred, moron Fred, trial lawyer Fred. Frank, this is vicious stuff, isn’t it?

DONATELLI: Yeah. It really is. It strikes me on the one hand that it’s really lame for all of the reasons that you just outlined. On the other hand, it’s sophisticated in the sense the content is pretty well developed. There’s a lot of votes in there, a lot of information about the background and so forth and so on. But I think what is most objectionable about this is no one takes credit for it. There’s no identification of who is responsible. If you want to launch an attack on an opponent, I think that’s justifiable, but the first rule is you should take the heat for that. You should stand behind the charges.

And these kinds of anonymous charges, really, I think, are not what politics should be about.

SANCHEZ: This is not one of the cases where we don’t know who did it or we think one candidate did it to set up the other guy. For example, maybe Thompson’s guys did it to say, oh my God, we’re the victims here. The fact that we know who this person is at least makes it look like there’s some culpability that the Romney camp needs to deal with, right, whether they did it on purpose or not.

DONATELLI: No, no. I agree with that. I think there’s culpability here. And I think it’s up to the campaign to deal with it quickly. It’s not going to get any better.

SANCHEZ: Frank Donatelli, good stuff. We appreciate your information on this. Thank you.

DONATELLI: Thanks very much.

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SC Hotline was shown, by a presidential 08 campaign staff worker, a copy of a speech that is to be given on Tuesday by Lt. Governor Andre Bauer, and we can report that it is an eye opener. Entitled “Seniors: One third of the vote, none of the debate… it contains blunt and frank language wherein the Lt. Governor calls out by name presidential contenders for their lack of responsiveness to senior issues. He then urges them to present their responses to the voters of SC.

Ranging from senior specific issues, to general tax policy, to government reform, the speech is reflective of Bauer’s enthusiasm for senior issues. He illustrates the significance of the senior vote as the most important voting bloc in SC and strongly suggests that candidate should take this bloc seriously, or lose it and the election.

The speech seemed at times more personal than we have seen previously from Bauer. He quotes from the bible, talks about his family, and makes a pledge to seniors, all the while making the case for increased conversation about seniors and their issues by use of fact, figures and in-depth policy discussion.

The address is to be given in the House Chambers at the Capital Building in Columbia on Tuesday at 1:30. Just before the speech there will be an open house in the Senate Chambers at 12.00. The public is invited.

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[RELATED]

Echo Chamber - The Silent Debate

I am sure that you all have your opinion and you can post it as a response to my opinion.

I believe that Mike Huckabee won this debate. He once again showed his command of the stage. I loved the exchange between Gov. Huckabee and Ron Paul where Huckabee went toe to toe with Paul. He made the argument that I would have made if I was at the debate.

He also got off some good one liners like….

“We can’t be divided. We have to be one nation, under God. That means if we make a mistake, we make it as a single country: The United States of America, not the divided states of America.”

“The reason this country has been extraordinarily interested in what’s going on to those miners out in Utah is because even though we don’t know them, they represent us in the sense that they are human beings, and we don’t know their fate. We need to show the same kind of respect for life whether a child is in the womb, or whether in a coal mine, or in a long-term care facility.”

The other thing that has always impressed me about Gov. Huckabee is he is just so nice. He praised John McCain for his honor which we all should. Even though I might never vote for McCain, I must admit I admire him. I have also noticed something has changed about Sen. McCain over the last few months.

The biggest disappointment of the night was Mitt Romney and the question that was asked by the Deputy Sheriff highlighted this. Yes, Gov. Romney slightly acknowledged this but then swiftly moved on only actually apologizing in the post debate interview with Hannity & Colmes. We can all make a mistake and clearly Romney did make a mistake on this point.

Fox News was also a winner for not droning on about the war. They kept the debate moving and I believe this debate was fair and balanced between all the candidates. I was disappointed that once again there was no question about Education or Health Care at the debate. We have over one million students dropping out of school and we are losing whole generations because we refuse to even discuss the question. We also have a health care crisis that is eroding the foundation of our society.

Let me know what you think? Give us your opinion here in the comments section.

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Relevant Links:

Huckabee Wins Debate With ‘Head and Heart’

Mike Green

Editor, SCHotline.com

“Insider politics from across the state of South Carolina”

www.schotline.com