Protesters waved a half-dozen Confederate flags and an equal number of "secession" flags.
The answer for many at the rally is for South Carolina to peel itself away from the rest of the country.
"South Carolina seceded from England in 1776. Seceded from the Union in 1860. We can do it again," one sign read.
With all that, could you imagine that there's even more?
South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, a Republican, was captured here in this photo with a sign above him, stating "Obama Closet Muslim" while smiling with another person.
Now, you can plainly see there is a third person, to the left, who is actually holding the sign Eckstrom and the other person are under.
What is embarrassing is the fact that Eckstrom is an elected official. He represents all the people of this state. His ignorance of what was above him has made him an embarrassment to this state.
In effect, this is an endorsement of what the sign implies by an elected official. There's no debating it. He even smiles.
What is also embarrassing is that there is no Democratic candidate for the office as of yet.
I suppose we are in store for more in-your-face taunts and sneers from the Republicans in this state.
In 2006, he only managed 53% of the vote. That's right. Not all Republicans voted for him. There's a chance. It will take the right candidate. So, let's fill you in on what Eckstrom does for a job.
He's oversees the spending of the stimulus funds, for one.
And has had this to say about the stimulus funds in South Carolina:
The stimulus was flawed on many levels. Billions of dollars in new projects might satisfy the spending urges of many in Congress, but much of the spending is on "pork" - things that have nothing to do with stimulating the economy, like $50 million for the arts and $16 million to enhance the habitat of a special breed of mouse in the San Francisco area.
But, here's the truth...
The $700 million was enough to temporarily cover the gaps in the budget, but this year that money will run out. "In the last two or three years we have been putting band-aids on our state budget to get by," Representative Chip Limehouse said. "We’ve been robbing Peter to pay Paul and Peter is broke and Paul has left town. It is bad." The state still has $350 million in stimulus money for this year, but that is not enough to deal with the current deficit.
And who cares about that? Certainly not the Republicans in this state. Not Mark Sanford.
What Sanford and Eckstrom will not tell you is that they are part of the biggest problem this state has. The fact they believe raising taxes is a bad thing and cutting the taxes that fund the agencies and services the state provides hurts the same people they expect to vote for them.
And Eckstrom, with his photo-op - and his statements on the stimulus - show just how much attention he's paying to the people who are hurting, compared to those who are "partying"
at the state house.
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