...things are starting to get very interesting at the top of the executive branch here in the Palmetto State.
Overnight, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was forced to answer questions regarding her fraudulent application to her former job, on which she misstated her income from the job she had before that. Haley listed her income as being $125,000 in 2007 when she filled out a tax return listing it as $22,000 from her parents' clothing store Exotica International.
After the Lexington hospital hired her at $110,000 per annum, based on her previous income, she proceeded to barely show up for work and, when she did, she appears to have raised funds for the hospital from donors that had business before the S.C. Legislature, of which she was a member. She also left that job on bad terms after failing to show up for work for two weeks and refusing to be placed on annual leave before stating that she left on good terms.
The Sikh temple over which her father, Ajit Randhawa, is leader, is under close scrutiny for its financial dealings, which also appear to involve Nikki. Further, last week, she removed business maven Darla Moore from the University of South Carolina Board of Trustees, a woman who has given over $70 million to the University and whose name is attached to USC's highly-regarded business school. Haley replaced Moore, one of only two women on the board, with campaign contributor Tommy Cofield, sending waves of shock and anger across the 25,000-student campus.
In other news, Lt. Governor Ken Ard is facing at least 92 counts of corruption, including 69 counts of using campaign funds for personal use. And that's just post-election...the Election Commission is just now looking into his pre-election filings.
Here in South Carolina, much of the work that was started in Madison has long since been done. We have no unions to speak of, as a "right to work" (AKA right to fire without cause) state...not that we have traditional union manufacturing here anymore, since the textile industry headed south in the early 1980s. Haley has stated that she'd like to see unions made illegal, and although the state doesn't have the power to make that happen, she said she'd use very power she has to limit and undermine unions and their formation. We're already an ass-backward, corrupt state, but a vital part of what appears to be a nationwide offensive by the Republicans against traditional Democratic institutions, voters and ideals.
I don't know which billionaire libertarian is funding Haley and the S.C. Tea Party, but Nikki Haley is the weakest link in the network. I don't think she'll make it past the end of the year, especially once the book detailing her adultery is published by Haley's disgusting accuser Will Folks, publisher of fitsnews.com in which the story has played out.
It's just about over for those two, and people are already starting to chant Darla Moore for Governor. Next in line, President Pro Tem of the Senate Glenn McConnell, staunch supporter of the Confederacy, and after him, Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell. McConnell and Harrell are the highest and second-highest compensated legislators in South Carolina, respectively.