Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:
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May 18
Aiken (South Carolina) Standard on Gov. Haley’s caustic attitude:
With only a few days left in the legislative session, the General Assembly has become so crippled by divisive and partisan politics that few, if any, of their priorities are likely to become done deals. This lack of success has to be pinned, in part, on the combative and bullish mentality of S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley. Instead of blossoming an engaging public discourse, the governor has turned politics in Columbia into an even more tumultuous and sectarian atmosphere.
Haley’s political style is one that’s essentially all or nothing. Lawmakers are either with her or against her.
She clearly has a penchant for calling people out on social media, which has become a root of her shaky relationship with the General Assembly.
During her first term in office, Haley actually issued report cards for lawmakers, which publicly shamed those who didn’t vote her way. Her Facebook page features posts firing back at individual lawmakers, or posts that simply list the names of those who disappointed her by their votes.
Tensions between the two branches sparked again earlier this month, when she chastised her fellow Republican lawmakers at the South Carolina GOP convention.
“These are the people who are supposed to be with me,” Haley said about some Republicans in the state. “These are the people who are supposed to be moving South Carolina forward.”
Haley has largely harped on legislators concerning four bills. These proposals include bumping up salaries for lawmakers, issuing $500 million in bonds, a transportation bill increasing the gas tax and an ethics reform bill, which has essentially died in the Senate.
This isn’t an environment for progression in our state. This is an environment that merely hardens the partisan lines.
To her credit, Haley has presided over some momentous times in South Carolina. This is particularly true with the amount of economic development and industrial recruitment that has occurred during her tenure. Although she’s not the state’s only salesperson, these are efforts for which she undoubtedly deserves kudos. The recent recruitment of Volvo to Berkeley County is a prime example. However, her combative and outspoken attitude isn’t a sign of needed leadership that was shown in emphatic ways by previous governors, particularly Carroll Campbell in the 1990s.
This approach is much more reminiscent of Haley’s predecessor Mark Sanford, whose governorship was marked by few concrete successes because of, at least in part, his inability to work with the legislators.
It’s important to realize that Haley isn’t fighting just with those across the aisle. She’s shown on too many occasions an incapacity to work with members of her own party, even some of the most conservative in the legislature.
This “my way or the highway approach” is only hurting our state when there are real and concrete needs facing it.
A hard line attitude is undoubtedly needed sometimes. However, when it becomes so recurring and inflexible, it does much more harm than good in the long run.
Online:
https://www.aikenstandard.com
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May 19
Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina, on answers needed in Argentine case:
An Argentine prosecutor working on an explosive investigation of government intrigue and conspiracy wound up dead in his Buenos Aires home hours before presenting his case to that nation’s Congress. Now it seems the case Alberto Nisman spent years pursuing may never have its day in court.
That would be only the latest in a long line of related tragedies.
Last Tuesday, a federal judge formally closed the investigation Nisman had led, after another prosecutor declined to proceed with charges. In his allegation, Nisman claimed that Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner conspired to cover up the Iranian government’s involvement in a 1994 terrorist bombing that killed 85 people at a Buenos Aires Jewish community center in exchange for a trade deal.
Nisman prepared hundreds of pages of evidence to support his allegations, but was found dead before he could present the findings.
Officials initially ruled his death a suicide, but the suspicious timing caused many - including, eventually, Mrs. Kirchner - to question whether foul play may have been involved. Recent opinion polls show that more than 70 percent of Argentinians believe Nisman was murdered.
Forensic investigations into the cause of death produced contradictory findings, and a forthcoming final report appears unlikely to offer any conclusive answers.
Indeed, the troubling uncertainty over his death should be in itself reason to publicly air the information Nisman compiled against Mrs. Kirchner and her administration.
And there has been no shortage of further intrigue since Nisman died in January. Mrs. Kirchner, on her personal blog, has speculated that Nisman was assassinated by her political enemies, in order to frame her administration. She later questioned whether Israeli organizations or a controversial New York investment firm might have been part of a conspiracy against her administration in a ridiculous, rambling post entitled “Everything has to do with everything.”
Officials investigating Nisman’s death have accused his mother, who discovered his body, of tampering with evidence before police arrived at the scene. And one of the most outspoken judges pushing to discredit the suicide theory is Nisman’s estranged wife.
But beyond the blend of soap opera theatrics and political thriller accusations lies a very serious concern that must be addressed: The Jewish center bombing remains unsolved. The victims of that terrorist attack and their families deserve justice.
If evidence shows that high-level Iranian officials worked with Hezbollah to plan and carry out the attack, as Nisman alleged, it would be of particularly damaging significance in light of ongoing international negotiations over that nation’s nuclear ambitions.
And if Mrs. Kirchner indeed conspired to bury evidence of Iran’s involvement, it would constitute not just an unforgivable political black eye, but an international criminal offense as well.
Perhaps there really isn’t enough evidence to proceed with a trial.
But the severity of Nisman’s charges demands far more than the dismissive attitude with which his case was shelved last week.
Online:
https://www.postandcourier.com
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May 20
Times and Democrat, Orangeburg, South Carolina, on failure to fix rural roads costing lives:
With a Senate filibuster on abortion threatening to further delay South Carolina lawmakers in approving a plan to fix the state’s roads and bridges, the pressure for action on infrastructure grows from business leaders. And if there is not already enough statistical and anecdotal evidence showing the need for improvements, a new study out Tuesday makes clear the danger motorists face in the state.
Business leaders gathered at the Statehouse Tuesday in conjunction with the S.C. Alliance to Fix Our Roads to rally support for the infrastructure funding that faces delay by a filibuster by Republican Sen. Lee Bright, who says he is not backing down from opposition to a compromise on a bill banning abortion past 19 weeks because it would allow exceptions for victims of rape and incest.
Already, the roads/bridges legislation faces an uphill battle. If the Senate approves a bill, it will have to be reconciled with a House-approved plan. And then there is the matter of Gov. Nikki Haley’s promised veto if any increase in the gas tax to fund road and bridge repairs is not offset by a corresponding decrease in the state income tax.
As the focus was on Columbia and the Legislature, the national non-profit group TRIP was in Washington releasing results of a study that shows the need for road repairs extends well beyond the main highways of the state - and that lives are a stake.
The TRIP report found traffic crashes and fatalities on rural roads in South Carolina are significantly higher than all other roads in the state. In 2013, non-interstate rural roads in South Carolina had a traffic fatality rate of 3.40 deaths for every 100 million vehicle miles of travel, the second-highest rate nationally and nearly five times higher than the traffic fatality rate of 0.69 deaths per 100 million VMT for all other roads in South Carolina.
The report also found that rural bridges in South Carolina have significant deficiencies. In 2014, 12 percent of South Carolina’s rural bridges were rated as structurally deficient, the 19th highest rate in the nation.
In the state’s Secondary (Rural) Roadway System that is federal-aid eligible, 31 percent of roads were rated poor and only 19 percent were in good condition in 2008. That lapsed to 43 percent poor and 20 percent good in 2013, according to Eric Dickey, chairman of the South Carolina Alliance to Fix Our Roads.
“This is compounded by our Secondary (Rural) Roadway System that is non-federal-aid eligible with 33 percent poor and only 14 percent good in 2008 — and lapsed to 50 percent poor and 10 percent good in 2013. While South Carolina struggles to maintain its interstate and primary roadway systems, the rural roadways are neglected and continue to deteriorate,” Dickey said.
The report reinforces the need for action now. Major roads in developed counties are sure to get priority under any South Carolina road plan. And even those improvements will take years. More and more time will elapse before roads in rural and less-developed counties such as Orangeburg, Calhoun and Bamberg will see significant improvements. And that means a state with among the nation’s deadliest roads already could see the toll in lives get higher, with poor highway and bridge conditions increasingly being a factor.
Will Wilkins, executive director of TRIP, speaks for residents of rural counties: “The safety and quality of life in America’s small communities and rural areas and the health of the nation’s economy ride on our rural transportation system. The nation’s rural roads provide crucial links from farm to market, move manufactured and energy products, and provide access to countless tourism, social and recreational destinations.”
While we’ll echo him in calling on national leaders to break the gridlock and advance transportation legislation on the national level, the most immediate concern is seeing that state leaders in Columbia take action - and do so before the legislative session ends in less than a month.
Online:
https://thetandd.com/
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