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A lesson in character studies: the Neanderthal and the Man of Thin Skin
The Brack Report
By Andy Brack
Public scrutinizes Gov. Sanford, Rep. Altman after controversial
statements made on same day
There must have been something in the water at the Statehouse recently. That is the only plausible explanation for two foolish public relations moves.
First, thin-skinned Gov. Mark Sanford appeared at a press conference by state Democrats where they criticized his truth-telling about possible privatization of Santee Cooper, the state-owned public utility.
Hours later, Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston, verbally attacked a Columbia television reporter for asking questions about two bills being considered by the House Judiciary Committee.
The committee approved a bill to make cockfighting a felony but tabled action on another bill that would toughen penalties and boost judicial education on criminal domestic violence.
(The current law does classify criminal domestic violence as a felony but only if it is of a “high and aggravated nature” that involves a weapon or results in serious bodily injury. The law provides for a lesser misdemeanor version commonly used by law enforcement officials.)
When the committee voted to make cockfighting a felony while delaying action on the domestic violence bill, WIS-TV reporter Kara Gormley asked Altman, a member of the committee, the reason for the different decisions.
Gormley: “Does that show that we are valuing a gamecock’s life over a woman’s life?”
Altman: “You’re really not very bright, and I realize you are not accustomed to this, but I’m accustomed to reporters having a better sense of depth of things, and you’re asking this question to me would indicate you can’t understand the answer. To ask the question is to demonstrate an enormous amount of ignorance. I’m not trying to be rude or hostile, I’m telling you.”
Gormley: “It’s rude when you tell someone they are not very bright.”
Altman: “You’re not very bright, and you’ll just have to live with that.”
It got worse.
Altman: “I mean you women want it one way and not another. Women want to punish the men, and I do not understand why women continue to go back around men who abuse them.”
Gov. Mark Sanford spoke out against what Altman said to WIS-TV:
“To put the life of a chicken ahead of the life of a woman, that just doesn’t make any common sense. And to be insensitive about, certainly there are nuances in any piece of legislation, but to be insensitive about the importance, the gravity of that issue, I think causes people to have doubts about the legislative process in South Carolina, about certain legislators.”
Altman’s shenanigans deferred the media spotlight from Sanford’s possibly serious political trouble over what the governor said and didn’t say about his plans for Santee Cooper.
As the State Democratic Party had a press conference complaining about Sanford’s “secret plans” to privatize the state-owned utility, the governor rushed to attend the conference, reportedly standing just a few feet from a podium as Democrats spoke.
If it was a move to intimidate Democratic leaders, it did not work. State Democratic Chairman Joe Erwin thanked the governor for coming because it saved him the price of a stamp.
He handed a Freedom of Information request to Sanford about what is going on with the utility.
After the press conference, Sanford denied having a secret plan to sell Santee Cooper, according to The Post and Courier. Instead, he said he commissioned a $100,000 study to assess the utility’s capacity to return more money to state coffers to help fund government.
But according to the newspaper, documents obtained under a different FOI request showed that a Sanford staffer “contacted at least four investment banks in the fall, asking them to submit bids for a confidential study on the sale of Santee Cooper.”
In his years of public service, people have not always agreed with Sanford’s positions on policy issues, but his veracity has rarely been questioned.
However, the governor’s locked-jaw zeal about Santee Cooper gives opponents a political issue that will come back to haunt him during his 2006 re-election campaign.
Sanford needs to drop his privatization efforts and re-establish his credibility. Altman just needs to drop out of politics.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of S.C. Statehouse Report (www.statehousereport.com), a forecast of business developments in the South Carolina Legislature and state government. He can be reached at brack@statehousereport.com.
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