Redstate's Descent Into Childishness On Nikki Haley Story

I don't see the benefit to the movement, or for Nikki Haley, to see childishness like this play out on a supposedly prominent conservative blog when a governorship and a family are involved. If this is what Haley sees as a smart tactic for defense, I'm not sure she's qualified to govern anything. And, frankly, Folks is better at it, than is Erick.

At best, all Erick seems to be promising is more he said, she said, crap from political operatives. And every day the story runs I suspect she's bleeding support. It's unclear to me if Erick is intent on helping Haley, or hurting her, at this point. And childish is the right word for it, unfortunately.

Without a guilty plea for beating a woman, but with a Devil May Care attitude, RedState.com’s fearless editor, Erick Erickson, endeavoring to write about himself in the third person, though omniscient or limited is still up for grabs, will now proceed to dish out the dough and let the chips fall where they may in the whole sordid affair in South Carolina.

Only today did intrepid Erick Erickson get permission from sources to reveal a few key details about the Will Folks allegations. Though Erickson hinted, as sly editors do, that he had more information that would explain RedState’s full throated defense of Haley despite having been burned by a South Carolina politician before, Erickson was unable to delve into information he had.

Having had a little bit of time to look into it, some of the calls do at least suggest an issue, or perhaps insomnia.

Some of those calls came late at night, lasted for hours -- and one did not end until nearly 5 a.m. At the time, Folks was a part-time consultant for Haley.

According to Folks' personal cell-phone records, which he provided to The Post and Courier on Thursday night, he and the current frontrunner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination spoke almost daily, sometimes for a minute at a time, a half-dozen times a day, and other times for upwards of an hour in the middle of the day.

Between July 1 and Aug. 31, 2007 -- the time that included most of the late-night calls -- the two spent a total of 34 hours on the telephone.

I went back to the FITSNews archives to see what Folks was writing about Haley at the time. He certainly was a booster. And many of his posts were laced with innuendo.

On June 24th, Folks used an image of Haley in a post about young guns.

According to an exclusive FITSNews analysis of their votes on key fiscal conservative issues, the most promising “Young Guns” in the S.C. House would seem to be: ... Nikki Haley (pictured)

And here's a bit from July 2nd. Said young guns were termed the Nikki Haley caucus, so Haley was obviously getting blog play out of the talks, if nothing else.

For their awesome work growing the size of state government by 41% over the last three years, South Carolina legislators (well, those who aren’t in the Nikki Haley Caucus, anyway) were awarded official throwback jerseys by Major League Baseball today.

Then another item in August, which ranks so-called SC power players, with DeMint and Barrett at 12 and 14 respectively, while mentioning Haley - and some rumors - down at number 50. Keep in mind, DeMint's state coordinator is running Barrett's campaign.

50. Nikki Haley – State Representative (R)

Fiscal Conservative Rating: 100%
Stock: Rising
Change Agent: Yes

Independent, fiercely intelligent and altogether impervious to the slings and arrows of the State House rumor mill, Nikki Haley keeps her head down and consistently produces. She’s also raising money at the level of a statewide candidate and earning props for her impressive showing on the workers’ compensation conference committee. A star on the rise if we’ve ever seen one, don’t be surprised when you wake up one day and discover she’s South Carolina’s first female governor.

As best I can tell, Folks then goes mostly silent until January, where he once again stirs the rumor pot, while pronouncing her ready for prime-time.

Every time we try to cure ourselves of the impulse to shamelessly promote S.C. Rep. Nikki Haley, she does something that reminds us why we fell in love with her in the first place.

Seriously, people. The conspiracy theorists can throw out whatever innuendo they want about that statement, but it won’t change the fact that Haley is a conservative rock star with a seemingly limitless reservoir of upward mobility.

Frankly, nothing about this story is looking ready for prime-time, at this point. But as Erick himself got it elevated it to CNN's Political Ticker yesterday by grabbing on to it, I suppose it is. Hopefully, a link to the first page of the FITSNews Haley archive, beginning on 2/16 with one entry, prior to about the time they were talking, will allow readers to check the history. You can page forward from there. It's possible they were talking about her coming campaign, as well as her support for Romney in 2008, as part of a team that included Jim DeMint's wife.

Poynter Online had an interesting item up on how adults and journalists might handle the story back on the 25th. I'd recommend it to the more serious minded reader.

Comments

[yarrrrr]

I agree 100% with you... I've told him off on twitter to stop this nonsense... release whatever you have...

[Bo]

I agreed with your take on the Rand Paul/Palin ordeal last week- you were one of the few to take it from the long-view perspective of how Reagan would have properly handled the matter. But I disagree with you on this: it's better for Haley to personally distance herself from this if nothing happened and move on in a professional matter. I doubt Erickson would be this direct if he didn't have a trump card + it helps put fear into the backstabbers. And 600 phone calls; late phone calls-especially if Folks was calling her and not vice versa (it was probably his M.O) mean little in a politician's busy day. I'm sure Axelrod and POTUS have many more calls, and late night calls than that- does that mean they are having an affair?

[Someone]

Awww, maybe someday you'll have a slot on CNN, too.

Or not.

[Dan Riehl]

That's all you got, "someone?" lol

[Ashen]

What a pathetic string of posts by RedState and Erik Erickson. Their credibility has now reached zero because of this and Dan, "they don't have the votes", Perrin. Btw whatever happened to Mr Perrin?

[Sue]

I knew he didn't know anything. Why would he tarnish his own reputation by pulling such a childish stunt?

[Aye Chihuahua]

Bad, bad judgment and execution by Mr. Red State.

Shameful.

[fkd]

@Aye Chihuahua

Since when have prominent conservative bloggers shown good judgment anyway?
Dan Riehl's blogging history is littered with more sickness than Erick Erickson's wingnuttery i suppose.

[Aye Chihuahua]

@fkd

Mighty broad brush you paint with there.

Careful you don't get splattered.