Promoted from the diaries. -ed.

OK – as many of you are aware, I recently wrote a diary about a congressional candidate from Charleston, SC (my hometown) by the name of Tim Scott. Tim Scott is running for Congress to represent the 1st district of SC in the US House of Representatives. The Republican Primary took place on June the 8th and Tim Scott won with 32% of the vote, followed by Paul Thurmond who took in 16% of the vote. Tim Scott will now face Paul Thurmond in a run-off in less than two weeks. (There were a total of nine candidates running in the District 1 Republican Primary, so it was inevitable that there was going to be a run-off, because it would be close to impossible for any of those candidate to get to 51%.)

So, now that we are are down to the wire, I thought that I would play a little game of compare and contrast with the resumes of the final two candidates.

Tim Scott has served thirteen years on the Charleston County Council–and, he has been in the SC House of Representatives for the last two years where he is currently the first black Republican state legislator since Reconstruction. Mr. Scott has impeccable conservative credentials, because he is just one of eleven candidates to have been endorsed by The Club for Growth (who also endorsed Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey). Michael Barone also acknowledged that Tim Scott was the most conservative candidate in the SC District One race, when he wrote the following–

“Interestingly, Haley is the daughter of Sikh immigrants from India. If elected governor she would be the second Republican governor of a Southern state, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, to be the child of immigrants from South Asia. Who’d a thunk it? And when you’re putting your mind around that, consider that the leader in the Republican primary for the open South Carolina 1 seat relinquished by retiree Henry Brown is Tim Scott, who may be the most conservative and assuredly is the only black Republican in the South Carolina legislature. He led Paul Thurmond, son of the late Governor and Senator Strom Thurmond, by a 31%-16% margin; in third place with 14% was Carroll Campbell, son of the late Congressman and Governor Carroll Campbell.”

Actually, Tim Scott won by 32%, but the rest is correct.

Now, as far as charisma goes, Tim Scott has it to spare–in fact, he has it oozing out of every pore. I have embedded two videos below of Tim Scott. The first one is his excellent advertisement that points out that he wrote the anti-Obamacare legislation in the SC House of Representatives. The second video is of a speech that Mr. Scott made before RNC members in Myrtle Beach, SC–and it is just made of awesome (watch the first 12 minutes of it if you don’t have time to watch the entire thing–that should be enough to give you an idea of who Mr. Scott is and what he is about).

OK–so now that I’ve told you about Tim Scott, I thought that I’d tell you a bit about Paul Thurmond. Paul Thurmond is the youngest son of the late Strom Thurmond. He got elected to the Charleston County Council in 2006, but decided to retire at the ripe old age of 33 (Tim Scott is 44), after serving only three years there. He is now running for Congress at the age of 34–that’s it, the end. I’m serious–that’s really all there is to his resume.

And as far as his conservative bona fides go, I can’t really tell you one way or the other, because HE HASN’T DONE ANYTHING YET.

Oh, and here are Paul Thurmond’s television ads for the SC District 1 race. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that they are both in the top five WORST ads that I’ve ever seen.

Did you hear that? He said that he was “a conservative problem solver” and he has a family. Well, my mailman’s “a conservative problem solver” and he has a family–he solves the problem of getting me my mail everyday. Does he get to run for Congress? Do I? I’m “a conservative problem solver” as well.

Oh, and did you catch the end? “It’s not the name”, but it really is, because why the heck else would you bring it up? Besides, what else is he running on again? Oh yeah, silly me. He’s “a conservative problem solver” (whatever that is).

Now, let’s look at Mr. Thurmond’s next ad shall we?

Omigod–is it over?! Can I look yet? Man, that was all kinds of terrible! “Thad and little Fletch”?! Is he serious with this foolishness? If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that ad was a parody. But hey, I guess if you don’t have any real accomplishments or legislation under your belt (like writing the anti-Obamacare legislation for SC), then “Thad and little Fletch” it is. (Don’t get me wrong–his children are adorable, but come on. This an ad for a congressional seat, not a home movie.)

Oh, and did you catch the beginning of that ad where he had a picture of him and his dad? Oh, but he’s not running on his family name….now, if somebody could actually tell me what exactly he is running on, I would love to hear it. Oh yeah. He’s “a conservative problem solver” (rolls eyes).

And finally, at the beginning of that ad, it mentions that Paul Thurmond is endorsed by Authur Ravenel Jr. Who is he you ask? Well, he is a prominent politician from Charleston from a very old Charleston family (there is a historic home in downtown Charleston, built in 1845, named after his family) whose son, Thomas Ravenel (who was the SC state Treasurer) was sentenced to federal prison for buying and distributing cocaine. (Arthur Ravenel Jr. was a Democrat in the 1950’s, but became a Republican.) Oh, and Arthur Ravenel is a member of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, is highly in favor of flying the Confederate flag over the SC State House, and referred to the NAACP as the “National Association of Retarded People”. Whoa–this guy’s a real class act isn’t he? (And by “class act”, I mean a real scumbag.) Let’s just say that I’m not at all surprised that Mr. Ravenel is in favor over ANY guy named “Thurmond” over Tim Scott, but I digress. (Seriously Mr. Thurmond–you thought that it was a good idea to begin your ad with this guy’s endorsement?!)

Oh, while we’re on the subject of endorsements, that previous advertisement also said that Paul Thurmond was endorsed by Representative Thomas Hartnett who has been a SC politician since the 1960’s–he was originally a Democrat in the 60s, but he became a Republican in 1972.

So now, I bet you are curious about who got what endorsements the day after the Republican Primary. Well, the day after the June 8th Republican Primary, Paul Thurmond–the guy who came in a far distant second–picked up three new endorsements. I’m not kidding. Paul Thurmond–a second rate, unqualified hack of a candidate (Tim Scott is, literally, FIVE TIMES more qualified than him–he has 15 years in elected office and Paul Thurmond has 3), with the charisma of vanilla pudding got three endorsements in less than 24 hours after he LOST BY A TWO TO ONE MARGIN.

[One a side note, are you starting to notice a pattern here? That every ancient, entitled, pork barreling, SC political hack, who was friends/acquaintances with or worked with Strom Thurmond, is now endorsing Paul Thurmond over Tim Scott? It's quite obvious to me anyway. Oh, but I forgot. Paul Thurmond is a breath of fresh air whose going to change Washington by owing his election to a bunch of SC political hacks who have been in Washington for decades (rolls eyes).]

And, one of Paul Thurmond’s endorsements was from the guy who came in third in the primary, Carroll Campbell the third, who is the son of a former governor (Carroll Campbell Jr.). But, Carroll Campbell III has never done anything much except be a lobbyist. Oh, so he’s kind of similar to a lot of SC political hacks in that he has the following mentality—

(In my whiniest voice possible…..)

“My daddy was somebody big and important, so that makes me big and important! So I deserve this seat dammit!! And besides, who does that Tim Scott think he is working hard and playing by the rules and not participating in dirty, backroom politics?! Doesn’t he know how things are done around here??!! Doesn’t he know that your supposed to have a famous daddy and that we’re supposed to “scratch each others backs” to get ahead? Well, if this goody two shoes wins the Republican Primary, then I’m going to take my ball and go home and endorse the other guy with the famous daddy who will do more favors for ME! Me, me, me–it’s all about me! (Pouts and stomps foot.)”

Now, I realize that some of you think that I’m being a little hard on Mr. Campbell–well, I’m not! When Tim Scott first announced that he was running for Congress, Mr. Campbell blasted Mr. Scott for having the very temerity to throw his hat in the ring when he said the following–

“Tim Scott will be trying to run for his third office in just two years; abandoning what appears to be a failed campaign for Lt. Governor. Mr. Scott is just another politician in a string, all scrambling over one another to get into a campaign I have been in for nearly a year. The people of South Carolina are tired of political opportunists.“

OK–first of all Tim Scott didn’t have “a failed bid for Lt. Governor”. To put it bluntly, Carroll Campbell is shamelessly lying. In fact, in his first ten days in the race for Lt. Governor, Tim Scott raised a whopping $150,000 and was considered to be the front-runner. However, then Henry Brown’s seat opened up (and Tim Scott, for some strange reason, was not told ahead of time that it was going to open up), and Tim Scott decided that he would rather be a Congressman instead. (No Mr. Campbell–it was you who had a failed bid for Congress. Deal with it.)

Also, what I find to be extremely rich, is that Carroll Campbell’s father, literally, made a career out of perpetually switching elected offices in SC. Furthermore, he is now endorsing Paul Thurmond–a guy who didn’t even finish his first four year term in the Charleston County Council in order to run for Congress (not to mention, Mr. Campbell, himself, is not remotely qualified for this job either). So, let me get this straight. Carroll Campbell (and a lot of the good old boys in SC) seems to have a different set of rules for himself, his father, and Paul Thurmond, than he does for Tim Scott–who, by the way, has served more time in elected office than Mr. Campbell and Paul Thurmond put together. I would love to know, what other rules would Mr. Campbell like Tim Scott (and the rest of us) to follow that he and his cronies don’t have to follow?

As many of us know, Erick Erickson has written the following about the circus that was the SC Republican Gubernatorial Primary–

“Down in South Carolina we are seeing another one. Pulling the noose ever tighter, stringing everyone along, the good old boys in South Carolina don’t want the uppity Indian lady becoming Governor because she’s made life too miserable for them.”

Well, it looks to me like the good old boys in SC don’t want Tim Scott to become a US Congressman either, because they sure aren’t wasting any time rallying around the ridiculously unqualified and bland Paul Thurmond over the experienced, charismatic and Club for Growth endorsed Tim Scott.

Oh, and to all of you smarmy, entitled little parasites who think that you can sandbag great candidates like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott by lying about them because you are jealous or threatened…well, I’ve had enough of peering into your heads (I feel like I need to to take a shower right now), so I will let Daffy Duck do my talking for me–

Now, I think that I have definitely made it quite clear that the old guard in SC doesn’t want to see Tim Scott elected to Congress. However, I know that many of you are feeling complacent right now and think that it doesn’t matter, because Tim Scott is going to win anyway (due to his overwhelming victory in the SC Primary). Well, don’t get too comfortable, because Jim DeMint came in second in his first Republican primary, but won in the second round by consolidating all of the anti-David Beasley votes. (David Beasley was DeMint’s opponent in the run-off who beat him in the first primary.) In other words, Paul Thurmond is trying round up all of the good old boys/establishment/anti-change votes right now as we speak, and win in the second round. We can’t afford to rest on our laurels.

On a side note, the SC good old boys are not the only enemies that Tim Scott will face going forward during the next two weeks. The Democrats, the left and the Daily Kos crowd will also be out to take Tim Scott down as well–and they will use every dirty trick in the book. Let me put it this way–who do you honestly think that Nancy Pelosi wants to win the SC District 1 race? Paul Thurmond or Tim Scott? Tim Scott would be Nancy Pelosi’s WORST NIGHTMARE, because he could mortally wound the race card, and he is an extremely charismatic speaker who can cleverly attack Obama, all the while wearing a smile on his face (and he has the potential to become a conservative rockstar). On the other hand, Paul Thurmond would be the answer to Nancy Pelosi’s prayers, because she could use him as a club to beat us over the head with again and again. Oh, and we know exactly how much respect liberals have for black conservatives–just ask Clarence Thomas and Charles “Minstrel Show” Blow.

Oh, and as far as the MSM and the left goes (I know, same thing), don’t think that they aren’t watching this race, because they are. Remember how nuts the MSM went when Joe Wilson shouted “You Lie!” at the State of the Union, and how they wrote articles tying him to the Confederate flag? Well, that’s mere child’s play compared to what the media will do to the state of SC if Tim Scott loses to Paul Thurmond.

In fact, a couple of days ago, Jon Stewart gave us a glimpse of the humiliation that SC would be in for if Tim Scott loses to Paul Thurmond. (The ONLY reason why I can watch this video without breathing through a paper bag–the one that I’ve saved to cover my face with if Nikki Haley and Tim Scott both lose–is because it is now evident that Nikki Haley’s going to win.) (H/T Allahpundit of Hot Air–go to 4:30 in to see the SC bit.)

OK–so if Jon Stewart did that to us over some idiotic state legislator calling Nikki Haley a “raghead” and a couple of lying morons claiming to have slept with her, then can you imagine what he is going to do to SC is we elect Paul Thurmond instead of a MORE QUALIFIED, MORE CONSERVATIVE, MORE CHARISMATIC BLACK CANDIDATE?! Take the humiliation sandwich served to us in that previous video and cube it (because, of course, Stewart is also going to bring up Joe Wilson, the Confederate flag, and the Nikki Haley circus when he mocks SC–yet again–for acting like idiots and going with Paul Thurmond).

And finally, as I stated previously, the MSM is well aware of this race and don’t think for a second that they aren’t. Two days before the SC District 1 Primary The Washington Post wrote the following about this race–

“The offspring of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond and the late Gov. Carroll Campbell could be edged out by Tim Scott, the first black GOP state representative since Reconstruction.”

Did you read that? They referred to him as “the offspring” of Strom Thurmond (that’s one step removed from calling him “the spawn” of Strom Thurmond). No, the media is like a hungry cheetah stalking this race–they are sitting up on their perch watching us, just waiting to pounce and take out the weakest gazelle when given the right opportunity.

And, I know what some of you will say…”But Susannah, it’s not fair to hold his name against him”. And my reply is, first of all, who told you that life is fair? All the MSM will care about, is that we elected an unqualified guy named “Thurmond” over a more qualified, more conservative, more charismatic African-American who was a far superior candidate. Period. Second of all, Paul Thurmond made it about his name when he decided to run before he had any real accomplishments under his belt (what else–pray tell–is he running on?). The media will humiliate us in SC–and the Republican Party in general–with this because it will be fun for them. And worst of all, we will have no defense, because Tim Scott is such an obviously superior candidate. We will have to assume the position and take it–and, it will also kill our chances of appealing to future minority recruits and voters. We will be like that gazelle in the video. Well, you know what? I’m tired of being that gazelle. I would like–just for once–to be the cheetah instead. When Tim Scott came in first the other night, Bill Kristol called it “an amazing moment”, and Juan Williams’ face lit up with both surprise and pride. I would like the story, the night of the SC run-off, to be about another “amazing moment” in Charleston, SC–instead of just providing more fodder for The Daily Show.

So in conclusion, I don’t think that Paul Thurmond is a bad guy–-I just think that he got a little greedy. I think that he saw an opportunity and he took it without thinking of the consequences. If he came back and ran in ten years–and got some real experience and accomplishments in his own right–then I promise to give him a fair hearing. However, he is just not ready yet.

Now, as far as Paul Thurmond’s endorsers go, I realize that a few people might think that they are motivated by racism, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think that they are, like Paul Thurmond, motivated by greed, as well as jealously (just like with Nikki Haley, they are jealous of a young upstart with more talent than themselves). Tim Scott didn’t get just one of eleven Club for Growth endorsements without ruffling some feathers. Mr. Scott has ALWAYS been extremely anti-earmark, and I’m sure that doesn’t sit well with the good old boys in SC. However, Paul Thurmond has always been, at best, quite wishy-washy on earmarks. In fact, he told the Politico the following with regard to earmarks–

“I’m not willing to say I’m not for earmarks if we have them.”

Furthermore, Paul Thurmond told The Post and Courier that he was critical of Tim Scott’s stance on earmarks. The Post and Courier wrote the following about Paul Thurmond’s position with regard to earmarks, and his critiques of Tim Scott’s position–

“Some of the early sparring points already have surfaced, with Thurmond saying Scott’s across-the-board opposition to earmarks could cost much-needed dredging dollars for Charleston Harbor, while Scott said budgets need to be tightened in D.C., with dredging pursued through the open bill-writing process.”

Now, contrast Mr. Thurmond’s statements with the statements that Mr. Scott makes about earmarks in his awesome new ad (embedded below) and you tell me who you think that the good old boys of SC would rather have in power.

Alright–now tell the truth and shame the Devil. If you are a “Me, me, me–what’s in it for me?!” kind of politician, then which one of these two men would you endorse? Yes, Paul Thurmond is indeed the correct answer.

So, in conclusion, rarely in life do you have such a clear-cut opportunity in life to do the right thing. Usually, there are some nuances or shades of gray involved–and, you might look back with 20/20 hindsight and say “Man, I really should have done X instead of Y”. However, this is not one of those times. This time, there is a bright, red arrow pointing in a specific direction with the words “This way to do the right thing, Dummy!” in flashing lights above it. The right thing for SC–and for the Republican Party–is to get Tim Scott elected to the US Congress as the first African-American Representative from Charleston, SC since Reconstruction. Guys, I’m telling you, we will all seriously regret this if we wuss out, because Mr. Scott has enormous potential and could become a great force to be reckoned with in Washington, DC (and, right now, Paul Thurmond simply could not). Let’s kick the tires and lights some fires people. Let’s get Tim Scott elected to Congress. Who is with me?

PS–If you are able, please GO HERE TO DONATE TO TIM SCOTT’S CAMPAIGN.

PPS–Please Twitter this diary out and pass it around. Thankies!

This diary was originally posted on The Minority Report.