• Sen. Vincent Sheheen continues to fight for better government in South Carolina.  According to Corey Hutchins‘ piece in the Free Times today, Sen. Sheheen plans to file a bill banning “leadership” PACs in the state.  (BTW, this piece makes my friend Greg Foster look a bit silly.  Sorry, Greg!)

The PACs are also a way for a small number of lawmakers to consolidate power, according to Sen. Vincent Sheheen. Disturbed by the trend, the Camden Democrat plans to introduce a bill that would abolish them.

“Leadership PACs dramatically increase the clout and leverage of a few at the expense of the many,” he says.   …

The largest leadership PAC, the Palmetto Leadership Council, has ties to Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell, a Charleston Republican. In 2010, that PAC amassed about $200,000 from special interests.

Harrell spokesman Greg Foster says the PAC has “no relation with anything going on with [Harrell’s] office” and that Foster personally “hadn’t been involved in any of the process” of its formation.

In 2010, however, the PAC gave more than $12,000 to Foster directly for “professional services,” according to State Ethics Commission filings.

Foster said it had nothing to do with his duties in the speaker’s office and that work he did for the PAC was on his own time and completely separate.

“Leadership PACs are a growing problem in South Carolina,” Sheheen says. “The potential for abuse is twofold. One is to get around giving regulations, but the other is to allow members to exert control over other [legislative] members financially, which I think is very unhealthy.

• Turns out that the whole Toyota random acceleration thing was a big j/k.  Rather, (some) Toyota owners just don’t seem know the difference between the gas pedal and the brake.

• After an absolutely absurd amount of time (2 weeks of debate!!) and energy dedicated to the subject, the SC Senate has passed a bill to allow the legalization of raffles. Like church raffles.  And stuff.  What?   You didn’t know they were illegal either?   And … get this … in order to legalize that which no one seems to know is illegal in the first place, we have to amend the state constitution — which is a huge pain. I’d like to see a figure of the projected economic impact of this measure if it manages to land in front of voters at the ballot box for approval.  It better result in a serious amount of job creation.

• Spend your Valentine’s Day at the coolest building in Columbia — 701 Whaley St. … known simply as “701″ — this Monday from 6-11 PM.  It benefits a good cause, too:  Columbia’s Nickelodeon Theatre capital campaign.  (If Larry Hembree will be there, it’s going to be fun.)  From the article:

The proceeds from the event go toward the Nickelodeon Theatre’s capital campaign to relocate to the old Fox Theatre on the north side of the State House.

Nickelodeon director Larry Hembree, who says love means “you understand me,” says the collaboration between What’s Love and the Nick is “pitch-perfect — visual, funky, fun and edgy.”

• Finally, check out the latest handiwork of South Carolina’s own Robert Ariail, surely one of the most talented cartoonists in the country (via Brad Warthen’s blog):

PS — b/c I do so dearly love the Free Times and believe that it’s quickly becoming the #1 must-read of SC political coverage (Who saw Alvin Greene coming?  Pretty sure that would be Corey Hutchins and only Corey Hutchins.) … I have to say: y’all’s website sucks.  Abysmally.  2003 called and wants its style back.  Really hard to navigate too.  Your content is so fantabulous, and it would be much more easily digested in an up-to-date format.  If you’re in the market for an overhaul, I know a gal with an awesome team of developers!  Just sayin’.  If you don’t get help here — please, get help somewhere.  ;-)

PPS — As you’ll note from the out-of-the-blue and bizarrely ANGRY comment from former SC Blogger Wes Wolfe, I incorrectly added a hyphen between “Free” and “Times”  several places in the original post.  My bad!  Goodness!  Not sure why that hit such a sore spot.  The web address for the publication — which, as I indicated above, I do sincerely love — is www.free-times.com, and I’ve mostly read the FREE SPACE TIMES from outside of Columbia.  The last sentence of Wes’s comment is my favorite, though:  ”If you keep up this silliness, you might as well team up with Brad Warthen to create a self-important pointless blog so we won’t have to pay attention to two of them.”  ZING!  Hey, buddy, nobody *has* to pay attention to either one of us.  Who knows what I did to earn the wrath of Mr. Wolfe?  I guess it’s safe to say that whatever Wes is doing in his days as a recovering blogger isn’t making him any happier.  :(  Wes is a talented guy, and I hope he finds what he’s looking for.

• Gov. Nikki Haley proposes $225M bailout for the state’s Department of Health and Human Services for the remainder of this fiscal year and settles for $100M bailout for now. I’m glad Medicaid isn’t going to completely collapse, but let’s be clear — running such deficits isn’t acceptable, and it’s especially hypocritical given how much Haley rattled on against red ink and big government and then has no solutions other than red ink.

• Charleston Chef Sean Brock of McCrady’s fame gets some love from the New York Times for his latest restaurant venture, Husk.  Check out my friend Tracie Broom’s delightfully wandering review of Husk that manages to include Bill Murray as well as Brenton Sadreameli of Mr. B’s Bottleneck Guitar Slides in West Columbia.  (That sort of inclusion takes talent, and, lemme tell ya, Tracie’s got it!)

• Are Southern accents disappearing?  (The author of this article obviously hasn’t visited the Pee Dee lately.)

Apologies for the lack of content today.  After waiting on the cable guy for six hours and then spending the evening preparing for a rodent faceoff tonight, there ain’t been much time to tickle the keyboard.

• Big day tomorrow — the South Carolina Budget & Control Board meets at 9:30 AM to decide whether to work around the state’s balanced budget requirements and authorize over $200M in deficit spending for the remainder of this fiscal year.  As much as we’ve heard the Tea Party Nation rail against deficit spending in Washington, I’m interested to see how the members vote on this — particularly the governor, who is the darling of the Tea Party.

• Budget cuts will especially hurt those we should be helping most.  (Wonder what “faith-based” and community solutions Gov. Haley will propose to address these problems? We sure heard a lot about such extra-governmental remedies during the 2010 general election.)

Among about a dozen programs that would be slashed are day programs for people in all disability groups, childhood testing for conditions that could lead to developmental disabilities, and rehabilitation for people who have suffered brain or spinal cord injuries.

• Check out this special editorial (but ignore the typo in the first sentence) on how my hometown of Hartsville responded to a recent crime in which a beloved local shop owner was attacked and left for dead in the shop, which the perpetrators then lit on fire.  (She’s on the mend, thankfully.)

• Former State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel argues for the legalization of drugs in the Charleston Post & Courier.  Not even gonna touch that one.

• Corey Hutchins of the Columbia Free-Times publishes a piece in HuffPo about the respective Haley and Ard scandals.

• Did y’all catch the BMW ad about the company’s operation in Greer, SC?  Refreshing to see a positive story about the Palmetto State.

If you missed the Columbia Museum of Art’s second “Arts and Draughts” event last night, you should be bummed.  It rocked.  Among the acts who performed at the event were Columbia’s own rockabilly favorite, the Whiskey Tango Revue — “South Carolina’s least feared country band.” Lucky for you, it’s not too late to miss WTR in the Midlands this weekend.  They’re playing again tonight at Art Bar in the Vista.

Read about WTR and their “Moon-Spangled Banner” in Otis Taylor’s September column in The State here …with a shoutout to yours truly.  (I’m their biggest fan.)  Listen to WTR’s salute to our awesome state using the cute little widget embedded below:

• Dr. Don Fowler — the guy who turned me into a Democrat — penned an op-ed in The State comparing Rahm Emmanuel’s residency challenges to those of 1974 Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee Pug Ravenel.  Fascinating read.

• Charleston City Paper’s Chris Haire dings Haley Chief of Staff Tim Pearson for not being forthright about the infamous Haleygate text message exchange of which he was a party:
  

  But Pearson is not playing a game of truths. He’s playing a game of dodge and duck, lie and spin. And this was clearly evident when he proclaimed in a smarmy, nearly disinterested manner to Robertson that the Sheheen campaign had resorted to spreading lies in the final days of the campaign, a charge that Robertson rightly denied. After all, hadn’t Haley failed to pay her taxes? Hadn’t she failed to release her legislative e-mails? Hadn’t Haley failed to disclose income she had received as a consultant? These are facts that cannot be disputed. But that apparently doesn’t matter to Pearson, who squirmed in his seat and chewed on his pen like a schoolboy who had been forced to set through yet another boring discussion about the East India Company and its role in the rise of the British Empire.

• State Treasurer Curtis Loftis is as curious as I am about what was discussed by Haley, Leatherman, and Cooper in the back of that smoke-filled room.

• Democratic Operative (and my friend) Matt Ortega of The Right’s Field owns ObamasAmbassador.com and has posted a giant picture of Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, possible Republican presidential contender, and President Barack Obama on it.  From Ortega:
  

  “For the last two years, Republicans have labeled the president a ‘socialist’ that is an ‘enemy of humanity’ with a ‘Kenyan anti-colonial worldview.’ So how can they nominate Obama’s ambassador?” Ortega told POLITICO in an e-mail.

• PPP poll shows that South Carolina may be competitive in the 2012 presidential race.  Whoa!

In the poll, Obama trailed Mike Huckabee by a six point margin, 49% to 43%. He also lagged seven pints behind Mitt Romney, 49% to 42%. While neither result is really close enough to make the race a toss up, they do show the contest being slightly more competitive next year.

However, if the GOP nominates Palin or Gingrich — or even tea partying native son Sen. Jim DeMint — the race is a wholly different story.

Against Gingrich, Obama eked out a slim 44% to 43% lead in the poll. He did even better against Palin, comfortably leading her 47% to 41%. And Obama evem came close to DeMint, the state’s popular conservative Senator, trailing by just two points, 47% to 45%.

• Thanks for the warm welcome back, Brad!

• Tea Party Crazy Rep. Michelle Bachmann to visit Sparkle City in February.  That should be entertaining.

• Lt. Governor Ken Ard can’t seem to get his act together with ethics reporting.  (In his last county council race, he didn’t file any disclosure at all!)  Has anyone figured out how he managed to spend over $20,000 SINCE November’s election?  Including $800 at Cynthia’s, a women’s clothing store in Florence?  Holy mother of pearl.