Whatever remained of S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s image as a “Tea Party conservative” was officially shredded on Sunday by The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier – the Lowcountry media outlet that up to this point in Haley’s free-falling administration has been her biggest fan.
In a front-page exclusive report (which wasn’t immediately available online), the state’s largest newspaper assailed Haley’s recent taxpayer-funded trip to Paris, France – exposing it as a lavish “European vacation” while questioning whether it accomplished anything for the state.
Obviously, this isn’t the first time the “European Vacation” tag has been correctly applied to taxpayer-funded trips taken by South Carolina’s “Republican” elected officials – but Haley was supposed to be different. She was supposed to be leading a movement to “take government back” from precisely that sort of thing – not serving as the poster girl for such excess.
Instead, the Post and Courier report reveals Haley to be just another big government politician consumed with the trappings of power – shelling out at least $127,000 in taxpayer money on a week-long trip that included five-star accommodations, gourmet meals at exclusive restaurants, “VIP” travel arrangements and a $25,000 taxpayer-funded “soiree” that failed to land the state any new business.
The details included in the Post and Courier report would certainly mesh with a description of Haley’s conduct on the trip allegedly related to a group of S.C. Senators by Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt – whose agency publicly clashed with Haley earlier this year over a controversial tax incentives deal.
“All she did (in Europe) was hob nob and drink,” one S.C. Senator recalled Hitt as saying. Sources close to Hitt claim he never made such a remark, but Haley’s pile of receipts is now speaking for itself.
Also, the $127,000 tab is by no means the taxpayer-funded total. For starters, that figure doesn’t include expenses associated with providing security for Haley – nor does it including tax dollars shelled out by several regional “economic development” alliances.
Amazing, isn’t it? All this so that these politicians can shell out even larger amounts of public money attempting to pick winners and losers in the marketplace – an approach that has clearly failed our state.
Seriously … is this really the behavior of a “Tea Party conservative?”
Of course not …
A month ago The Nerve – a website run by Haley’s on-again, off-again allies at the S.C. Policy Council – ran a lengthy piece attempting to calculate the total cost of Haley’s week-long trip to the Paris Air Show in June.
“Records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that a sizeable cohort of state and local officials took part in the trip to the air show and the trade mission to Germany,” the website reported. “From Haley’s office they included Haley and her husband; Taylor Hall, who is Haley’s Cabinet liaison; and Rebecca Schimsa, who is special assistant to Haley’s chief of staff, Tim Pearson.”
Hall and Schimsa are two of Haley’s twenty-something ex-campaign workers who were hired at vastly-inflated salaries – part of the massive salary hikes that Haley doled out the day after she took office.
Numerous other officials from the S.C. Department of Commerce also joined the South Carolina delegation, The Nerve reported, as did S.C. Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman.
Beyond the additional damage done to Haley’s “limited government” image (the Post and Courier report features scathing quotes from transparency advocates, fiscally-conservative state lawmakers and Tea Party leaders), readers in Charleston were treated to Haley’s unique brand of media relations.
“Following repeated requests, Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said Thursday that he would ‘find three to five minutes’ for a phone interview with the governor, but by Friday Godfrey said in an email ‘the governor is not available,’” the report noted.
Haley recently blackballed a WIS TV 10 (Columbia, S.C. – NBC) television reporter for investigating another scandal involving her administration – while earlier this year she blasted WACH TV 57 (Columbia, S.C. – FOX) for being a “tabloid station” that has “no concept of journalism.” Haley also attacked the press last month after she was busted using inflated employment data in numerous interviews.
Obviously, FITS will be providing a link to the Post and Courier exclusive as soon as it becomes available online. In the meantime, the paper has posted an online poll in conjunction with its print story – although as of 10:00 p.m. on Sunday evening only 95 people have voted in that survey.