Andre Bauer
South Carolina's lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer is known as “a fiercely ambitious Republican with a reputation for reckless and immature behavior”.
At a town hall meeting Thursday, Bauer, who is running for governor in his own right now that Sanford is term-limited, said: "My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed! You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that."
Democrats and Republicans alike railed at the comments.
Neal Thigpen, a political scientist at Francis Marion University said the lieutenant governor's latest remarks could hurt him in the general election in the fall by allowing Democrats to portray him as "insensitive and downright cruel." But as for the June Republican primary, "don't count him out. The kid's got a fanatical following," Thigpen said. "They're going to forgive him almost anything and stick to him like glue."
Similarly, Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon said Bauer's words "came out as condescending and insulting," but his overall message about government dependency and personal responsibility will appeal to his evangelical Republican base.
Meanwhile, disgraced Gov. Mark Sanford prepares to deliver his last state-of-the-state address this week, the beginning of the end for a Republican once considered presidential material who has lost nearly everything except his job over an affair with an Argentine woman.
That Sanford will be there to give the speech at all reflects a combination of politics, lucky timing, and the fortitude to keep going when another shamed politician might simply have stepped down.
Bauer almost ascended to the top office last summer, after Sanford disappeared from the state for five days to be with his mistress. But the Legislature stopped short of impeachment. Politicians who had gubernatorial ambitions of their own, or were backing other candidates, knew that replacing Sanford with Bauer would have given the lieutenant governor a year-and-a-half tryout for the job and the benefit of running as an incumbent.
Joe Wilson, Mark Sanford and Andre Bauer are all politicians elected to represent the people of South Carolina. There must be something in the water that politicians and voters in the state are drinking that fosters reprehensible behavior followed by politics as usual. There’s a strong message in that and you quickly get that message “say or do what you like...there’s no accountability.”
Keep waving the Confederate flag!
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