Dirty Tricks in South Carolina - Interesting Connections

[Truth2Tell]

Sometimes observing politics you notice interesting patterns. Here's a couple of stories with an interesting little pattern IMO.

First Story:

Back in 2006 a new anonymously run political blog, The Palmetto Voice, suddenly appeared in the South Carolina political blogosphere. The blogger/s were clearly intimately informed about local politics. They (it's unclear if there were really more than one blogger) were also provocative and mysterious. A small SC internet buzz formed speculating the mysterious origins of the site and the site gained a small following.

Then, in March of 2006, the Palmetto Voice made a post claiming to have "politically damaging" information about SC House Majority Leader Rick Quinn, a candidate for State Treasurer. The post threated that The Palmetto Voice would publish the damaging information unless the Quinn campaign met a set of demands regarding their campaign - essentially engaging in blackmail.

Another SC political blog, http://faithinthesound.blogspot.com/">faithinthesound, http://faithinthesound.blogspot.com/2006/04/palmetto-voice-blog-blackmailing-quinn.html"> wrote about the incident at the time...

For perhaps the first time in the history of the SC blogosphere, a political website is publicly blackmailing a statewide candidate.

The website doing the blackmailing is Palmetto Voice. The candidate being blackmailed is former House Majority Leader Rick Quinn, who is currently running for State Treasurer in a heated, four-way Republican primary.

In an article posted late yesterday evening, Palmetto Voice publicly threatens to leak a negative news story about Quinn to members of the South Carolina media unless certain of its demands are met...

http://faithinthesound.blogspot.com/2006/04/palmetto-voice-blog-blackmailing-quinn.html

After the blackmail story started to garner wide attention and a bunch of internet backlash, the entire Palmetto Voice site up and disappeared as quickly as it arrived.

But http://faithinthesound.blogspot.com/">faithinthesound stayed on the story and eventually uncovered the culprits...

It's been a few weeks since an e-mail from Bob Staton campaign manager Mike Rentiers led to the identification of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's lap dog, Preston Grisham, as the party responsible (or at least claiming responsibility) for the now-defunct Palmetto Voice website.

Our readers may remember Palmetto Voice as the blog that attempted to blackmail State Treasurer candidate Rick Quinn, on Easter Sunday no less.

http://faithinthesound.blogspot.com/2006/06/new-palmetto-voice.html

Fast forward to...

Second Story:

Last week Alvin Greene won the South Carolina Democratic Senate primary. Anyone paying attention could plainly see something very very strange was happening, regardless of how you cut it. The very next day, U.S. Rep Jim Clyburn http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/10/AR2010061004943.html">publically claimed Alvin Greene was a plant, and that furthermore, two other Democratic candidates in the SC primary - including his own opponent, Gregory A. Brown - were also plants.

The key piece of evidence presented by Clyburn was FEC filings tying Gregory A. Brown's campaign to a Republican consulting firm...

Clyburn contended that Greene's campaign, and those of two other African American candidates, were designed to upend the Democratic primary process in the Palmetto State. He also named Brown and Benjamin Frasier Jr., a perennial candidate who surprised observers by beating retired Air Force Reserve Col. Robert Burton in the 1st District.

As late as Thursday afternoon, the Federal Elections Commission had no public record of any of the three filing quarterly reports revealing their funding sources or campaign outlays.

But in FEC reports filed late Thursday and early Friday, Brown reported that his single largest payment was to the Stonewall Strategies firm run by Preston Grisham, a former aide to Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.). Grisham, a 2005 University of South Carolina graduate, was an intern for Wilson in 2003 and went on to serve as his special assistant and campaign manager.

Brown's campaign paid Stonewall Strategies $23,760 this year for "marketing" and "marketing materials," according to the FEC reports...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/10/AR2010061004943.html

Preston Grisham. Interesting IMO.

And as a final note... http://faithinthesound.blogspot.com/">faithinthesound makes a comment about Mr. Grisham that just might possibly help explain why certain things seem so incredibly stupid...

Of course, anyone who's spent more than two seconds with Preston Grisham realizes that he isn't smart enough to walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone operate a computer and formulate a coherent sentence at the same time, so his recent teary-eyed admission that he "was used by other people" as it relates to the Palmetto Voice blog is plausible.

http://faithinthesound.blogspot.com/2006/06/new-palmetto-voice.html

So who knows? Patterns. Make of them what you will.

[H2O Man]

1. Recommended.

In the 2004 election, I reported criminal actions -- a break-in at a Democratic Campaign HQ -- to a high-ranking member of the Kerry campaign. The local people were intimidated. This gentleman told me about similar incidents in other states. The Huston Plan didn't end with Nixon.

[Truth2Tell]

2. Thanks H20 Man...

This Alvin Greene story is perplexing... I love it.

[customerserviceguy]

3. I'm the skeptical one here

While it is yet to be seen whether or not Alvin Greene is a plant (and we may know after investigation of the bank account with the $10K filing fee), that still doesn't explain how he won the primary.

If Preston Grisham is behind this, a man who "isn't smart enough to walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone operate a computer and formulate a coherent sentence at the same time" is probably not smart enough to hack a computerized voting system, nor persuade anyone who wanted to keep their job, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to do so.

[Truth2Tell]

4. Maybe he was just smart enough to pay someone

to hack the Diebold machines? Or lord knows what. I really can't explain the methods or the motives here yet. That's what makes this all so curious. But all the strangeness taken together - the filing fee, the vote-total disparities, the idiocy of the "candidate" - AND ties to these Republican dingbats - makes a fairly strong circumstantial case IMO.

[H2O Man]

5. Or "maybe"

he wasn't in charge of the operation. He, too, is a tool.

[Truth2Tell]

9. a lapdog

:)

[customerserviceguy]

10. Well, you're going to find Republican dingbats

everywhere, that doesn't mean they succeed at anything other than chest-thumping in front of their fellow trogolodytes.

Like I've said elsewhere--if you have someone who can figure out how to hack the Diebold machines, why waste it on this inconsequential primary? In fact, since DeMint has a healthy lead, why use it here at all? Why not use that expertise in a place where it's really close?

The filing fee account is the only hard evidence we'll have in the beginning. And if it just shows a steady stream of deposits of military paychecks by a guy who saved some money by living with his parents, the trail will go cold dead there.

[blm]

6. and YOU seem curiously invested in pooh-poohing/downplaying Clyburn's take on this. Why?

No one is saying Gresham acted alone, did they? And Joe Wilson is dumb as a stick, too, and he wins elections, too, so dumb isn't necessarily a disqualifying attribute when it comes to dirty political tricks.

But...you are showing yourself to be keyed on this story and repeatedly seek ways to get GOP off the hook for any wrongdoing here and on other threads where you claimed concern about AA backlash against Dems in Nov. Which anyone who knows SC knows is ABSURD as there is no one more trusted in SC by AA voters than Congressman CLYBURN.

So......


why?

[customerserviceguy]

11. If the GOP turns out to be on the hook

for not only making this guy a plant (and a poor one, at that), but for using some sort of technical expertise and connections in SC to hack the Diebold machines, then I'll gladly admit I was wrong about this. But I don't think that's going to happen.

You know how stupid the birthers look to us? The idea that a foreign-born "plant" could become President, and some silly file drawer in Hawaii has all the answers, if only they could get to it in its original form?

With the allegations going on here about Greene, we look that silly. I wish every voter was well-read, educated as to the issues, with a firm conviction about who they plan to vote for. But I know the reality is something very different. Democracy is messy, it often leads to results that seem at odds with the conventional wisdom, but only if the conventional wisdom is not so very wise. I feel this is just one of those anomalies.

Have you watched the Rethugs piss off the Latino vote with their ham-handed tactics of trying to deal with illegal immigration? I fear we're doing this with the African-American vote in this country, or at least this state. Can you think of any situation where a white man stepped aside so that a black man could take his place as a nominee?

In a country that lets David Duke keep his nomination, courting disaster for the state of Louisiana, can we not let Alvin Greene keep his in the absence of any detected foul play on his part?

[Truth2Tell]

12. So Rep. Clyburn is the equivelent of a Birther?

And you don't think the whole showing porn to a co-ed at the library constitutes "foul play on his part?"

And when it comes to pissing off the African American vote, I'm guessing AAs in SC will stand with Jim Clyburn vs Alvin Greene. But hey, thanks a million for your very deep concern about that.

[customerserviceguy]

15. I don't really know anything about Clyburn

and as far as I have seen, he is the only African-American crying foul when it comes to Alvin Greene. Perhaps you know of some other prominent black SC figures who seem to have a problem with him, and can enlighten me.

The woman in question was eighteen, and a legal adult, this isn't showing X-rated movies to seven year olds. Besides, this is SC, what might constitute porn there might be something I'd watch on PBS here in NY.

Like I said, we will see what we will see as this unfolds. It's a bold, possibly perilous step that Vic Rawl takes in challenging this. But facts and circumstances yet unknown will bear out whether it was the right or wrong thing to do.

[dgibby]

20. I find your comments about this offensive.

He (allegedly) approached her, showed her offensive porn.wanted to go to her dorm room right then. She was offended and frightened. He also entered the computer lab using a faked student ID.

Having had a similar encounter when I was younger, I can assure you it wasn't something you'd have watched on PBS in NY. BTW, we have a saying here in the South: "We don't give a good rat's ass how you do it up North!"

[blm]

21. I'm talking about GOP dirty tricks and AA vote in SC

and that James Clyburn's word goes ALL THE WAY with Dem voters there.

You don't know who Clyburn is while you're warning Dems off of further scrutiny of ELECTION FRAUD so as not to alienate black voters in SC.

ABSURD!

[Truth2Tell]

22. Weird huh. nt

[blm]

23. weird, si.

.

[blm]

13. not buying it....your concern is absurd as it pertains to these matters and I have no reason to

trust your concern over the concern of a trusted messenger like James Clyburn.

And I don't think you earn the access to the word 'we' here. Especially compared to James Clyburn.

[customerserviceguy]

16. Rep. Clyburn is giving his opinion

and I don't know of any African-American politicians or community leaders who are behind him on this. Like I said above, perhaps you do, and can enlighten me.

"We" refers to the people who are carping about plants and tampered electronic voting. I guess that includes Rep. Clyburn, I wonder how extensive his knowledge of computer security is. He was also going on and on about the Repukes sending a plant into his election, obviously without the same results.

Hey, if the Rethugs wanted to screw with the Democratic Party in SC, why didn't they make his "plant" the winner in the primary?

[Truth2Tell]

14. Have you checked to see if DU has an Alvin Greene avitar?

If you get one I will.

[customerserviceguy]

17. Ha!

I'm happy with the one I have, thanks very much!

[dgibby]

19. I've been voting in SC since '87,

and Clyburn is the ONLY politican in the whole state that I trust and respect. He's book smart and street smart, and has more common sense than the rest of them put together.

My money's on Clyburn.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Very well presented!

Yay on you for finding the info and esp. in the way you presented it.

Have you thought about e-mailing it to Rachel or KO?

[Truth2Tell]

18. Thanks dixiegrrrrl!

I hope there's a whole lot of media investigation happening right now that we aren't hearing about. Between BradBlog, Raw Story, FiveThirtyEight and whomever besides Politico the Rawls campaign is leaking info to, it seems like someone must be digging right now. I hope so anyway.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. Very, very strange happenings down in SC. That is for sure.

The interviews with Greene have been almost other-worldly.

As I said before,they reminded me of the SNL skit..with Phil Hartmann playing Reagan at a press conference, being prompted by an off-site aid via an earpiece.

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/86/86ereagan.phtml

[Truth2Tell]

24. Yep, it's just clear as day that Greene is being fed the answers

from off-mike in almost every interview he's done.

Only Olberman mentioned it, and he did so after the interview. I think I'd be asking Greene about that as soon as it started happening. It's like everyone is ignoring the giant elephant in the room.

All very down the rabbit hole.