More South Carolina slime from Haley's political enemies

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We used to think Louisiana took the cake for corrupt politics, but even with all that BP/Obama crude washing up on the Pelican State's shores, it can't hold a candle to South Carolina for filth, at least as far as intraparty mud wrestling and slime slinging goes. From the Associated Press today:

A lobbyist who resigned from a rival political campaign is claiming to have had a tryst with a South Carolina lawmaker trying to become the state's first female governor.

The allegation made Wednesday by lobbyist Larry Marchant is the second leveled at Republican state Rep. Nikki Haley in the past two weeks. Her campaign vehemently denies both allegations.

Neither claim has come with proof.

And which campaign did Marchant resign from before he went to the press with his unsupported allegations? Does the name Andre Bauer ring a bell? He just happens to be one of Nikki Haley's opponents in the GOP primary race for Governor of SC. Stacy McCain is on the case:

OK, as readers might guess, this was the “very interesting report” I’d heard earlier about Marchant’s resignation from the Andrea Bauer campaign: Marchant had gone to media outlets telling them this story and, when Bauer found out about it, Marchant got the ax.

We’ll wait to see how this plays out, but frankly it looks to me as if Haley’s enemies have become desperate to destroy her. It seems to me that voters in South Carolina now must ask themselves which of two things was true: Either (a) Haley was just spreadin’ the love around to every GOP operative in South Carolina, or (b) she is the victim of a vicious smear campaign.

My guess is that they’ll believe (b).

Stacy has much more at The Other McCain.

Seriously, this makes the Bush-McCain smearfest of 2004 look like choir practice.

Update: Sarah Palin tweeted some moral support to Nikki Haley Wednesday (here and here), paraphrasing (due to Twitter's 140 character per tweet limit) Hellen Keller, whose original quote was:

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.”

- JP