Nikki Haley, Busted

Now, I’ll say one thing for the Teabagger wing of the already way too far to the right Republican party: they’ve got some good looking women.  Of course, good looks does not equal intelligence, honesty, compassion, decency, fairness or any of the other attributes we would like in our leaders, but Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley are all kind of hot.

Birds of a feather....Nikki Haley and Sarah Palin

Tonight’s blog is about Nikki Haley, because she is up to her neck in scandal and there’s no reason she should get a free pass just because it’s September 11th.

First, there was her trip to Paris.  In theory it was to drum up jobs for South Carolina, but it didn’t work.  She didn’t come back with any contracts.  Her and her posse stayed in 5 star hotels, dined at the best restaurants and probably did speak with people who could have provided jobs.  So she probably won’t go to jail over it.  You can’t prove she wasn’t trying to do her job, just that she wasn’t very good at it.

As to the question of whether she should have been staying in a cheaper hotel, I’m not going to quibble over that.  If you start going after everybody who pads their expense account a little bit, there is no end to it.  We have bigger fish to fry.

But then she made things worse by what she said about the reporter who broke the story.  Now, I only read about it so I didn’t hear the tone of voice, which I imagine was just dripping with southern sweetness when she said (something along the lines of) “Well, bless that little girl’s heart.”  First of all, “bless your heart” is southern for “eat shit and die.”  But it’s the “little girl” comment that is offensive.  You don’t have to be a raging feminist to realize that that is condescending and unprofessional.

Unfortunately, the Teabaggers won’t pick up on that at all.  The luxury trip to Paris on taxpayer money should end her career.  The snide comment to the reporter should end her career.  But it’s South Carolina, so she’ll probably get re-elected.  No matter how ineffective she is as governor.