Fowler: Republicans behaving badly

Once again people all over the country are seeing our state on the news and wondering whether to laugh at us or cry for us.

South Carolinians hoped that with the new year we would be spared the continuation of vulgar and irresponsible behavior by prominent Republican officeholders.

Those hopes were dashed when we witnessed our lieutenant governor, Republican Andre Bauer, make mean, ignorant statements comparing children receiving reduced-price school lunches to stray animals, saying their parents were being encouraged to breed because the public was feeding their offspring.

Instead of questioning the value of feeding poor children at school, we should look at who is feeding Bauer's ambition as he seeks higher office. The day before Bauer attacked reduced-price lunches at a speech in Fountain Inn, he filed an amended financial statement with the S.C. Ethics Commission.

Bauer listed $18,635 in contributions that had not been included in his original statements covering October through December. Among them were more than $7,000 in donated food, services and rooms given by restaurants, caterers and hotels from Myrtle Beach to New York. In-kind donations of that type are routine on campaign disclosures, but they stand out here because of Mr. Bauer's disdain for poor children who receive free lunch.

You might think that someone eating free in upscale restaurants would think twice before yanking kids out of the cafeteria line. But no, Bauer's comments betray the same shrunken conscience that helped him talk his way past speeding over 100 mph, and acting so outrageously at a traffic stop in Columbia that a police officer had to pull a gun on him.

This sort of hypocrisy and irresponsibility are now regular staples of the Republican menu. Let us look back at just a few examples in the past few years:

Gov. Mark Sanford abandoned his wife and four sons (as well as 4.5 million South Carolinians) to pursue a secret tryst with his "soul mate" in Argentina - and tricked his staff into lying about his whereabouts.

Congressman Joe Wilson embarrassed not only all South Carolinians but even many Republicans in other states. His calling President Obama a liar during an official state function is crude behavior unmatched in American history. That outburst was doubly repulsive because he brags about his officer status in the military while he insults his commander in chief, a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice if he were not retired.

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint has adopted a social philosophy that hardly reaches past the Dark Ages. In July, he called on Americans to help him "break" our own president, and he is blissfully - and immorally - unconcerned about the hundreds of thousands of S.C. individuals and families with no access to good-quality, affordable health care.

Charles Sharpe, the Republican commissioner of agriculture, was elected in 2002 and shortly afterward went to prison on charges related to a cockfighting ring.

And let us not forget Thomas Ravenel, the Republican state treasurer elected in 2006, who resigned and went to federal prison after being convicted on drug charges in 2008. (The state's most famous ex-elected official convict is now among those supporting Bauer, with a substantial contribution on Dec. 31.)

This pattern of recklessness and hypocrisy is not an accident. It comes from a view of the world that says only a few are deserving of the benefits of this country's institutions, and that the privileged few, such as Republican elected officials, are entitled to special treatment and don't have to meet the same standards as other South Carolinians.

As we face this critical election year, we should contemplate the behavior of Bauer, Sanford, DeMint, Wilson and Ravenel. Do we really want our beloved state - and its children - to be guided by their examples? I think not.

South Carolinians cringe when Republican officials, who have controlled this state for so long, show up on the national news again and again not for their leadership in economic development or education but for their shameful, immoral and embarrassing words and actions.

We have an opportunity this year to elect real leaders, though. S.C. Democrats are reaching out to all our citizens and working to elect officials who will make us all proud. The contrast is clear, and the options are obvious. This will be a better place to live and raise a family after the 2010 election when we have a Democratic governor and lieutenant governor, a new Democratic senator and more Democratic members of Congress and the S.C. House of Representatives.