You’re angry and hateful! No, you’re crude and close-minded

Now that the political conventions are over, can everyone please calm down?

South Carolina’s Democrats and Republicans are on high alert, looking for gaffes to exploit. Call it the “Todd Akin” effect, named after the U.S. Senate candidate from Missouri who experts say might have talked himself out of an election with his controversial comments about rape.

When Gov. Nikki Haley crashed the Democrats’ national convention in Charlotte earlier this month, Democratic state party chairman Dick Harpootlian planned to confront her at her news conference – only to find it was in the basement of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, protected by about as much security as the convention itself.

“She was down in the bunker a la Eva Braun. They have gone to the bowels of the (NASCAR Hall of Fame) so we can’t see them,” Harpootlian told the S.C. Democratic delegation, making a reference to the mistress and, briefly, wife of Adolf Hitler.

Republicans pounced, demanding an apology.

Haley called Harpootlian an “angry, hateful man.” Wesley Donehue, a Columbia-based Republican strategist who now works for Akin, said on his Internet talk show last week that Harpootlian basically had called Haley a “Nazi (prostitute).”

Democrats would have their revenge, however, ripping S.C. Republican Party chairman Chad Connelly for a fundraising email that he sent out during the Democratic convention. In that email, Connelly said the Democratic Party believes “abortions and taxpayer-funded birth control are rites of passage for every teenage girl – sort of like the prom or a first car.”

Amanda Loveday, the Democratic Party’s executive director, called Connelly’s email “crude comments about what is a personal, emotional and sometimes medical decision for some women,” adding it shows how “close-minded and off base the Republican Party is with the everyday American woman.”

Tyler Jones, a Democratic consultant, added via Twitter: “Chad Connelly is Todd Akin in an Amway uniform.”

Does all the back and forth matter?

Too soon to tell, says perhaps the state’s premiere gaffe expert, Boyd Brown, the Democratic state representative from Fairfield County who is not running for re-election. Whenever his mouth gets him in trouble – which is often – Brown said he remembers his father’s “10-day rule.”

“If people are still talking about it in 10 days, then (there is) a problem,” he said.

Courson donates campaign money to charity

State Sen. John Courson is facing his toughest re-election challenge in years from Democrat Robert Rikard. To win re-election to his District 20 seat in Richland and Lexington counties, Courson has raised more than $180,000 thus far, which means ... he has plenty of money to donate to charity.

A review of Courson’s expenses shows he has given more than $15,000 in campaign money to various charities, including the USO, Carolina Children’s Home, the Dreher High School Foundation (where his son attends), Irmo Arbor Day, Whitehall Homeowners’ Association, Special Olympics, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and the American Cancer Society.

And, if he dies before election day, Courson’s will says any campaign money left over must go to the National Museum of the Marine Corps. “Some of these causes, I think, are worthy causes,” he said. “That’s just what I’ve done over the years.”

Courson has been raising money for four years. And all but three of his donations were made before 2012. Campaign strategists say it is not uncommon for state politicians to donate money to charities in the years between an election, before an opponent – if any – emerges and there is a campaign to pay for.

Courson’s next campaign report is not due until October. If it shows Courson still is giving a lot of his money away to charities, it could mean the Senate president pro tem thinks he has his re-election locked up.

Harpootlian a better fundraiser than Eva Longoria

She might be better looking, but actress Eva Longoria is not doing a better job of check-collecting for President Obama than Dick Harpootlian.

The chairman of the S.C. Democratic Party raised $391,636 in bundled contributions for Obama’s re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee in 2011 and 2012, according to The New York Times.

Longoria, the “Desperate Housewives” star, has collected $271,300. (She also landed a speaking gig at the Democratic convention.)

Harpo also bested Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer, at $112,400, and Tennessee Democratic chairman Chip Forrester, at $362,475.

No wonder the Columbia attorney, never at a loss for words, found himself in VIP boxes at the Democratic convention.

But Harpo was a bit lonely on the Times’ list: He was the only South Carolinian among Obama’s top 325 bundlers.

Quote of the week

“(President Barack Obama) is going to get Chick-fil-A’d this fall. He’s going to be stunned at the lines of people wanting to vote against him and get him out of office.”

S.C. GOP Chairman Chad Connelly

Staff writer Andrew Shain contributed.