It isn’t confirmed yet, but it looks very much like Gov. Nikki Haley has made her choice to fill the seat being vacated by pathetic quitter Jim DeMint. Tim Scott is the sitting United States Representative for the First District of South Carolina. He is, of course, a Republican. Let’s take a minute to get to know him.
Rep. Scott is the first African-American Republican to be elected to any office (yep, even dog catcher) since the end of Reconstruction. Rep. Scott is a Republican’s Republican. He believes crazy things, and isn’t afraid to let that show. He’s got a real history with crazy too. Let’s start there.
Rep. Scott was first elected to a post on Charleston City Council in a special election in 1995. His primary achievement as a councillor was that he was instrumental in having Charleston post the Ten Commandments outside the council chamber. Scott, in fact, nailed them to the wall by the door himself. Scott was of the opinion that it was worth burning through an unlimited amount of tax-payer’s money to fight for the Ten Commandments display in the face of a ruling secured by the ACLU that such a display was unconstitutional. According to Scott, “whatever it costs in pursuit of this goal is worth it.” Fortunately for the tax payers of Charleston, the rest of City Council disagreed with that assessment, and settled with the ACLU to avoid running up even more legal fees.
In 2008, Rep. Scott was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives from District 117. Upon election, he became the first African-American state representative in more than 100 years. Scott’s crusading priorities as a state representative appear to have been protecting South Carolina’s right-to-work (for less) law from threats that it didn’t face and slashing the HIV/AIDS budget despite South Carolina’s burgeoning AIDS problem, cutting off 2,000 low income people from access to medication.
In 2010, Rep. Scott won a highly competitive primary over the son of noted hate monster Strom Thurmond and cruised to election in the general with two thirds of the vote. His short tenure as a representative has been marked by some delightful crazy. He opposes stimulus funding, except when it is being spent on public works projects in his district. He thinks the solution to bringing down medical costs and improving outcomes is medical tort reform and medicare cuts. He is in favour of Arizona-style immigration law, and making English the official language of the United States. Just for giggles, he wants to cut off food stamps for an entire family if a member of that family takes part in a strike. He is in favour of continued subsidies to the oil industry. Oh, and he thinks President Obama should be impeached if he uses the 14th Amendment to flip Congress the bird on the debt ceiling.
Sounds like just the kind of person who will bring a careful, deliberative and collegial atmosphere to the Senate.
Picture via Flickr.
