South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts has called gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley and President Barack Obama “ragheads”. The Lexington County Republican Party called for Knotts, a Republican, to resign over the remarks. Knott responded:
“This is not a Republican Party, this is a libertarian party,” Knotts said, noting the group did not censure Sanford last year after he admitted an extramarital affair. “This is nothing but politics. I’m not resigning. I could care less.”
It is unclear why labeling his enemies a “libertarian party” was supposed to excuse his racial remarks or explain his political enemies’ call for his resignation.
h/t to Ben Smith of Politico.
24 responses so far ↓
1 jenny // Jun 14, 2010 at 6:27 pm
jesus was the son of the devil. Knotts represents jesus the Evil One
2 Carolyn Marbry // Jun 14, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Has the South Carolina LP or the national LP responded to this publicly yet?
3 Trent Hill // Jun 14, 2010 at 8:46 pm
They have not, as far as I know. I’m still trying to figure out what he even MEANT by this?
4 Stewart Flood // Jun 14, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Knotts doesn’t even understand what a libertarian is, so his comment is merely more meaningless rhetoric.
The South Carolina Libertarian Party passed a resolution at our June 5th state executive committee meeting calling for his resignation or removal by the state senate.
Unfortunately, unless the senate prosecutes him for ethics violations, there is nothing that we or anyone else can do until he comes up for re-election in 2012. Hopefully the voters in his district will help him “retire” from politics.
5 Stewart Flood // Jun 14, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Knotts is Boss Hogg. If you can picture the fictional character from the Dukes of Hazzard. He’s just as corrupt, and just as dumb. He even looks like the guy who played Hogg on TV.
Knotts represents the worst of politics in South Carolina. The only time I’d even consider voting for him would be in a race between him and Hitler — and that would be a tough decision.
6 George Phillies // Jun 14, 2010 at 10:28 pm
@5 You guys do have some interesting characters in your State Legislature. We are about to have our third consecutive Speaker of the (State) House of Representatives move toward trial, as a result of which a former speaker was publicly referred to as Speaker “Felon” Flaherty (conviction does not remove from office), and the in-group joke in at least one circle was that the title of the Speaker should be changed to “The Indicted One”.
Some years ago, a member of the legislature was recorded by a contractor, shaking the contractor down for a bribe. The state legislature found a solution. They made it illegal to record conversations without the consent of all parties.
7 Eric Dondero // Jun 14, 2010 at 10:35 pm
This is just utterly hilarious on so many levels.
#1 – You gotta love it if you’re a Libertarian Party person. Shows the LP really matters in American politics. Folks, the Libertarian Party has arrived.
#2 – Though in one respect it’s not so great from the LP perspective, cause it shows that the Republican Party is now much more libertarian, thus making a separate 3rd party a tougher sell.
#3 – It shows that all this talk from us Libertarian Republicans that Nikki Haley really is a Libertarian is true. (And Mark Sanford too.)
#4 – Bodes very, very well for the Republican Liberty Caucus of South Carolina.
8 Stewart Flood // Jun 14, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Yes, we do. What amazes me is that we can never beat any of these bozos on election day.
But they are getting worse. Knotts will certain be gone by this time next year. Hard evidence is out there, you just have to look at his filings. Now that he’s gotten the attention of even his own party, his ethics violations may finally be addressed.
9 Stewart Flood // Jun 14, 2010 at 10:41 pm
The Republican Party openly opposed Sanford.
Is he a libertarian? I believe he is. Ms Haley also shows promise.
But the Gross Old Party continues to get dumber and dumber. Their meetings get smaller and smaller and their membership is shrinking.
Watch the first congressional district race. If Tim Scott wins the nomination we will have a real shot at taking the seat. Scott is hated within the party. He talks a good game, but if you look at his record you see just another insider — another statist.
Keith Blandford can win this one if the GOP continues to tear itself apart.
10 Eric Dondero // Jun 15, 2010 at 6:12 am
Yes Stewart, the Republican Party meetings are getting smaller. Only because they’ve been replaced by the Tea Party, which is a crossway between the Libertarian Party and the Republican Party.
So, to make a blanket statement that the GOP is “floundering,” is not entirely accurate.
11 Eric Dondero // Jun 15, 2010 at 6:14 am
Stewart, I’ve always considered you to be one of the “Republican-leaning” Libertarians in the LP. That’s a good thing. The LP needs many more of people like you.
In fact, having met your fellow SC LPers at St. Louis, your whole State Chapter seems to lean in that direction.
I sincerely hope you all will work with Gov.-elect Haley. Who knows, she might bring some of y’all on board in her administration, INCLUDING YOU!
12 Stewart Flood // Jun 15, 2010 at 7:32 am
I am not a “Republican-leaning” Libertarian. I know the internals of the GOP in South Carolina quite well, and I can assure you that the shrinkage in the party preceeded the rise of the tea party/9-12ers, and that the tea party has actually offset some of the loss. Most Republican activists (the good ones) have left and retired from active politics.
I was formerly a member of the republican party. I was always what we call around here a “Goldwater Republican”, which by our definition was a libertarian (small l) in just about every manner except that we were not in the Libertarian Party.
I left the Republican Party some years ago now, and I have no interest in them other than to laugh while they fail. They are not for small (constitutional) government. They do not support liberty. They support whatever it takes to have and keep power. I’ve seen it and I can assure you that nothing has or will change within their party.
They are failing and their failure is self-caused and well deserved.
Yes, it will take some time for the walls to fall down and show the burned out insides of their party. Boss Hogg-Knotts is simply an example of their stupidity.
Personally, I have no belief that Ms Haley would bring myself or any libertarian on board in her administration. I have no desire to work for the government.
We supported many of Governor Sanford’s initiatives. He came to libertarian events when invited. If Ms Haley continues to represent libertarian values and, if elected, acts as a libertarian governor would, then we will certainly do everything we can to support her.
13 George Phillies // Jun 15, 2010 at 8:06 am
@12
May you have many occasions for hysterical funniness.
Having said that, there are interesting historical parallels between the Republican/Tea Party groups and the Whig/Know Nothing/American Party groups a century and a half back. For some time the Whigs and the Know Nothing Lodges each thought they were taking over the other.
14 George Phillies // Jun 15, 2010 at 9:42 am
One might, however, propose that this guiding genius of Republic thought, the Republican party’s response to Einstein — can talk and stand up at the same time — meant to say that his party was becoming the *libertine* party, and got the word wrong. And, as one considers the amatory exploits of Democratic Republican legislators across America, he may well be right.
15 Stewart Flood // Jun 15, 2010 at 3:02 pm
No, he was probably confused. The LP sent him a similar resolution last week. Our’s was drafted and adopted on 6/5, so he probably got a copy sometime between the 7th and the 10th.
The guy is not that bright…I don’t think that he knows what the word libertine means. If he does, then he’s been reading a lot more than people give him credit for.
16 Robert Capozzi // Jun 15, 2010 at 4:25 pm
In a strange way, this is a bit of a compliment to the LP. A “Libertarian” party would censure a prominent elected official for offensive language, but not –in his mind — a R party, which presumably accepts the use of the term “raghead” and other inappropriate language.
17 Dave Nalle // Jun 15, 2010 at 5:43 pm
I left the Republican Party some years ago now, and I have no interest in them other than to laugh while they fail. They are not for small (constitutional) government. They do not support liberty. They support whatever it takes to have and keep power. I’ve seen it and I can assure you that nothing has or will change within their party.
I’d suggest that your experience of the Republican party is extremely limited, even in your own state. Nikki Haley is bringing with her a whole slate of pro-liberty Republicans who are likely to take office after winning in November. As the old-line Republicans in SC get marginalized the character of the party will change. It won’t be immediate, but it will happen as it is around the country.
They are failing and their failure is self-caused and well deserved.
As one group of Republicans fails a more libertarian group is rising to ascendancy. Meanwhile the Libertarians keep getting 1%.
Personally, I have no belief that Ms Haley would bring myself or any libertarian on board in her administration. I have no desire to work for the government.
Why on earth would she bring you on board? You celebrate the politics of failure and are mindlessly hostile to the GOP even as it moves more towards the ideals you claim to believe in? You have neither the skills nor the attitude to function in a realistic political environment. What do you have to offer Haley that she can’t find among liberty Republicans who don’t carry your negative baggage?
Dave
18 Shawn Levasseur // Jun 15, 2010 at 7:47 pm
South Carolina has been providing the strangest political theatre of the year.
19 Gene Berkman // Jun 15, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Dave @ 17 – I have been involved in and around the Republican Party since 1964, and the “libertarian” element is alot smaller than you seem to think.
There are some Republicans who are for less government, cutting spending and taxes, and a few are even aware that war leads to big government. But RLC does no service for anyone by claiming some of these people as libertarians. It is at best “normalizing deviance” at worst just hype – or worse.
Did RLC ever oppose George W Bush’s push for big government? Now in retrospect, maybe. But be honest, when America needed conservatives to oppose Bush league statism, where were you?
Maybe only a few per cent of Americans are libertarian, but you don’t give evidence of success when you puff up a pro-government politico as some kind of libertarian Republican when he supports marijuana laws and the Iraq War. If we get a few percent of the vote for a real libertarian, it may be ineffective, but it is more honest than much of what RLC does.
20 Tom Blanton // Jun 19, 2010 at 11:27 pm
I’m supporting Nikki Haley even though she is Republican. I’m even thinking about going down to SC to vote for her a few times.
But, if I wasn’t banging her, I wouldn’t vote for her even once.
21 Michael H. Wilson // Jun 19, 2010 at 11:44 pm
Tom you are one sly dog
Can I say Keep it up!?
22 Becky Chandler // Jun 22, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Quite a hurtful slur that is–but I have noticed amongst Republicans, of the Jake Knotts variety, they are starting to use the tag “libertarian” as slur. These mush heads like to claim that some candidate( that is actually more conservative then them) is a “libertarian”–I saw quite a bit of this with Debra Medina’s race in Texas.
23 ........ news: Glimmers of hope ??????? (Lake) // Jun 23, 2010 at 1:14 am
as much as I dislike some issues with alternative parties, it is the Dems and GOP whom have ruined the nation of my birth ………..
24 Brad Spangler // Jun 28, 2010 at 12:46 pm
What seems to be going on here is that “libertarian” is coming to be used inaccurately by ignorant and jingoistic people in much the same way that “communist” was also once so used to apply to non-conformists generally.
Basically, Knotts was calling the rest of the local GOP a bunch of un-American freaks for not backing him up in his use of the term “raghead” — presumably because anti-Arab racism is okay and even patriotic in his view. When he called them “libertarian”, it was a label of derision he found politically easier to use than “communist” or “faggot” but meaning roughly the same thing.
I actually think this is a good thing, strategically. The last thing a serious libertarian would want is the approval of people like Knotts.
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