In South Carolina, where Thurmond is revered, politicians recoil from talk about a possible successor. Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat, says it’s “ghoulish” to speculate on who he might name to fill the seat should Thurmond leave the Senate. When Hodges was elected in 1998, and Strom was a month shy of 96, Hodges promised he wouldn’t appoint anybody who would then run for the seat-in other words, anybody with a political future. In retrospect, that wasn’t such a good idea, says a Hodges confidante. With only a little more than a year and a half left in Thurmond’s term, the post by definition would be mostly honorary.
Political allies of Hodges speculate that if he can’t install a potential candidate in Strom’s seat, he might settle for using the appointment to send a message. Dismayed at the image South Carolina got during last year’s presidential race, when the discriminatory policies of Bob Jones University became an issue in the state’s GOP primary, some analysts think Hodges would like to make history by appointing the first Southern African-American since Reconstruction to serve in the Senate.
The Republican-controlled legislature would like to force Hodge to fill any vacancy with a Republican. And Nancy Thurmond, Strom’s wife, has made appeals for herself as the logical successor. But the Thurmonds have been separated for many years, though they are not divorced. Nancy’s long-time boyfriend is discretely referred to in the local newspaper as her “social companion.”
BOYS WILL BE BOYS?
Such niceties aren’t always observed in South Carolina politics. After a memo last week reminded female pages in the state legislature to dress with decorum (skirts no higher than four inches above the knee, and no cleavage showing), a second memo quickly followed from the “Men’s Caucus.” It urged the pages, who are mostly young, college-age women, to save “valuable materials used in blouse construction” and to treat undergarments as “optional.” According to the State newspaper in Columbia, the memo also declared that terms like “babe … honey … sugar … and little missy” should be regarded as compliments and terms of endearment. Maybe the memo’s authors thought everybody would chuckle and say, “Boys will be boys.” But there is no “Men’s Caucus”-unless you count the overwhelmingly male House and Senate. (There are two female senators out of 46; and 17 of 124 House members are women.)
Now an investigation is underway, with the full backing of Hodges. The memo’s authors have yet to step forward, and many male members think they’re the victims of political correctness. “The lawyer in me wonders why they’re fighting it so hard, what they’re hiding,” Hodges told NEWSWEEK. “If I were doing that in private business, I’d be out of a job. I’d be in an unemployment line.”
CALLING MISS MANNERS
Evangelist Pat Robertson has been telling friends that after all he did to help elect George W. Bush, he feels neglected. “I haven’t gotten one word of thanks, not one, from Bush after all the cover I gave him with the right,” Robertson recently complained. “I helped him win the South Carolina primary.” Robertson deployed his Christian Right network in the make-or-break primary. And when Bush’s theme of compassionate conservatism made social conservatives question whether he had the spine to pursue their issues if elected, Robertson’s quiet assurances kept them on board. Conservatives have been rewarded with many plum posts in the Bush administration, but Bush has had no contact with Robertson. The irony, Robertson has remarked to friends, is that he has a number of nice, personal notes from former president Bush, no friend of conservatives. Then again, that President Bush was obsessive about writing thank-you notes.
