Home Through the Looking Glass

I wasn't even gone a week.  My first conversation back in Charleston was with the guy at the car rental desk.  We began with the weather, then to the increase in car accidents and what on earth is going on with that?  Then I told him my premium had gone up, not because I had had an accident but (according to the customer service rep I spoke with) because there are more accidents in my area.  Then on to Costco doing car rentals and car insurance.

At that point the man mumbled something about health insurance.  Apparently he was looking and didn't like what he was going to have to spend, so he decided he wasn't going to do it.  "What if you get sick?" I asked.  "Oh, I'm getting health insurance," he said, "I'm going with the Lindsey Graham -- Tim Scott plan."

Okay, y'all can do a double-take.

When I left here not one week ago, South Carolina was being regaled with TV ads brought to us by a group of right wingnuts calling themselves The American Chemistry Council.  Apparently, the strategy of teaming up the unlikely couple of Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott in a clever ad and then blasting it around the state for a few days has made it a done deal.  Graham and Scott are now our favorite couple.

Now I don't have any idea what the good ole boy behind the counter at the car rental was talking about.  It seems that whenever I try to hang in on a conversation like that it doesn't take much for me to go over my crazy quotient.  Do Graham and Scott really have their own insurance plan?  All I know is my new friend told me he'd happily pay the fine for not enrolling in "that Obamacare."

Back when I hadn't been down here that long I would have gotten angry.  I might have tried to argue, or I might have just glared and walked away.  But I've been living here some 15 years.  I laughed and told him, "It sure is good to be back home," and walked away.

Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott: It's Complicated

Back in November, it seemed that Tim Scott wasn't too happy with Lindsey Graham.  Was it the Tea Party whispering nasties into his ear?  Back then Tim was best buds with Nikki Haley, and why not -- she was the one who gave him the golden ticket to the U.S. Senate.

from FitsNews.com

In fact, just about a year ago, her campaign site, nikkihaley.com, featured the pair smiling enticingly at we the voters.  Today she's resorting to the more traditional family photo.

So imagine my surprise last night when, as I fast-forwarded through commercials to get back to Letterman, I saw this unlikely image:

Curiosity got the better of me, and I rewound back to the beginning of the ad.  Incredibly, it's sponsored by a group called the American Chemistry Council, which makes it the number one contestant in the game called:  "what's wrong with this picture?"  It would be unfair for me to try to describe it, so here it is:

 You know how much I love to delve into the mysteries of who's funding the right wingnuts.  And this bunch didn't even have the words "Freedom" or "Liberty" in their name, so it was guaranteed to grab my attention.  And the implication of science paired with those good old evangelical freaks was making my day.

The American Chemistry Council was once called the Chemical Manufacturers' Association.  They have a warm and fuzzy website that, to sum it up, says, "Trust us."

Their purpose is (hold on to your seat) deregulation, calling it the "Responsible Care Program."  In 2005 they developed a public relations program they called "essential2" -- apparently having skipped over essential1 -- which purpose was to convince us that plastics is good.  To that end, they have been heavily involved in preventing plastic bag regulation.  Yes, when the public has supported initiatives restricting the use of plastic bags, The American Chemistry Council has been there with its "plastic bag lobby" to sway the voters, and when that fails, sue the local government.

On April 21, the American Chemistry Council rolled out its support for our two great senators, for their positive outlook in a negative political atmosphere, and for their work to tackle the two biggest problems we face:  economic growth and job creation.

After we all do a double take, let's get down to checking out our heroes' actual hard work in the Senate.

I believe it was just the day before I saw this ad that I turned on CSPAN to find Lindsey Graham regaling an almost definitely empty Senate chamber with posters proving his paranoid theory about Benghazi, apparently having at one point called White House officials "scumbags."

Meanwhile, as Lindsey Graham gives us Benghazi all day every day, his new buddy Tim Scott continues to fight for jobs by determining to end Obamacare, with his latest weekly email missive stating "Obamacare Must Go."  To be fair, he is also determined to create a couple dozen jobs through the building of the Keystone XL Pipeline.  Which must be what makes the American Chemistry Council so darned proud.

These ads will be running for a few days, because the American Chemistry Council understands just how to buy a senator or two.  And our two senators from South Carolina are ready to stand up and be bought.

And if they have to do it together, well, I guess that's a price they're willing to pay.