Apparently the Republicans in South Carolina’s General Assembly think that Assemblywoman Nikki Randhawa Haley (see previous post) has got that whip appeal. They have just named her Majority Whip for the South Carolina House Republican Caucus. Rediff reports:
As majority whip, Haley will be responsible for lining up votes in support of caucus priorities and setting the direction of the 74-member Republican majority.“Haley was selected because of her proven leadership skills. She is always prepared when we go to the floor and she’s passionate about issues of concern to her constituents,” Republican chief whip Shirley Hinson said.
For Nikki this is the third leadership position she’s held in her first two years in the General Assembly.
“I’m honoured to be recognised again by my peers and I know this new position helps me serve my constituents.This position will help me drive legislation that will benefit Lexington County and the entire state,” Nikki said.
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p>The Whip position requires you to know everyone in the state legislature because it is your responsibility to twist their arms and get them to vote the party line. It is the sort of position that would definitely help to have under your belt should you later decide to run for U.S. Congress.
<
p>In the U.S. House of Representatives, Bobby Jindal is a deputy Whip. With head whip, Roy Blunt (R-MO) vying for ousted Majority leader Tom Delay’s position, look for Jindal to seek a move up the leadership chain should Blunt win. He is exactly the type of young outsider that many disgruntled Republicans want.
My apologies to Babyface.
MD,
Do you think we are going have Condi Rice-H. Clinton mud-wresting match for the next Presidential elections? Let’s all discuss poitics and sex (Ms. Sheetal is finne [I am using Southern accent]) – too much of philosophy, religion, english-medium vs. venri schools, and patriachy on SM has been boring me.
Abhi,
What do think about this?
UCLA Alumni Group Is Tracking ‘Radical’ Faculty By Stuart Silverstein and Peter Y. Hong Times Staff Writers
January 18, 2006
A fledgling alumni group headed by a former campus Republican leader is offering students payments of up to $100 per class to provide information on instructors who are “abusive, one-sided or off-topic” in advocating political ideologies.
The year-old Bruin Alumni Assn. says its “Exposing UCLA’s Radical Professors” initiative takes aim at faculty “actively proselytizing their extreme views in the classroom, whether or not the commentary is relevant to the class topic.” Although the group says it is concerned about radical professors of any political stripe, it has named an initial “Dirty 30” of teachers it identifies with left-wing or liberal causes.
Some of the instructors mentioned accuse the association of conducting a witch hunt that threatens to harm the teaching atmosphere, and at least one of the group’s advisory board members has resigned because he considers the bounty offers inappropriate. The university said it will warn the association that selling copies of professors’ lectures would violate campus rules and raise copyright issues.
The Bruin Alumni Assn. is headed by Andrew Jones, a 24-year-old who graduated in June 2003 and was chairman of UCLA’s Bruin Republicans student group. He said his organization, which is registered with the state as a nonprofit, does not charge dues and has no official members, but has raised a total of $22,000 from 100 donors. Jones said the biggest contribution to the group, $5,000, came from a foundation endowed by Arthur N. Rupe, 88, a Santa Barbara resident and former Los Angeles record producer.
Jones’ group is following in the footsteps of various conservative groups that have taken steps, including monitoring professors, to counter what they regard as an overwhelming leftist tilt at elite colleges and universities around the country. He said many of these efforts, however, have done a poor job of documenting their claims. As a result, Jones said, the Bruin Alumni Assn. is offering to pay students for tapes and notes from classes.
“We’re just trying to get people back on a professional level of things. Having been a student myself up until 2003, and then watching what other students like myself have gone through, I’m very concerned about the level of professional teaching at UCLA,” said Jones, who said he is supporting himself with a modest salary from the organization and is its only full-time employee.
He said he plans to show what he considers biased material to professors and administrators and seek to have teachers present more balanced lectures or possibly face reprimand.
UCLA administrators say they are planning no immediate legal action, other than to notify Jones and to alert students that selling course materials without the consent of the instructor and Chancellor Albert Carnesale violates university policy. Patricia Jasper, a university lawyer, said UCLA would reserve the right to take legal action if any students engaged in unauthorized selling of materials.
Adrienne Lavine, chairwoman of UCLA’s academic senate, agreed that the university could do little more at this point. She said she found the profiles on the alumni group’s website “inflammatory” and “not a positive way to address the concerns that Mr. Jones has expressed.” Still, she said, “I certainly support freedom of speech and that extends to Andrew Jones as much as it does to every faculty member on campus.”
The group’s recent campaign has upset a number of targeted professors and triggered the resignation last weekend of Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom, a prominent affirmative action opponent and former UCLA professor, from the advisory board for Jones’ organization.
Thernstrom said he joined the alumni group’s more than 20-member advisory board last year because he believed it “had a legitimate objective of combating the extraordinary politicization of the faculty on elite campuses today.”
Still, Thernstrom said, “I felt it was extremely unwise, one, to put out a list of targets of investigation and to agree to pay students to provide information about what was going on in the classroom of those students. That just seems to me way too intrusive. It seems to me a kind of vigilantism that I very much object to.”
Thernstrom said a fellow advisory board member, Jascha Kessler, an emeritus UCLA English professor, also resigned for the same reason. Kessler could not be reached for comment, but Jones confirmed that Kessler had resigned.
Jones said other members of the advisory board include Linda Chavez, former federal civil rights commissioner in the Reagan administration and head of a Virginia-based anti-affirmative action group; former Republican Rep. Jim Rogan; and current UCLA professors Matt Malkan and Thomas Schwartz.
Jones said he has lined up one student who, for $100 a class session, has agreed to provide tapes, detailed lecture notes and materials with what the group considers inappropriate opinion. He would not name the student or the professor whose class will be monitored. Jones characterized the work as non-commercial news gathering and advocacy that does not violate university policy.
On one of its websites, the Bruin Alumni Group names education professor Peter McLaren as No. 1 on its “The Dirty Thirty: Ranking the Worst of the Worst.” It says “this Canadian native teaches the next generation of teachers and professors how to properly indoctrinate students.”
McLaren, in a telephone interview, called the alumni group’s tactics “beneath contempt.”
“Any sober, concerned citizen would look at this and see right through it as a reactionary form of McCarthyism. Any decent American is going to see through this kind of right-wing propaganda. I just find it has no credibility,” he said.
The website also lists history professor Ellen DuBois, saying she “is in every way the modern female academic: militant, impatient, accusatory, and radical – very radical.” In response, DuBois said: “This is a totally abhorrent invitation to students to participate in a witch hunt Â… against their professors.”
But DuBois minimized the effect on campus, saying “it’s not even clear this is much other than the ill-considered action of a handful, if that, of individuals.”
The group’s leading financial backer, Rupe, is a UCLA alumnus. He said his foundation donated $5,000 because “I think there’s not enough balance on the campus. Some families are going into hock to send their kids there, and are not getting their money’s worth.”
Rupe said the group’s plan to pay students to record alleged bias “would be ideal if it could be done legally.”
Rupe’s philanthropy is not centered on conservative causes. His foundation donated $500,000 to UC Santa Barbara in 1998 to endow a professorship studying the effects of the media on social behavior. Ronald E. Rice, who holds the professorship, said Rupe told him he was “really interested in the truth. He wants to bring people with different perspectives together to really argue.”
PS: I am using Southern accent – I meant Southern United States. A clarification.
I think SM should form a “orientalist” tracking group too similar to comment #.1
KT…words out of my mouth. We need to have a desi political smackdown. Props to Nikki…is every desi political superstar from the South a Republican? Why am I asking this question??!! At this rate we’ll have a brown Prez before Oprah!
Shes against gay marriage. Allah Hu Akbar! Nice to see a Sardarni, a member of an oppressed minority, go after other minorities like gays. Here is a post on her election.
My Predictions:
For Running Mates Bobby Jindal for Condi Rice Barack Obama for Hilary Clinton
Future Condi Rice will win beacuse Bobby Jindal will carry the deep South. In the mid-term of Condi Rice’s term, there will be a tax-sex scandal, Condi Rice will have to resign and will become the President of Harvard. Bobby Jindal will be the next Prez of US of A by 2011.
Any bets and odd………………
PS: SM better watch out what you say BJ.
wow, she does not look brown.
Do you think we are going have Condi Rice-H. Clinton mud-wresting match for the next Presidential elections?
I would love to see Condi run against a Southern white male like Mark Warner or somebody folksy from the Mid-West like Tom Vilsack in the general election. The flag waving, number 8 loving, pick up truck owning, beer guzzling, red neck republican males are not going to come out and vote for Condi against a good old boy. Some of the American Taliban might also stay home and not get too excited over voting for a 50 something single woman who has never been married. If Condi can ever survive the primaries, her opponents will savage her over her single status (hint – push polling about Condi being a lesbian in South Carolina)
If Hillary runs, the Hillary haters will come out no matter what so I am hoping that she trips in the primaries.
I wouldn’t want to see Condi vs Hillary. I’d like to see them both try in their own race against men!
“If Hillary runs, the Hillary haters will come out no matter what so I am hoping that she trips in the primaries.”
You are right. But she turned on the heat and Mike Warner and Tom Vilsack hasn’t. But at the end of the day, they will probably prevail.
You probably know Reagan was the first divorced President of USA. It came in the way of Nelson Rockefeller. Condi Rice’s single status will haunt her……..maybe, SM can help her. That is why BJ is needed as a running mates- his kids are needed on the podium.
Condi Rice’s single status will haunt her……..maybe, SM can help her. That is why BJ is needed as a running mates- his kids are needed on the podium
I dont think all of the white republican males in the South/Mid-West are ready to see dark skinned brown kids running on the stage or in fact are ready for the all black family of Condi accepting the party nomination under national spotlight. With elections being so close, if 150,000 odd Republicans had not shown up in Ohio, Kerry would have won. As far as I can remember, the only time we have seen browns on stage during a party nomination is with Bush Sr and some of his grandkids. If Jeb Bush runs, people will of course see his mexican wife and half mexican kids on the stage. That actually might open doors (hopefully) for minorities running for presidency.
ALM,
I am not being serious. You know.
A friend of mine once told me that Michael Duckakis first strike against him was his name (too foreign), then Willy Horton ad, ill fated tank-ride, debate question about hypothetical wife’s rape, etc.
Jeb Bush is a real candidate. Hispanic kids should be OK.
I am not being serious. You know.
I know 🙂 I do think that a run by Hillary or Condi is very possible.
A friend of mine once told me that Michael Duckakis first strike against him was his name (too foreign), then Willy Horton ad, ill fated tank-ride, debate question about hypothetical wife’s rape, etc.
Plus his bushy eyebrows, membership in the ACLU, refusal to fight back till the very end, being tagged too ‘liberal’, then actually calling himself a liberal (which apparently did boost his ratings a little) in the last days and being a governor from Tax-a-chussets probably didnt help either. I am getting ready to bring down these mofos in the Congressional election later this year.
Kush, Are you a liberal or a conservative?
She doesn’t use the name Randhawa on her website anywhere. Does she even go by that name? Scary stuff promoted on that “values mailer” of hers. Ugh.
“Are you a liberal or a conservative?”
Confused.
Seriously, more like a Clinton Democrat. Or a A Blue Dog Democrat.
Quite liberal in principle, but might be conservative in practise – opposite of evengelical, righteous poiticians. I don’t mind making alliances with either side, if they seem sensible to me for that particular issue.
It is the 10 years of South in me, therefore, the Clinton style. A lot of my friends are conservatives and but others quite liberal too, and I listen to most of them. I would assume other family members of mine in US are same but not sure.
She does in her bio in the State House. However in the grand scheme of things is it that big a deal to get the maiden name in there? I mean her name is Nikki Haley no? I’m trying to understand the offense some desis might feel at the omission of her maiden name in the original hyphen. The news is all over the desi papers in desh already.
Also found this
Yeah, Kush I have been thinking about this all day. What a load of crap. Its true that many college professors (especially scientists) are liberal and that they occasionaly voice their displeasure in class. When I teach I never let politics come to play. Still, I think this sort of witch hunt by a conservative group is going to backfire on them. Especially in California.
In reference to Sonia’s comment (#6), she does not look brown because she is a Punjabi Jatt Sikh. Many Jatts do not look “brown”. Not to get into the Aryan Invasion Theory again, but…
PS Shout out to Jai Singh…it’s me, Amitabh, we’ve talked before on Sikhnet…you were right, this is a great blog.
Wasn’t Clinton with the DLC? Blue Dog Democrats have a fundamentally different moderate/conservative view on some of the major issues than the Democratic Leadership Council.
Is there such a thing as centrist? Or is that too lame? Of course my father says “If one doesn’t have the passion to belong on one side of the other that person’s a big wuss!!
The worst thing about these guys is that the things that they define (whine about) as politically “liberal” or “left” aren’t political or liberal at all, they are just issues of intelligence, current thought or science.
Pathetic.
Wasn’t Clinton with the DLC? Blue Dog Democrats have a fundamentally different moderate/conservative view on some of the major issues than the Democratic Leadership Council.
Janet, I am using it in loose and broad terms. When I mean Blue Dog Democracts/ Clinton Democrat, I meant more like “mordern” Southeners who often idenfies with “old school” Republicans – can be fiscally conservative, but socially mostly liberal but conservative. Let’s put it better, “Clint Eastwood Republican”, how about that or “South Park Conservative”.
I am delibrately not using the term “Dixiecrats”.
Yes, Clinton was with DLC. For me, right now, DLC = mainstream Democrats.
KT I’m just bustin your chops you know 🙂 trying to get you all riled up. I get your drift. Peace out!
KT I’m just bustin your chops you know 🙂 trying to get you all riled up. I get your drift. Peace out!
I know. I am taking it as fun too.
I like those monikers, especially South Park conservatives and Clint Eastwood-tpyes.
All fun.
or the famous saying attributed to texas populist democrat jim hightower: “the only things in the middle of the road are a yellow line and dead armadillos.”
I will agree with the dude Jim Hightower. I think it takes more guts to be an independent, which BTW can be costly (we are talking about the independence of thought). IMHO taking refuge in a group on either side is conforming and that is wussful.
or the famous saying attributed to texas populist democrat jim hightower: “the only things in the middle of the road are a yellow line and dead armadillos.”
How about George Bush’s and Anakin Skywalker’s quote:
“Either you are with us or you are against us”
With each day, I grow more amazed at the fact that Vinod hasn’t shot himself in the head yet.
As a self-described fundamentalist I would have thought that you’d be against suicide. What surprises me more is that you, Daycruz, live in Oregon.
y did u spell my home state so weird?
Spelling/typing isn’t my strong suit. I’m not a detail guy, I’m a big picture guy. 🙂
Abhi, you just made me think…
I might just go put that gun to my head now…
Thanks, SM, for ending another Brown life..
Maybe it’s too late or dumb to ask after being around SM for quite long. Nevertheless, AlMujahid are you a full-time member of ACLU? Asking because your link says so, your comments on US politics and ACLU in specific are very edumacative(thx Manish/cicax) and you said : “I am getting ready to bring down these mofos in the Congressional election later this year”. Just wondering…
btw, is it just me that this lady looks a Desi version of Ann Coulter?
Amitabh,
Hi buddy, good to hear from you. Sikhnet definitely has its merits but Sepia Mutiny is quite a different experience in some ways, isn’t it 😉
SM is obviously a slightly less conservative place, and the more humourous conversations can sometimes veer into risque ‘badmaashi’ (yes me too, I’m afraid), but on the whole people here are a good-natured bunch. Extremely smart and well-informed too.
Welcome to the Mutiny, anyway. I’m a regular participant here these days, so it’s good to have you on board too 😉
AlMujahid are you a full-time member of ACLU?
No, I dont work for the ACLU. I would like to but they dont pay enough 🙁
Al Mujahid – Condaleeza Rice is incredibly popular with the Republican base. Very, very popular. And those ‘good old boys’ of which you speak, in particular, love her staunch 2nd amendment credentials. At least, that’s the way I read those too-early-to-tell-you anything polls. When they polled Iowan R activists last year, she came out on top (I still remember that story, but I can’t remember which paper I read it in). She says she doesn’t want to run and I suspect she’s moderately pro-choice, so I don’t think it will happen. She would be a fantastic VP choice, in my opinion. She’s a rock star to the right – which I think you know, despite your attempts to paint anyone who doesn’t think the way you do a racist.
May I compliment you on your charming debating skills?
As for Hillary, well, as a woman I would be delighted to see a woman president, but I’d rather it not be her. Hillary vs Condi (which would only happen in Bizarro world) would be something, wouldn’t it?
wtf? did i miss something??
“another”? which is the other? double wtf?
Jai is now inviting his social circle to SM eh? sigh There goes the neighbourhood. We used to have a reeeeel nice blog here once.
Goodbye you lot. Now where’s that gun? Thanks SM, for ending YET ANOTHER brown life.
So being likeminded with a group of people with the same ideals as yourself is wussful?
How is Condaleeza Rice a politicial all of a sudden? Has she ran in any election, where one has to campaign?? How about class president, even??
she’s the most popular republican right now by far, hitting the trifecta: most popular republican within her party, most popular republican across parties, and most popular republican overseas. considering all this, it’s virtually axiomatic that she will be bandied about as a potential candidate all the way until the field is finally formed.
i accept that mccain may have a claim to the popularity titles as well, but condi’s got the momentum. plus, enthusiasm for condi doesn’t carry the same latent anti-bush/rebel implications. so she’s the safe choice to support, especially now, when it’s all hypothetical anyway. those questions about how far the republican base is willing to experiment with new phenotypes and chromosomal combinations simply won’t be answered until things get more concrete — if they ever do, since my money right now would be that she won’t end up running.
but who knows, stranger things have happened.
peace
Re #16, Janeofalltrades, just to clarify, I wasn’t commenting on the appropriateness of her name use, but rather asking whether in fact she did use the name Randhawa because that’s how the SM post referred to her, but it didn’t seem to be anywhere on her website. Thanks for other link.
I still find her “Final Values” mailer scary though. 🙂
“Has she ran in any election, where one has to campaign?? How about class president, even??”
The same charge was made against Hillary Clinton in 2000 when she ran for Senate in a state she did not live in.
Mention in Page Six and Reliable source does not make momentum. Every year there is a popular candidate who has no realistic chance in the primaries. Remember Powell after the Gulf war.
Given her record as the National security advisor during the Iraq war (I support the war) I don’t think she stands a chance. McCain will easily beat her in almost all the primaries as he should. I wish and pray that McCain will beat Hillary in the general election. Hillary as President, shudder.
can anyone tell me what this woman did right ? Even her friends say she has been an incredibly weak NSA. Her record as the Sec. of State has been about her fashion choices not about diplomacy. Remember the whole torture debacle in Europe. All I know she is a concert pianist and she knows a lot about Russia. She can play Carnegie Hall or become an ambassador to Russia. She is NOT even qualified to be the secretary of State. If W valued competency more than loyalty she would be back in Stanford now.
hey, nobody said she’s a candidate. this is all idle speculation and will remain so for months or years and maybe for ever. but republicans are yearning for a star, and she has been anointed (and not just by the gossip columns) as star-worthy. i respect that you are a mccain supporter, all i am saying is that he’s not the only star in the republican party. perhaps people in the party are pumping her up in order to overshadow or threaten mccain’s chances, but hey, that’s y’all’s problem not mine.
peace
When they polled Iowan R activists last year, she came out on top
I donÂ’t think her popularity with the Iowa R activists has any relevance.
Not all primary voters in Iowa are activists though it has more activists voting than in other states because of the caucus format. Condi has the name recognition factor going for her right now just like Lieberman was leading the early democratic polls till 6 months or so before the first primary. I don’t believe Iowa Republicans are going to nominate Condi. Remember, these are the same Iowa Republicans who favored Pat Robertson over George Bush in the 1988 presidential election and Pat Buchannan was a close second to Bonb Dole in 96. I do wonder about the values of the Iowa Republicans where Pat Robertson finishes second in the primaries ahead of George Bush Sr, but then that’s a conundrum that I will leave for the Iowa Republicans to grapple with. I do believe that there will be vicious push polling against Condi regarding her ‘single status’ and ‘non militant pro-life’ (remember McCain and South Carolina and black/desi baby) by her primary opponents and that itself will sink her in the primaries.
She would be a fantastic VP choice, in my opinion. She’s a rock star to the right – which I think you know, despite your attempts to paint anyone who doesn’t think the way you do a racist. May I compliment you on your charming debating skills?
Do not create strawman. I know you would like to destroy my straw hut of ‘inferior reasoning’ while sitting on your bulldozer of ‘superior reasoning’. I am not suggesting that all Republican white male voters are racist and I certainly don’t believe Desi Republicans like you, Vinod and KXB are racists. I do believe that the Republicans still benefit from Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’ and that it might influence some white no.8 loving male republican voters to not show up to vote for Condi against a Southern White male in areas near the Appalachia in Southern Ohio or Northern Florida. Likewise, some members of the American Taliban might be similarly disinclined to show up for Condi because of her ‘single status’ and non militant ‘pro life’ positions. If the whole base doesn’t show up and only a few decide to stay home, the election will swing the other way. I don’t believe all Republican voters are racist however to ignore the issue of race and religion and pretend that they wont matter with the Republican base is also a little naïve. Lets see if Matt Romney can go anywhere in the primaries when his opponents raise the ‘Mormons’ are a satanic cult issue with the American Taliban in the primaries.
all i am saying is that he’s not the only star in the republican party
Being a star among the chattering classes gets doesnt get you too far. The Religious right for all practical purposes holds a veto on Republican nominees for President for the next 20 years or so and unless the candidate completely kowtows to the religious right, there is no chance of becoming the nominee.
Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’
Or Hubert Humphrey’s Southern Strategy. I agree the “foot soldiers” will become totally ambivalent if the candidate does not look/ sound/ empathisize with them or they with the candidate.
Just like the democrats still benefit from comparing any unfavorable situation to a plantation. you guys know what I am talking about! So let us agree that this is the way the game is played today.
I did not know that all NH primary voters in 2000 were from CNN. He has enough support in the grassroots.
Agreed but Hillary will change the equation this time.If Hillary is going to be the candidate , I think republicans would want a strong well known candidate. Remember why John Kerry won in the primaries. He was the candidate with the best chnace to beat Bush. Similarly, I think this year republicans would want someone who can beat Hillary. Also, John Mccain has strong National security credentials. Guiliani is also good but no foreign policy experience. I think VA’s Allen is the only real threat to McCain.
I still think McCain will pull it out.
Yeah, whatever Al M. Whose creating strawmen using terms like American Taliban? Am I supposed to take you seriously with rhetoric like that? And my point about Iowa, since I have to spell this out to you, is that Iowa holds an early primary, so people pay attention to the activists in the state. At least, the kind of geeks who live and die by this stuff. And my second point, because I have to spell this out for you, is that those polls are often wrong. As. I. Stated. In. My. Previous. Comment. Did you bother to read the whole thing, recognizer of the American Taliban and see-er into the hearts of flag-waving redneck types everywhere?
Anyway, I don’t care. I don’t care for Hillary, I don’t care for McCain (McCain-Feingold and baseball hearings anyone?), I don’t care for the Republican party right now, and you couldn’t pay me to vote for the other ‘viable’ democratic candidates for president at this point. So, I probably won’t be voting in the next election. HAve at it, people.
Mark my words this is what will happen (I’ve been saying it for a year to friends in private):
Some conservative Republican who caters to the lunatic right (see Allen from Virginia) will win the Republican nomination beating McCain. Maybe Hillary will win the Democratic nomination or maybe it will be Mark Warner, or someone else. What happens next (or should happen next) is that McCain wil leave the Republican party citing a culture of partisanship and corruption in Washington. He will become and independent and will maybe take a few members of the gang of 14 with him. He will then announce his Independent candidacy for the White House and start lining up people like Liberman or Feingold for VP, or Sec of Def., and other heavy hitters like Powell. There will be panic in Washington and both the Republicans and Dems will have to distance themselves from the fringe left and fringe right in order to hold on to their centers, which will defect in overwhelming numbers to McCain. I still won’t vote for him but I’d LOVE to see this plan unfold. I’d like to see both parties largely destroyed so they can be rebuilt properly. What would be even better is if someone like Ralph Reed also starts a religious right party. That will box out that whole voting block.