Blogger claims illicit affair with Nikki Haley

Posted on by

Our tipline has been buzzing off the hook with the news Monday morning that a conservative blogger named Will Folks is claiming he had an affair with Indian American gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley. Haley had a 30% lead in recent Republican primary polls and has been endorsed by Governor Mark Sanford’s ex-wife Jenny, the conservative blogosphere, and most recently, Sarah Palin. Here is what Folks claims:

In fact, on a very personal level I have become the primary target of a group that will apparently stop at nothing to destroy the one S.C. gubernatorial candidate who, in my opinion, would most consistently advance the ideals I believe in. For those of you unfamiliar with the editorial bent of this website, the candidate I am referring to is S.C. Rep. Nikki Haley.

…within the last forty-eight hours several pieces of information which purportedly document a prior physical relationship between myself and Rep. Haley have begun to be leaked slowly, piece by piece, to members of the mainstream media. I am told that at least one story based upon this information will be published this week. Watching all of this unfold, I have become convinced that the gradual release of this information is deliberately designed to advance this story in the press while simultaneously forcing either evasive answers or denials on my part or on Nikki’s part.

I refuse to play that game. I refuse to have someone hold the political equivalent of a switch-blade in front of my face and just sit there and watch as they cut me to pieces.

The truth in this case is what it is. Several years ago, prior to my marriage, I had an inappropriate physical relationship with Nikki.

That’s it. [Link]

<

p>Nikki Haley flatly denies any of this is true:

News 4’s Mandy Gaither asked Haley if Will Folks said anything to her before the allegations came out on his blog.

“No,” said Haley.

“So, you had no idea? You were blind-sided?” said Gaither.

“I mean, look. This is what I will tell you. It is absolutely not true. My husband and I have been married for 13 years. We’ve been faithful to each other,” said Haley. “I will not stop pushing for good government no matter what they throw at me two weeks prior to the election.” [Link]

<

p>The thing about a situation like this that we know to be true? At least one of the two is lying.

<

p>It would be a great advantage to her opponents if she was bloodied by this so close to the election. And it is true that you can’t really ever trust what is real and what is illusion when political operatives and un-named sources are involved:

[A] source tells Free Times that on June 26, 2009, Folks called him, near tears, admitting that he’d had an affair with Haley and urging him not to tell members of the media about it.

Furthermore, the source — who is not affiliated with any South Carolina gubernatorial campaign — says former Haley staffer B.J. Boling told him Haley had confided in him about the affair around the time Boling was working on her House reelection campaign in 2008.

Boling, who is working on the GOP gubernatorial campaign of U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, said he didn’t want to comment about the allegations to Free Times.

“You know, it’s not something I want to talk about,” Boling said. [Link]

<

p>The more compelling story here isn’t the search for the truth, that will most assuredly come out eventually. The more compelling story is that this flips the script on what we have come to “expect” (and yes, we have become that cynical) of scandals involving public figures. Typically, the center of an affair involving a media feeding frenzy is a privileged male and at least one “hot woman.” Think Mark Sanford, Tiger Woods, Jesse James. All of these were powerful men and seeing them humbled involved our scorn, but with a side of wink and nod. Mark, in love with his latin soulmate. Tiger, in love with any blonde with breasts. Jesse, in love with tattoos. But an attractive minority woman endorsed by Palin? This could become a whole different and ugly kind of Schadenfreude if true. The other difference is the alleged lover. Compare Rachel Uchitel (one of Tiger’s many mistresses) to Will Folks. Hot and Not. You may think it doesn’t matter in the way the public should react to an affair, but it does. See Red State’s (one of the biggest conservative blogs) take:

This violates the very basic laws of nature: hot women do not have affairs with ugly guys unless those guys are rich. The self-admitted adulterer is decidedly not rich, but decidedly wants to reinsert himself into the process as a player. [Link]

<

p>And another website:

Only one word for that: Eeeeewww. In his dreams, maybe. [Link]

<

p>I hope this affair is not true. I don’t feel that way because she is Indian American. I certainly don’t feel that way because she is Republican. I just want to stop feeling as cynical as I do about politicians and their intricate webs. I also don’t want to see any righteous misogyny.

See previous post.

62 thoughts on “Blogger claims illicit affair with Nikki Haley”

  1. Regarding the accent, I have indian relatives that went to some of the same schools in Baton Rouge as Bobby Jindal. They sound NOTHING like Jindal. I am guessing that it is a put-on accent. Damn, even white people I know find his accent funny. Anyway, here is the most important question. WHEN IS THAT NIKKI HALEY sex tape coming out? Everyone seems to have one including that moron John Edwards. Nikki Haley, that name, even sounds like a porn name..

    Spitzer: I am his biggest fan and think Obama needs someone like him in his adminstration. But his hypocrisy helped do him in when he got caught. He went after prostitution without mercy when he was in charge. So he didn’t get a pass when he got caught. He brought about his own demise.

  2. @ musing #43 – i agree that there is a difference in the level of tolerance, but i was just talking more towards the point that even the democrats have a limit, as well. in any case, it’s all very depressing 🙁

  3. What’s this obsession with Southern accents? What next Blue Grass music? Desis as a rule – or at least the ones we like to talk about, which excludes v.large groups of people such as taxi drivers, inn keepers etc – go to cookie cutter sub-division school districts, where the local accent has been horrendously been stamped out to generate a bland colorless mush. I am saying that with horror since I moved recently west of the Great River and South of Mason-Dix. So desi kids rarely ever sport regional accents – sad, sad! The Piyush/Nikky accent caper is inspired by the successful put on of that Faux Texan, all-hat-no-cattle Yankee from Connecticut – a former president of the US.

    In the meanwhile the Nikky Haley staffgate (Folks was her advisor) is gathering serious steam. Awful, awful. Nikky Haley is a straight country club GOPer, unlike Piyush who is a country club GOPer dressed up as a holy roller. So that means even if they fail it is not the crank GOPer quackonomics that takes a hit it is their puritanical social prudery that will be strengthened. Very serious is the recent decision by S. Carolina to stop subsidising Anti Retro Viral treatments putting at serious risk the state’s HIV+ population.

  4. Somehow, I’m sure that the republicans will gloss over this and most libs won’t be that interested. However, if Nikki had cheated on her white husband with a brown man, that would have been quite sensational!

  5. Somehow, I’m sure that the republicans will gloss over this and most libs won’t be that interested. However, if Nikki had cheated on her white husband with a brown man, that would have been quite sensational!

    as in, once you go white, you want to go back to brown? 😉

  6. which politicians use that anymore?

    Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. But it is a dying breed. A faux-ksy Southern accent a la GWB seems to be the way to get ahead in Republican/conservative circles.

  8. Dear Shri.Abhi, I would like to do Inappropriate Physical Relationship with Shrimati Nikki Haley. Kindly guide me how to proceed? Thanking you, Yours sincerely, Horni Desai.

  9. Razib dude: You are in Europe. Lay off the comp for a while. We are not going anywhere 🙂

  10. South Carolina – is it the air and/or the water or the Appalgentinian Trail?

    Kelly Paine Uploaded with ImageShack.us

    Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom Uploaded with ImageShack.us

    Sounds suspicious. Eckstrom sounds a lot like Folks

    “We’re not commenting on personal stuff like this, for one because it doesn’t have a thing to do with the duties of the office, and also because introducing private issues will only distract from the necessary day-to-day financial issues we deal with.

    I wish we would be less prudish. Politics is a contact sport, and is very close to the arts – people spending heckuva a lot of time with each other when the lines between work and life disappear. It is bound to happen, and it is OK. All this fuss regardless of whether it is true or not is no one’s bxxxxy business.

  11. South Carolina – is it the air and/or the water or the Appalgentinian Trail?

    Kelly Paine Uploaded with ImageShack.us

    Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom Uploaded with ImageShack.us

    Sounds suspicious. Eckstrom sounds a lot like Folks

    “We’re not commenting on personal stuff like this, for one because it doesn’t have a thing to do with the duties of the office, and also because introducing private issues will only distract from the necessary day-to-day financial issues we deal with.

    I wish we would be less prudish. Politics is a contact sport, and is very close to the arts – people spending heckuva a lot of time with each other when the lines between work and life disappear. It is bound to happen, and it is OK. All this fuss regardless of whether it is true or not is no one’s bxxxxy business.

  12. Here is the Foo Fighters cover of Prince’s tribute to Darling Nikki Haley. When Nikki becomes governor and when she has to go through the formalities,just sing loudly “sign your name on the dotted line, the lights went out , and Nikki… staarted to griiiiind!!!!!!”

    Jyotsana, what is up wth that chick nick. Choose another nick that will make us not confuse your gender.

  13. Pravin,

    śubhra jyotsnā pulakita yāminīm

    Her nights rejoicing in the glory of the moonlight,

    Verse 2, Line 1 of the official Vande Mataram. I chose the nome de plume after much dithering and little thinking and happened to hear the VM all of a sudden when the nickname flashed before me.

    The latest buzz on S. Carolina is that Nikky’s primary opponent a wingnut is trying to scuttle her campaign. He is on record decrying the influx of “Eyerabs” in the higher echelons of power.