Advertisement
Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, always the unconventional officeholder, maintains a personal Web page on MySpace.com that his executive assistant said Wednesday is part of his "open door" policy.
The page includes a list of more than 160 friends and photos, some of them young women in bikinis, and a link to a racy MySpace group called "Matt's Mom is HOTT," where users talk about parties, concerts and sexual scenarios.
Other groups are political or sports-related. Topping the page is a photo of Bauer, in the purple legislative robe he uses on special occasions, applauding next to President Bush and former Speaker of the House David Wilkins.
The rest of the page shows decidedly less gravitas, with comments from approved friends like, "Are you a parking ticket? 'cause you got fine-fine-fine written all over ya." Another user offers to find "a lot of cute, high-spirited girls" to help him campaign.
|
Advertisement |
|
Bauer, 37, is single. He faces re-election this year. He couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.
John McGill, Bauer's executive assistant, told The Greenville News that he
set up the page as a way for the lieutenant governor to meet people, and that
Bauer checks the site and uses it to correspond with people who ask for help.
"I took it to him and said, 'Do you mind if I do this?' and he said,
'No, I don't mind,' " McGill said. "I've kept it clean."
McGill said he
posted a video of a boy discussing a fight in which one man is kicked in the
groin because he thought it was funny. The video was removed from the page
Wednesday afternoon after McGill spoke with the newspaper.
McGill said
he was unaware of sexual discussion in any MySpace groups featured on Bauer's
page.
MySpace users must approve requests from others to be added to the
friend list. Individual users can switch the photo that appears with their names
whenever they like.
McGill said he doesn't want to hurt anyone's
feelings by rejecting their requests to be listed as "friends," and he generally
accepts anyone as long as the link doesn't show spam.
Bauer's MySpace
group memberships include "South Carolina Republicans" and "Southeastern
Conference Sports." He lists among his favorite books "The Purpose Driven Life"
and "Strom."
His listed hobbies include flying and NASCAR.
The
site includes seven personal photos, including one of Bauer riding a tandem
bicycle with Gov. Mark Sanford.
The same day the state Department of
Public Safety disclosed this week that Bauer has been stopped twice for speeding
in the past four months -- once for going 101 miles per hour -- a user called
KU4MY posted a photo of a wrecked red sports car and wrote, "DUDE!!! Slow down!"
The sports car had been sheared in half.
By Wednesday morning,
the post had been removed.
McGill, son of state Sen. Yancey McGill, said
he also keeps his own MySpace page on which he listed a porn star name for
himself as "a joke thing."
"Mine, I can mess around with, because it's
not really important what I do in my private time," McGill said. "I guess it is,
but it's not like I'm of any kind of importance."