During Senate debate on the seat belt bill Wednesday, Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, noticed something about his Lowcountry colleagues.

He told Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, what he discovered.

“Most of the people opposed to the bill, like you and I, are from below Orangeburg,” Ford said. “Why do you think that is?”

McConnell was not quite following. “I can’t read your mind, but I’m going to try and figure out what you’re saying.”

McConnell, who opposes the seat belt bill, did his best to invoke the spirit of legendary senator Marion Gressette, D-Calhoun, the longtime Senate president pro tem.

Gressette knew, McConnell said, the way to kill legislation you did not support: “If you can’t derail it, try to load it down with baggage.”

THANKS FOR NOTHING

Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, was not surprised to learn that he was the lawmaker Gov. Mark Sanford accused in his State of the State address of derailing DUI legislation while working as a lawyer representing DUI defendants.

But Hutto was disappointed that Sanford found time to recognize a myriad other lawmakers in the chamber during his speech.

“He didn’t ask me to stand up and take a bow,” Hutto said.

WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE PUNDIT ...

Washington, D.C., radio talk jock and Pelion native Michael Graham is selling his conservative soul on eBay.

With a tip of his cap to fellow S.C. native Armstrong Williams, Graham is auctioning off his wagging tongue, which is planted firmly in his cheek.

“I, too, have bills to pay,” he says in the eBay listing. “GOP, DNC, NRA, NOW, NAACP; heck, if the price is right, I’ll even sing the praises of multilevel marketing. (Wait — let me think about that one.)”

Williams fell on his pen earlier this month after USA Today revealed that the Marion native had been paid some $240,000 by the Bush Administration to promote the president’s No Child Left Behind education initiative.

Graham, whose weekly syndicated column runs in Columbia’s “Free Times,” plans to donate the proceeds of the auction to Fisher House. The public-private foundation donates “comfort homes” to house the families of military personnel as they recuperate at military and VA hospitals.

The last The Buzz went online, the high bid was $1,125, with bidding scheduled to end at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. If you want to bid or read more of his posting, go to http://www.ebay.com/ and search for “conservative talk show host.”

Aaron Gould Sheinin contributed.