TIME FOR THE NUCLEAR OPTION?
Lawmakers showed up at work last Wednesday bruised and sore — but
it wasn’t because of Gov. Mark Sanford’s 163 budget
vetoes.
The annual House vs. Senate legislative softball game at Sarge
Frye Field went down Tuesday evening — as did a few House and Senate
members.
Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Darlington, took a spill. He says it
was because he wasn’t wearing cleats.
Malloy also noted another factor that might have contributed to
the muscle aches suffered by lawmakers the next day: They played
softball on a baseball field.
“Only the wisdom of the General Assembly would play softball with
the bases 90 feet apart.”
But you have to give Malloy props for being one of the few
senators who actually played the game.
Rep. James Smith, D-Richland, reports the Senate
Filibusters, as the team is known, was mostly made up of ringers
from the Senate staff.
Smith says that’s why his team, the House Amenders, lost
10-7.
The Buzz did a little research to check on the outcome of
previous games, and we found some lawmakers might be improving with
practice.
Rep. David Wilkins, R-Greenville, President Bush’s choice
to be U.S. ambassador to Canada after almost 11 years as House
speaker, once received this review from the Buzz:
“Wilkins’ error in the last inning allowed the winning runs to
score. While he played it like he had Super Glue in his glove and
grease on his hand, the Big Boss’ miscue was only one of several. It
just happened to be the last.”
At Tuesday’s game, Wilkins scored the first run. His fellow House
members autographed the ball so he can display it on the mantel of
the ambassador’s residence in Ottawa.
LIKE PLAYING GOLF WITH THE BOSS
South Carolina’s lobbyists are still stinging from harsh comments
about their basketball skills by Rep. Ted Pitts,
R-Lexington.
That dates back to when lawmakers and lobbyists took on the North
Carolina General Assembly and staff a few weeks ago.
For the record: Pitts just said the lobbyists “stink at
basketball.”
The lobbyists and elected officials will settle the score once
and for all in a game at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
While the lobbyists are puffing their chests and swaggering about
how bettors should put their money on them, Rep. James Smith,
D-Richland, reminds them that there are a few more days of the
session to go and a bunch of things the lobbyists still want.
“They have to let us win,” Smith said.
NO JUICE IN THE LIGHTSABER, SENATOR?
The Force was not with the most powerful man in the Senate on
Thursday.
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell confessed to
being exhausted when he reported to the State House Thursday morning
after attending a midnight premiere of “Star Wars, Episode III:
Revenge of the Sith” earlier that morning.
The Charleston Republican gave the film two thumbs up, calling it
one of the best he has seen, and the best of the “Star Wars”
series.
TAKE MY FILIBUSTER ... PLEASE
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s address to graduates
of the Medical University of South Carolina on Friday was all about
serious, important, frightening stuff.
Terrorism, smallpox, intestinal diseases, HIV/AIDS.
But on a lighter note...
“As a surgeon, I was used to my patients’ being unconscious,” the
Tennessee Republican joked. “Now, as a senator, I’m used to leaving
my audiences unconscious.”
Jennifer Talhelm, James McWilliams and The Associated Press
contributed
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