Democrats make annual trip to Galivants Ferry

JIM DAVENPORT

Associated Press

GALIVANTS FERRY, S.C. - Democrats descended on a general store on the banks of the Little Pee Dee River on Monday for some old-fashioned politicking.

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden and the three Democrats running for governor were the key speakers at the Galivants Ferry Stump, an Horry County tradition for well over a century.

Democrats soaked up the speeches and ate the chicken, sausage. and rice dish called chicken bog, buoyed by hopes an anti-Republican tide might send them into victories on both the state and federal level come November.

They also want to turn back a White House-backed effort to unseat U.S. Rep. John Spratt, a 12-term incumbent and win back the governor's office from Republican Mark Sanford.

Aiken County Sen. Tommy Moore said change is needed at the top of state government because Sanford can't work with anyone. "It's his way or no way," Moore said.

Moore also criticized Sanford for some of his stunts while governor, like bringing two squealing pigs to the door of the House chambers to protest the General Assembly's budget.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's not about pigs. This is about people," Moore said.

The reception as Florence Mayor Frank Willis took the stump was much warmer Monday than the greeting he received last weekend at the Democrats' state convention in Columbia.

Willis said his campaign has the will to win with straight talk and solutions. "What we do need is to defeat Mark Sanford in November," Willis said.

When he took the stump, Biden kept the crowd of about 2,000 in rapt attention for his 30-minute speech.

Biden said President Bush has made a number of missteps from the war in Iraq to the response to Hurricane Katrina and said Americans are entitled to a "competent government."

Instead, citizens have "closed the book on the president on the grounds that they think he and his administration is not competent," Biden said.

That leaves the Democratic Party with the responsibility of show it has the competence to take advantage of opportunities, Biden said.

"History will judge George Bush harshly," Biden said. That won't be because of the mistakes he has made, Biden said, "but for the opportunities he has squandered."

"Instead of uniting America after 9/11, he has divided America," Biden said.

Biden has made several trips to South Carolina, which is trying to maintain its first-in-the-South primary, in the past year as he prepares for a possible presidential run in 2008.

"I plan on running," Biden said. "I'm gonna give it a shot."

Kevin Hester listened to the speeches in his "Biden 2008" T-shirt. "I want to see him in the Oval Office," he said.

Biden also joined up with an old friend at the stump, held as always outside Pee Dee Farms Convenience Store and Hardware.

Former Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings announced his successful bid for lieutenant governor at Galivants Ferry in 1954 and the 2004 gathering basically turned into his going away party as he served the last year in the U.S. Senate.

Hollings introduced Biden this year, saying while the U.S. got into the war with Iraq to fight terror, it has spent the last three years creating terrorists.

The stump goes way back before Hollings or even the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, who back when he was a Democrat debated 10 candidates for governor in 1946. Thurmond won that race.

Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton stopped by in 1876 as he ran for governor. When Hampton returned to the site four years later as the state's chief executive, it served as the first official Galivants Ferry Stump meeting. It's been held every other year since.

Republicans are welcome at the stump, but by tradition only Democrats can speak.