Nothing new about embarrassing politicians

Much has been said about Gov. Mark Sanford’s AWOL and other behavior embarrassing South Carolina. There’s something new about S.C. politicians embarrassing the state?

If you think it’s new, consider Sens. Ben Tillman and John L. McLaurin.

This is going back a bit before yours or my time. It was in 1902 that Tillman, the state’s political power, felt that McLaurin, who was from Bennettsville and previously had been a Tillman protégé, had cozied up to Republicans. At that time this was nearly as bad a violation as being a liberal would be considered now.

The feelings were aired on the U.S. Senate floor with Tillman making accusations against McLaurin while the latter was absent from the chamber. McLaurin returned after hearing about it and branded Tillman’s statement “a willful, malicious and deliberate lie.”

Well. (As George Will might say.) This did not suit Tillman at all, and he sprang from his seat on the Senate floor and attacked McLaurin, starting a nice fist fight.

Tillman struck first, and McLaurin responded. After the doorman had been knocked around a bit while trying to separate them, other senators helped, and the combatants were separated.

McLaurin had a large red welt on his forehead and Tillman bled from the nose where McLaurin had landed a good punch.

The Senate, which makes it a practice to embarrass the United States, does not appreciate being embarrassed itself, so it sent this incident to a solemn committee. Tillman’s and McLaurin’s names were omitted from the next roll call, and while they served a de facto suspension, there was discussion of really suspending them, according to Tillman biographer Francis Butler Simkins.

Tillman made the sound argument that constitutionally the Senate could not suspend them. However, it could censure them and did. The committee found that Tillman’s offense was greater, but they got similar punishment and both apologized to the Senate. Today, they would have to apologize to the Senate, the country, the state, and on each TV network, and who knows where else while many observers evaluated the apologies and demanded refinements in the apologies.

It was, I am pretty sure, the only time that both senators from a state were censured.

Then there was the incident in Florence in 1896 when a pre-Democratic primary stump meeting was convened at the courthouse.

Gov. John Gary Evans and Circuit Judge Joseph H. Earle were among three candidates for a U.S. Senate seat. The campaign earlier had become bitter and personal, but in the Florence meeting, Evans made a remark that amounted to calling his opponents yapping little mongrel dogs.

This led to fisticuffs between the governor and judge in the courtroom. It was about a draw, but Earle won the primary in a runoff.

Now, this is not to say that Strom Thurmond was not a good ol’ boy. He was. But while governor, he got his picture taken standing on his head to impress his girlfriend. That was harmless, but it did cause many jokes about the state. And that was before the Tonight Show or the Colbert Report.

In 1856 Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner made a floor speech in which he connected Sen. A.P. Butler of South Carolina and “the harlot slavery” which he called Butler’s mistress. Rep. Preston Brooks, a kinsman of Butler, was infuriated.

Following the southern “gentlemen’s” code, since Sumner — in Brooks’ mind — was Brooks’ inferior, he could not challenge Sumner to a duel. So he did the only proper thing for a gentleman to do. He went over to the Senate and nearly beat Sumner to death with his cane.

The House voted on a motion to expel Brooks but did not get the necessary two-thirds. Brooks still considered it censure and resigned. Then he ran for reelection and his district then embarrassed itself by reelecting him and treating him as a hero.

As demands increase that Sanford resign, one contemplates Lt. Gov. André Bauer.

In one instance Bauer had a run-in with a Columbia cop while speeding in a vehicle lacking a special license tag like his regular number 2. Then he had a highly publicized case when he was clocked driving more than 100 mph on a public highway but explained he was “SC2.”

If Sanford resigns, we get Bauer.

— Thom Anderson is a retired journalist who has 40 years experience with South Carolina newspapers, including the Morning News. He can be reached at .