SC Yellow Dogs

This is an incredible article by Roddie Burris at The State.

Telling it like it is: elected as a firebrand, Patterson retires as a statesman

After 34 years in the S.C. Legislature - all but 10 as a state senator - Columbia’s Kay Patterson is retiring from an institution that, he says, no longer fits him.

“It’s uncomfortable - for me,” said Patterson, who was swept into office in 1975.

Patterson was one of 13 black lawmakers seated in the House of Representatives that year, a record-setting number for modern times.

“When I started … working up here was very pleasant and you could get things done, and I enjoyed it,” said Patterson, who was among only the second class of black lawmakers since Reconstruction elected to the Legislature.

But times have changed, Patterson says.

“You have little boys coming up here now, don’t hardly know where the restroom or the outhouse is, (and they) chair a committee,” the outspoken lawmaker said with a degree of indignation. “Here I am a hundred years old.”

Not quite, though Patterson is 77.

Patterson, a Democrat, said the General Assembly - the House much more so than the Senate - has become too partisan.

“Since (the Republicans) took over,” Patterson said, dignity, senatorial courtesy and respect in the General Assembly have given way to meanness, ill-tempered tones of voice and disrespect among members.

“I said now, ‘I don’t have to put up with this. I’ve had enough of this.’”

‘FIREBRAND … EVOLVED INTO A STATESMAN’

Patterson’s departure will leave an elocutionary void in the sausage-making drill that is S.C. politics, friends and colleagues say.

Over the years, Patterson’s use of black dialect, often laced with well-placed invectives, has helped him to make his point and needle his opponents.

“They would call that ebonics in this day and age,’ Patterson said. “But we didn’t have that terminology back in those days.”

Those who know Patterson and agree with his politics - such as his seatmate of 34 years, state Sen. John Matthews, D-Orangeburg - say Patterson’s departure will leave “the little man” voiceless in what they say are the increasingly hostile halls of the General Assembly.

“I think what Senator Patterson will probably be known for, as he departs the Senate, he’s clearly been the conscience and the voice of the unelected, the unsophisticated and those who did not have a voice,” said Matthews, who was elected alongside Patterson.

“That has been his primary role, to make sure their concerns were taken into consideration as we debated education, economic development, health care or whatever the issue.”

You won’t find a stack of legislation Patterson has sponsored over the decades. But “his impact on the legislative process was probably the greatest of any African-American I know,” Matthews said.

That’s because Patterson was so keen on picking out and stopping legislation he thought could have a negative impact on African-Americans and the poor, Matthew said.

Patterson and Matthews, the two most senior African-American lawmakers in the General Assembly, are the last of the so-called “Famous 13″ black state lawmakers elected in 1975.

Not all of Patterson’s peers in the Legislature agree with his politics or his view of the General Assembly.

“We’re both Marines. We’re both Episcopalians. That’s about where our similarities end,” said Republican state Sen. John Courson, who also represents Richland County.

But Courson added, “We have developed a good relationship and friendship together over the years. I have tremendous respect for him, and I’ll miss him.”

Courson says he sees a different Patterson nowadays.

“Sen. Patterson came to the Legislature as sort of a firebrand and sort of evolved into a statesman. He doesn’t speak (on the Senate floor) that often, but when he does, people listen.”

‘I OUGHT TO BE PRESIDENT!’

A former social studies teacher at W.A. Perry Middle School, Patterson came into the Legislature like a gangbuster.

Thirteen of the General Assembly’s 170 lawmakers were African-American that year, all of them House members elected as the result of passage of the Voting Rights Act 10 years earlier. That historic piece of legislation led to single-member districts in the state for the first time since Reconstruction.

“I never really thought of being in the Legislature,” Patterson said, recalling he taught eighth-grade social studies at Perry to Columbia attorney I.S. Leevy Johnson, elected to the Legislature in 1970.

“I said, ‘Damn, I taught I.S. If I.S. can get elected to the House of Representatives, I ought to be president of the United States!’

“That’s what got me in the Legislature,” Patterson said, laughing.

Patterson went on to be a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus and the first African-American on USC’s board of trustees.

His House seat barely warm, Patterson introduced a measure in 1977 to remove the Confederate flag from several positions at the State House - outside, atop the dome; inside, in the front of the Senate and House chambers; and in the first-floor lobby.

Along with fellow members of the Black Caucus, Patterson called on then-State House committee chairman Rep. Rembert Dennis, D-Berkeley, to take the flag down and took his argument to the House floor.

“Your admiration for y’all’s flag is not shared by us descendants of that peculiar institution of slavery, which is the epitome of man’s inhumanity to man and all the evils appertaining thereto,” Patterson said in April 1977, according to a press report.

Patterson kept up the drumbeat, introducing a bill to have the flags moved nearly every year afterward.

They were, nearly a quarter of a century later, in 2000.

Patterson is thought to be first lawmaker to take on the Confederate flag.

“I don’t think (Patterson) gets the credit he deserves on that subject,” said U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-Columbia.

Clyburn, then on the State Human Affairs Commission, said he joined Patterson in his call to remove the flag.

“I got some real nasty letters. I got some real threats,” said Clyburn, who, in a book he is writing, ranks the fight over the Confederate flag as the third-most defining moment of his political career.

Clyburn thinks it may have been worse for Patterson. The deaths threats against Patterson led to an arrest, Clyburn recalls.

Ironically, Patterson and Clyburn were blackballed by the state NAACP in 2001 for criticizing a tourism boycott that group organized after the flag was moved to its current location on the State House grounds.

“All of this was before the NAACP ever opened their mouths about the Confederate flag,” Clyburn said, “and … they ended up black-balling me and Kay, which is just crazy stuff. We were out there and not a peep from them. Then, all of a sudden, they became holier than anybody else.”

RACISM IN BLACK AND WHITE

Over his career, Patterson has been an equal opportunity offender and defender.

He has been criticized by opponents as a racist and a poor role model for black children for his “plantation-style” of talk.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Patterson penned a newspaper column in the local black press called “Spressin’ Myself.”

Characterized by crude language and sensationalism for effect, Patterson routinely used the column to attack the white establishment and politicians - black and white - for positions on issues with which Patterson disagreed.

Patterson won his way into the S.C. Senate by defeating Democrat-turned-Republican Frank Washington in a 1985 special election, brought on by the resignation of the late Rev. I. DeQuincey Newman, the first African-American elected to the S.C. Senate in the 20th century.

Washington, who was president of the Columbia branch of the NAACP, accused Patterson of abusing whites in his newspaper column and of being unable to represent whites.

For his part, Patterson called Washington “the Republican Party’s newfound pet Negro.”

A year earlier, Patterson had taken political heat from the Columbia NAACP for supporting the re-election bid of a white Senate colleague over a black candidate in a newly drawn majority-black Senate district.

Patterson said he supported the late Sen. Isadore Lourie’s 1984 re-election bid over former state Rep. Mary Miles because Lourie had been one of the few friends of African-Americans in the state Senate.

In 1990, Patterson joined some white Democrats to endorse the U.S. Senate re-election bid of Republican Strom Thurmond. “It was the right thing to do,” he said at the time.

When Thurmond died in 2002, his family asked Courson to ask Patterson to eulogize the iconic Thurmond during funeral services in Columbia.

“He did an outstanding job,” Courson said.

Patterson also was known to point out what he perceived as racism.

Patterson pushed for a Senate rule in 1987 that barred the Senate from accepting official invitations to clubs or organizations that discriminated based on race.

After the late Gov. Carroll Campbell had been in office for only eight months, Patterson took him on for his appointments to state boards and commissions. Patterson accused the Republican governor of removing African-Americans from meaningful boards “with all deliberate speed.”

“Black Republicans appointed thus far, without exception, have been appointed to those commissions and boards that can be categorized as ‘nothing burgers’ — e.g. no salary, only per diem (expenses) if that, and all the coffee you can drink, with ‘Honorable’ in front of your name!” Patterson said.

“Only in America! I just wonder when the black Republicans will wake the hell up and smell the coffee!”

‘THERE’S A DEPTH’

Once he exits politics, Patterson - who says his health is good after a battle with cancer five years ago - plans to spend time traveling Interstate 95 to visit his children and grandchildren up north.

Matthews said he doubts Patterson can be replaced.

Clyburn wonders if Patterson’s detractors ever have stopped long enough to take his true measure.

“There’s a depth to Kay Patterson that a lot of people miss,” said Clyburn, a longtime Patterson political friend, fraternity brother and neighbor. “They get hung up on the rhetoric.

“They never get to the reasoning.”

South Carolinians have an opportunity to help improve our state’s public school system by signing a petition to replace SC’s current standard of “minimally adequate education.” This petition supports an amendment inserting “a high quality education, allowing each student to reach his highest potential” into our state constitution.

Legislation to change the state constitution must be passed by a 2/3rds vote of the Senate and House of Representatives in order to put the amendment on the general election ballot for public vote in November, 2010. Please sign up today and let everyone know we value South Carolina public schools!

Here’s a really inspirational story from the Politico.

For anyone doubting that opportunity still exists in America, there is the story of Jaime Harrison.

Harrison is a top aide to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a job that ranks among the most influential in Congress. He has an office at the dead center of the Capitol building — a place senators would envy — offering a perfectly aligned view of the Washington Monument. On the walls hang photos of him schmoozing with celebrities, politicians and celebrity politicians, from Dave Chappelle and Bono to Bill Richardson and Barack Obama. Most days, he works on the floor of the House of Representatives, directing Clyburn’s floor staff and conferring with members of Congress to make sure Democrats have enough votes to pass key legislation.

Consider that life experience, filled with the luminaries of politics and entertainment, and then contemplate the one into which Harrison was born in Orangeburg, S.C., a poor, majority-African-American town of 13,000. Orangeburg is the place where, in 1968, three civil rights protesters were killed and 27 were wounded when police fired into a crowd gathered at South Carolina State University in what became known as the Orangeburg massacre.

Harrison, now 32, was born almost exactly eight years after the massacre to a 15-year-old mother and her high school boyfriend. It was an inauspicious start, both in geography and circumstances, and no harbinger of what was to come.

Growing up, Harrison worked as a bingo hall caller, operating the ball machine and yelling the numbers out over the bowed heads of the players, the air smoky with the smell of hot dog grease.

“The boss always wanted me to go faster so he could get more games in,” he said. “I would speed it up, and then someone would say, ‘Boy, slow your ass down!’”

With his father gone and his mother often in Atlanta, Harrison was raised by his grandparents. His grandmother, who was 38 when he was born, had unfulfilled dreams of being a nurse. She had an eighth-grade education. His grandfather had finished the fourth grade and then worked in construction, building up Hilton Head Island. The family moved several times when he was young, from a house to a trailer home, then, after a foreclosure, to his great aunt’s house, and finally to a rental home.

When the foreclosure happened — he said it was the result of fraud — Harrison made a promise to himself that if he ever made any money, he would buy his grandparents a house. He never wanted them to relive the embarrassment of the foreclosure.

Despite the frequent moves, Harrison described a near-idyllic childhood filled with loving relatives, good food and comic books.

“People tell me, ‘Man, Jaime, you were dirt poor,’” he said. “Yeah, but I loved it.”

He ate his grandmother’s sumptuous food, savoring a favorite dish of lima beans and ham hocks. He honed his reading skills, diving into Spider-Man, X-Men and his grandparents’ bills. He scored well on standardized tests, impressing teachers who had already given him good grades.

As he got older, college brochures began to arrive. Although he hadn’t heard of the Ivy League, he did know that places like Harvard and Yale were prestigious. So when Yale held an admissions session in nearby Columbia, he borrowed his grandfather’s 1978 Ford LTD and headed off. An admissions video and an a cappella performance later, he was ready to apply.

The following spring was a time of high anxiety. Each day, Harrison walked expectantly down the dirt path from his grandparents’ rented duplex to the mailbox to look for the proverbial thick envelope.

He remembers the date even today, sitting in his Capitol office in a chair he had reupholstered to his liking. “April 2, 1994,” the day he fished out a meaty envelope and tore it open, his eyes flying over the page. Accepted. With a full scholarship.

“I got in! I got in!” he hollered, leaping into the air at the curb.

His grandmother rushed out to the porch. “Boy, why you screaming?”

“I got into Yale!” He ran back up the path and described to her what the letter said.

“She knew it was something that was really important to me,” he recalled. “I don’t know if she grasped how big it was.”

He phoned his mother, Patricia Stewart, to tell her the news.

“When he called me, it was like he just won the lottery,” Stewart said. “We all [were] excited.”

Harrison isn’t the only one in Washington with an Orangeburg connection. Nearly a decade before the massacre, Harrison’s boss, Clyburn, was a leader in the burgeoning civil rights movement at South Carolina State, organizing the first sit-ins in the state.

By the time Harrison applied to Yale in the ’90s, many of the battles Clyburn’s generation had waged against the indignities of discrimination had been won. Clyburn and his contemporaries had unlocked the doors that Harrison, 30 years later, would burst through.

“That’s as it should be,” Clyburn said. “His success is what we were sacrificing for. … Jaime Harrison may be standing on my shoulders. I’m standing on someone’s shoulders, too. He’ll provide some shoulders for other people to stand on.”

Harrison’s opening weeks at Yale were rocky, filled with doubts about whether he could compete with kids from the best high schools in the country.

His freshman-year roommate, a Catholic kid from Long Island who was the son of a lawyer and a nurse, asked Harrison to read over an essay he had written.

“I read it and thought, ‘This reads like a textbook.’ It was so good. I went back and read mine and thought, ‘Oh, God, I don’t think I should be here.’” Harrison went from getting straight A’s in high school to B’s and even a C+ his first semester in college. “It shook me hard.”

He sought help from the school’s writing coaches, worked diligently and slowly watched his grades pick up. On the social front, he excelled, transcending boundaries of race and background to cultivate friends in all areas of the university. He was elected treasurer of the Yale senior class.

“He’s something very unique,” said Harvey Goldblatt, who led Harrison’s residential college at Yale. “There’s an essential decency about him — very warm, very loyal, easily able to pick up on someone’s worth as a human being. … He’s one of my great stories.”

Harrison calls Goldblatt, a Jewish professor of Medieval Slavic literature originally from Canada, his “Yale dad,” one of several men who have served as stand-ins for an absent father.

When Harrison graduated, Goldblatt presented him with an award for the student whose story was most emblematic of the Yale experience. It was pouring rain and Goldblatt took to the podium to announce the winner.

“‘Gee, I wonder who this is going to be,’” he recalled joking to the crowd. “I’ve never said that before.” Harrison was the obvious winner.

After college, Harrison returned to Orangeburg to teach at his old high school for a year, where he lavished special attention on promising young black men grasping for role models. He then moved to Washington to work with a nonprofit educational group and later enrolled in law school at Georgetown before getting the job in Clyburn’s office.

In 2004, with a law degree in hand and a solid job, he went back to Orangeburg to make good on a promise.

“When he took my mom and dad to the house, they just cried like babies,” said Stewart, Harrison’s mom. “My dad, he couldn’t stop thanking him for what he did.”

He bought his grandparents a house in a good neighborhood with enough room for his grandfather, then a diabetic amputee, to maneuver his wheelchair.

“It was like they moved from the ‘hood to Beverly Hills,” Stewart said. “It wasn’t really Beverly Hills, but it felt like it.”

At work, Harrison manages Clyburn’s floor staff, devising strategies for passing important bills. Last spring, just after Democrats took control of Congress, Harrison faced his first major test when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) moved a bill that would have curbed military operations in Iraq.

“It was a tough vote. People on the left were saying it wasn’t tough enough. People on the right were saying it was too ambitious,” he said. “I remember going into an early meeting. That first whip count was ugly.”

Passing the bill also had personal meaning for Harrison. One of the students he had taught back in Orangeburg, a young African-American named Vorn Mack, died while serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq in 2003.

“He was a good kid,” Harrison recalled.

Harrison was prepared for the legislative battle, arming himself with a diagram of the House floor, showing where each member of the whip team would be deployed to track Democratic votes.

When the vote began, Harrison watched the tally board above the House chamber. As the vote count crested 218, he began to tear up. It had passed.

“It was such an emotional thing for me,” he said. His diagram had been a success, he made his boss look good, and maybe he had done something for the other Vorn Macks in Iraq, he thought.

Had Harrison been born in a different era, he might have used his smarts and likability to become the greatest mechanic Orangeburg had ever seen or the most heroic school bus driver or the most efficient factory floor manager. Instead, he plans to run for elective office someday.

“I’ve talked to people. I’ve thought about things,” he said. “Eventually it will happen.

“I’d love to serve in Congress, but I’d also love to help change South Carolina.”

This is a really cool article I read on upstatetoday.com.

SENECA — West-Oak High School sophomore Hannah Brooks of Seneca has won a $500 savings bond for writing an essay on recycling.

Brooks was the big winner of the “Talking Trash” Recycling Essay Contest sponsored by the Oconee County Democratic Party. The contest was open to all public high school students in Oconee County.

“Let’s Talk Recycling!” focused on what is involved in the process of recycling newspapers, steel and aluminum cans. Her complete essay accompanies this story.

“I chose to do the three listed items because I remembered learning about them when going on a field trip in elementary school to a recycling center. And I recalled them telling us some of the items used in the recycling process,” Brooks said when asked why she selected those items.

The Oconee County Democratic Party sponsored the contest to give students an opportunity to enhance their research and writing skills, and through such efforts to enhance their own and their community’s awareness of the environmental benefits of recycling.

“It is especially pleasing to have a student voluntarily sign up for an academic challenge,” said Charlotte Holmes, contest coordinator. “The Democratic Party is proud to recognize Hannah, a busy student, for taking up the challenge and for reaching beyond what is just enough to get by in school.”

Students were instructed to pretend to be investigative reporters. From among a long list of items that Oconee County recycles at each of its 11 convenience centers, students were to choose three items and write about what happens to them after being deposited at a recycling center.

Following is Brooks’ winning essay:

Let’s talk recycling!

Newspaper Recycling: Ever wonder where your newspaper goes when you take it to the dump or leave it on the curb in your recycling bin? The paper collector sells it to a recycler, who then starts the recycling process.

At a paper mill, a chemical washing takes place to delete all the ink off. The paper is turned into pulp so contaminants are taken off such as tape and dirt. It is poured onto a wire to drain out and turns solid near the end of the wire. The paper is then flattened into continuous sheets of paper. The paper machine finishes a printed newspaper at a rate of 3,000 ft. per minute!

And guess what? Tomorrow when you pick up your newspaper, it will be the same newspaper previously read the week before. There are 900 tons of paper processed each day, which is equivalent to nine and a half miles high of newspaper.

Recycling Steel Cans: Removing the top, removing the bottom and flattening cans prepares steel cans to be ready for recycling. Usually called tin cans, they are actually made of very little tin and mostly steel. By flattening the cans, they take up less space, making them economical to ship.

The tin is removed from the cans through a chemical dipping process. The distilled tin cans are drained, rinsed and ready for shipping. They are now sold to dealers of steel mills to be made into new products.

Next, the tin taken off the original can is to be cleaned of paper and garbage. After being rinsed and drained, it is molded by the use of electricity. It is then used in chemical and pharmaceutical industries. It can also be alloyed to make bronze products.

So next time you decide to throw your everyday cans in the garbage… Think Recycling!

Your Aluminum: Aluminum is created in many forms to make many products. It is used in the making of drink cans, dinner trays and even door frames. It is also rolled to make “foil.” It all has the ability to be recycled.

In some states, you can exchange the cans at the store for money, but it still takes the same route from there. It is picked up at your curbside to be taken to the recycling depot.

Aluminum gets in the hands of many people: users, buyers and scrap metal dealers. It all eventually reaches a “smelter,” who then melts or shreds it into tiny pieces. They are made into ingots by the use of electricity.

Then they are sent to manufacturing plants and rolled out into sheets of aluminum where they are used in the making of many things such as aluminum cans all the way to car parts.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn today released the following statement criticizing House Republicans for defeating the GIVE Act, HR 5563, legislation that promotes volunteerism and reauthorizes national service programs.

“What demonstrates true American values more than volunteering?  What better way to give back to our country and community than engage in service work? When our cities and our towns are in crisis, how do we rebuild them and get our neighbors back on their feet?  With volunteers-people giving their time, their care, their resources to make our neighborhoods and our nation a better place.  I am truly confounded as to why my colleagues would divide on partisan lines and defeat a bill that strengthens and provides for our national service organizations.

“This bill was approved unanimously by the Education and Labor Committee
44 to 0.  It authorizes extremely successful and effective organizations such as AmeriCorps, VISTA, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, Foster Grandparent Program, and Senior Companion Program. It also creates a new service-learning program called Summer of Service, which engages youth in service through summer volunteer opportunities.

“What do my Republican colleagues have against volunteerism?”

Columbia, SC- South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Carol Fowler released the following statement in response to the death of Ann ‘Tunky’ Osteen Yarborough Riley, wife of Gov. Richard W. Riley.

“It’s been said that behind every great man, there’s a great woman. Tunky Riley was definitely a great woman. As the first lady of our state, and in the Rileys’ years of public service since then, Tunky exemplified a wonderful combination of grace, warmth, and political savvy. She was as genuinely friendly toward neighborhood activists as she was toward Cabinet members and Presidents,” said Fowler. “South Carolina Democrats have always felt a great deal of affection for her, and we will miss her.”

The monthly Yellow Dog Chat with chair Carol Fowler was held last night, January 10th. For those of you able to join, your participation was greatly appreciated! We hope you were able to get some of your questions answered, and will have more for the next chat session.

To view the transcript, click here.

From The Times and Democrat
 
Washington, DC - Sixth District Congressman and House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn today thanked the Children’s Defense Fund Action Council (CDFAC) for naming him one of the “Best Representatives for Children.” The CDFAC today released its 2007 Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard, which grades every Member of Congress based on key votes affecting children, and Congressman Clyburn voted to protect the health and well being of South Carolina’s children 100 percent of the time. Congressman Clyburn achieved this distinction by voting to support the first increase in the minimum wage in a decade, access and quality improvements in Head Start, and additional funds for student loans.

“My service in the Congress is about improving the lives of people, and especially children, in the Sixth Congressional District,” Congressman Clyburn said. “Many of the initiatives included in the Children’s Defense Fund scorecard were on the Congressional agenda because of our new leadership team’s focus on strengthening our families in meaningful ways.”

“I applaud Congressman Clyburn for his commitment to improving the lives of children in South Carolina,” said CDFAC President Marian Wright Edelman. “With 9.4 million uninsured children in America and nearly 13 million living in poverty, it is critical that we have Representatives committed to making children a priority. Congressman Clyburn is a dedicated advocate for children and has truly earned the distinction of being one of the best Representatives for children.”

The Children’s Defense Fund Action Council educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventative investment before they get sick or into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown. The CDF Action Council began in 1969 and is a private, non-profit organization that has never taken government funds.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn today released the following statement regarding passage of H.R. 5351, the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008: 

“Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a fiscally responsible and environmentally conscious energy bill that seeks to reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil and aid those Americans struggling to pay high gas costs. H.R. 5351 comprehensively invests resources into our wind, solar, and geothermal energy systems.  Furthermore, this legislation extends tax credits to producers of cleaner burning bio-diesel and cellulosic alcohol based fuels.     

“Since President Bush took office, gas prices are up 109%, and home heating prices are up 222%.  Over the same time period, oil company profits are up 313%.  With record oil prices and surging gasoline fees limiting the mobility of our nation’s travelers, now is the time to move our nation’s energy policies in a New Direction. 

“The Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act will invest in home-grown, American-owned energy supplies, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, make America less dependent on foreign oil, and reduce global warming.  I call on President Bush to end his veto threat of this vital legislation and to join the Congress in supporting an energy bill for today and future generations.”

Former Democratic National Comittee Chair Don Fowler breaks down the meaning of this term and answers other questions on youtube. Did we mention that he’s a super delegate?

South Carolina Senate Candidate Mandy Powers-Norell has created a blog. Check it out here.

On Thursday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m., ETV’s “The Big Picture” presents “Clyburn of South Carolina,” a documentary spotlighting the career of Majority Whip James E. Clyburn. Encore presentations air on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 7 at 1 p.m.

This 30-minute program is a revealing exploration of the life of a college-student-turned-civil-rights-activist who would become the nation’s third-most-powerful person in Congress. From his failed bids for state office to his appointment as director of the SC Human Affairs Commission to his impassioned defense of the Lake Marion bridge proposal some have dubbed “The Bridge to Nowhere,” viewers will be treated to a picture of a man whose groundbreaking accomplishments have earned the respect of a nation.

Clyburn said one of the primary motivations behind his career was changing how blacks are perceived in America:”(I wanted) to prove that black people could run state agencies in South Carolina. And when I got elected to Congress, I set out to prove that a black person could be an effective congressman and represent the people of South Carolina. That’s why I conduct myself the way I do, because I want to destroy every single myth that exists about black people.”

Also included in the broadcast is a warm-hearted moment with his wife Emily, who tells the “hamburger story” — a pivotal moment in the beginning of their relationship when she visited the jail and shared a hamburger with a famished Clyburn who had been arrested during an Orangeburg sit-in demonstration. Viewers will also see how the Congressman combined his two passions — his alma mater and golf — into an annual fundraiser-tournament that provides scholarships to students at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg.

Punctuating the production are interviews with mentors, colleagues and friends including:

• James B. Edwards, former SC Governor

• Richard W. Riley, former SC Governor

• Matthew J. Perry, Jr., Senior U.S. District Judge

• Kay Patterson, Senator, D-Richland

• James L. Felder, former SC House Member

• Herbert U. Fielding, former SC House Member

• William “Bill” Clyburn, Representative, D-Aiken

• Henry E. Brown, Jr., Representative, R-Sixth Congressional District

ETV is South Carolina’s statewide network with 11 television stations, eight radio stations and a closed-circuit educational telecommunications system in more than 2000 schools, colleges, businesses, and government agencies.
###

As House Majority Whip, S.C. Congressman Jim Clyburn is one of the most influential Democrats in Washington. Recently, The State newspaper reported that Clyburn “is using his clout to obtain funding for 34 earmarks worth $45.4 million, more than the state’s other five House members combined.”

In a speech to the state General Assembly earlier this year, Clyburn explained his position on earmarks.

This is the first-ever public debate based on questions submitted from the public.  Clearly the hosts of the debate - CNN and YouTube - have screened and accepted a broad range of questions from diverse questioners.  What do you think?  Is it useful?  Even-handed?

Governor Bill Richardson will be campaigning in South Carolina on Saturday July 7. Below are some of the events he’ll be attending. Those interested are encouraged to attend. For more information, contact Mike Meehan at mmeehan@richardsonforpresident.com

8:00 AM - Breakfast in Rock Hill with area Democrats
York County Democratic Headquarters
339 E. Main Street, Rock Hill SC

11:00 AM - Meet and Greet in Spartanburg
The Beacon Restaurant
225 John White Sr. Blvd, Spartanburg SC

12:00 PM - Lunch with Greenville County Democrats
The Holiday Inn
4295 Augusta Road, Greenville SC

5:00 PM - Third Congressional District Democratic BBQ
Anderson Farmers Market
402 North Murray Blvd, Anderson SC

Senator Barack Obama will be in the Upstate tomorrow for a public rally. Here are the details:

What: Upstate Rally with Barack Obama
Where: McAlister Square, Main Entrance, 225 Pleasantburg Drive, Greenville, SC
When: Friday, June 15 @ 12:30 PM

The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. To receive your free ticket,

Fifth District Congressman and House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt will discuss the defense authorization bill on his June TV show, with his guest, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton. The program can be seen on WNSC-TV (ETV), Channel 30, Rock Hill, on Sunday, June 3, at Noon; on Comporium Cable, Channel 14, Rock Hill, on Mondays at 7:30 p.m.; and on SC ETV’s “SC Channel,” Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m., Fridays at 12:30 p.m., and Sundays at 10:00 a.m.

The Democrats’ debate at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., last month attracted the most attention, with nearly 2.3 million viewers tuning in and nearly 900,000 viewers watching post-debate analysis, according to Nielsen Media Research Data cited by MSNBC.

Among those who preferred to use their computers, MSNBC said there were 100,000 who watched the Democratic debate live on the Internet. Following the events, Internet demand to watch the debate over a three-day period totaled 900,000 for the Democrats.

Hey, have you read Chris Cilliz’s post in the Washington Post political blog from April 20?  He says Obama having a shot at taking the front-ranking position could result from doing really well in Thursday’s South Carolina debate.  WOW!  Incredible that a man who has spent just two years in the Senate might have an edge over a field that’s been grooming for years.