A noticeably PO’d Andre Bauer spoke with WTMA’s Rocky D on Radio Free Rocky D shortly after noon today.

Not only did Bauer deny that he was in any way responsible for the allegations that fellow gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley had an inappropriate sexual relationship with blogger Will Folks and a one-night-stand with Larry Marchant, the lite guv said that he would like to see his fellow candidates in the South Carolina governor’s race come on Radio Free Rocky D on Monday and take polygraph tests to prove their innocence.

Although the Haley campaign has not directly pointed the finger at Bauer for pushing Folks to publish his claim, others have, most notably RedState’s Erick Erickson, a fierce Haley supporter, a guy that doesn’t know jack shit about South Carolina politics, and a lying douche bag who last week claimed that he had proof that, one, Folks was paid to release the initial claim, and, two, he knew who paid the blogger, only to later admit that he didn’t have diddly. CNN can’t fire this guy soon enough.

However, yesterday Haley herself pointed the finger at Lt. Gov. Bauer following Larry Marchant’s claim that he too had a sexual relationship with Haley. Marchant was, until yesterday, a member of Bauer’s campaign team.

According to The Post and Courier:

Haley accused the Bauer campaign of shopping the story around Tuesday. “It was only when no one would take it seriously because he was a paid consultant that you decided to fire him today,” she said.

“It reeks of everything that’s wrong with South Carolina politics, and I will fight it every step of the way. … We are done with the dirty politics that has given the state a bad name.”

After the debate, Bauer said he learned about Marchant’s claim a few days ago, but he denied that he was peddling the story of the affair.

“I didn’t shop it. I didn’t spend any money on opposition research,” he said. “Whether it happened or not, I don’t want to be associated with that.” Asked if he believed Marchant’s claim about Haley, Bauer replied, “I told y’all I wasn’t going to comment.”

UPDATE: Andre Bauer has now come out swinging, challenging Nikki Haley specifically to take a polygraph test, according to a press release sent out this evening. Here’s the release:

After being attacked in the final debate prior to the June 8th Republican Primary Wednesday night, Lt Governor Andre Bauer fired back at opponent Nikki Haley today, saying she is “not the person she is pretending to be.”

Bauer, who earlier in the day had suggested a polygraph exam for Haley and volunteered to submit to one himself to prove that he had no part in the revelations about Haley, challenged Haley on her signature issue, government transparency.

“Nobody has been a better friend of transparency than Andre Bauer,” he said. “All spending by my office is available online for public inspection, and has been for over two years. Similarly, my campaign finances are completely transparent and open for public inspection.”

“Ms. Haley, on the other hand, speaks of transparency, but apparently only for other people, not for herself. She has refused to reveal her campaign’s outside funding sources. She refused to fully disclose details of her “non-lobbying” outside compensation, including the purpose of her $110,000 contract with Lexington Medical Center.”

“While grandstanding for a transparency bill which requires all procedural votes to be recorded, Ms. Haley reverses herself in a recent debate, claiming that the procedural votes she cast in favor of the Obama stimulus package didn’t really count.”

“And now, we learn that she is refusing to release phone and text messages which could clear up some of the unfortunate recent allegations.”

“Where’s the transparency, Nikki?”

“Ms. Haley falsely attacked me in the debate last night, just as she falsely attacked me earlier in her TV advertising. As we approach this important election day, the time has come for real transparency. The time has come for truth.”

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