I must say, I didn’t think Nikki Haley would do it. Call me crazy, but I never thought she would mention Will Folks and Larry Marchant in her upcoming memoir, Can’t is not an Option, but she did.
And between you and me, I’m really glad I was able to keep myself from betting anyone that Haley would decline to discuss the two alleged affairs in her book. If I had, I would’ve gone big. My home, my firstborn child, the bottle of Makers Mark in the cabinet — I would have put them all on the table. So it’s a good thing I didn’t, especially right now. I’m three days into a nasty, nasty cold, and the bourbon is the only thing making life bearable.
The Politico’s M.J. Lee reports:
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley laments her state’s “sad reputation” for “last-minute dirty tricks, anonymous phone calls and personal attacks” that make politics there a “blood sport,” according to her new memoir obtained by POLITICO in which she narrates the string of alleged scandals that plagued her 2010 gubernatorial race.
In “Can’t Is Not an Option,” a 245-page autobiography that spans Haley’s childhood in Bamberg, S.C., to her burst onto the national stage when she entered the race to be governor of the Palmetto State, she recalls finding out on June 1, 2010 — just seven days before the Republican primary — that a well-known male lobbyist had told a local reporter that he and Haley had had an affair in 2008.
“The reporter was asking if the allegation was true. What? You have got to be kidding!” Haley writes. “Once again, I was being forced into the humiliating position of having to deny being unfaithful to my husband. It was a lie, it was ugly, it was sexist, and it was crowding out all the issues the people really cared about in the campaign. Again I found myself wondering: How much are these guys getting paid?”
Now, I’ll be honest with you guys, I’ve flip-flopped more than a few times regarding this whole sordid mess. Some days, I’m of the opinion that Marchant and Folks were lying and that, yes, this entire episode was just another example of South Carolina politics at its best — or worst given your appreciation for skullduggery and asshattery.
But then I remember that as much as Folks has a reputation for bending the truth — a reputation that seems to apply much more to the pre-scandal Sic Willie than the post-scandal one — Haley has demonstrated time and time again a complete inability to tell the truth.
Truth be told, if you really want to know what I think happened, well, it’s pretty simple. Haley and Folks made out once or twice after tossing back a few, but no full-on hanky-panky happened, which is why Will was careful to refer to his dalliances with the good guv as an “inappropriate physical relationship.”
As for Marchant’s allegation, well, that one was just so out of left field — and so detrimental to the lobbyist’s career and personal life — that I have a difficult time imagining a senario in which he would accuse Haley of adultery if it wasn’t at least partially true.
But all of that’s neither here nor there. One day we might actually find out the truth. Until then, I’ll leave you with Will Folks’ response to the Politico story on Haley’s memoir:
If South Carolinians have learned one thing over the first year of Nikki Haley’s term in office it’s that her relationship with the truth is at best convenient, at worst nonexistent. And while that may not necessarily validate the truthful account I was compelled to bring forward two years ago, her ongoing deceit on matters large and small certainly speaks to the lack of credibility associated with this manuscript.
It’s also revealing how the initial excerpts from the book focus on her denial of the other affair – as well as the process associated with the denial — and much less on her affair with me and the specific salient details that I’ve provided related to that affair.
My book, by contrast will spare no detail.
Furthermore, at any time she choose the governor is welcome to shed additional light on these matters by releasing the taxpayer-funded correspondence she has thus far refused to make public. She is also welcome to do as I have done and attest to the veracity of her version events via a sworn affidavit.
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