Political Blogger Alleges Affair with SC Gubernatorial Candidate Nikki Haley (UPDATE)

by Jon Bershad | 11:06 am, May 24th, 2010

» 13 comments

And thus begins this week’s edition of Election Year Infidelity Scandal. Will Folks, the founding editor of the conservative blog FITSNews has written a post, this morning, alleging to have had affair with Rep. Nikki Haley, one of the candidates for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in South Carolina. According to Folks’ post, the affair happened “several years ago,” so presumably after Haley married her husband in 1996.

From Folks’ post:

“In recent weeks, however, a group of political operatives has attempted to do just that. In fact, on a very personal level I have become the primary target of a group that will apparently stop at nothing to destroy the one S.C. gubernatorial candidate who, in my opinion, would most consistently advance the ideals I believe in. For those of you unfamiliar with the editorial bent of this website, the candidate I am referring to is S.C. Rep. Nikki Haley.

This network of operatives has made it abundantly clear that in the process of “taking down” Rep. Haley, they will also stop at nothing to humiliate me, destroy my family and take a sizable chunk out of the credibility this website has managed to amass for itself. Such is the blood sport of S.C. politics, I suppose – particularly in the wake of the scandal that consumed my former boss, Gov. Mark Sanford.

Specifically, within the last forty-eight hours several pieces of information which purportedly document a prior physical relationship between myself and Rep. Haley have begun to be leaked slowly, piece by piece, to members of the mainstream media. I am told that at least one story based upon this information will be published this week. Watching all of this unfold, I have become convinced that the gradual release of this information is deliberately designed to advance this story in the press while simultaneously forcing either evasive answers or denials on my part or on Nikki’s part.

I refuse to play that game. I refuse to have someone hold the political equivalent of a switch-blade in front of my face and just sit there and watch as they cut me to pieces.

The truth in this case is what it is. Several years ago, prior to my marriage, I had an inappropriate physical relationship with Nikki.”

It will be interesting to see if Folks’ attempts to head off the scandal by beating Haley’s enemies to the punch will have any positive affect. He does make it clear in his post that he still believes that Haley is the best nominee for the governor of South Carolina. However, there has not yet been a statement from the Haley camp and it is unclear if she will remain in the race following the allegations.

Just a week and a half ago, Haley was endorsed by Sarah Palin who posted this quote on her Facebook page:

“Nikki is a strong pro-life, pro-Second Amendment fiscal conservative who served with distinction as a state lawmaker, a reformer who fought her own party to protect the interests of the taxpayer, a proud daughter of immigrants who worked night and day to achieve the American dream, a wife of an officer in the Army National Guard, a board member at her family’s Methodist church, and – most proudly – the loving mother of two beautiful kids.”

This scandal breaks only six days after the news of Rep. Mark Souder’s affair with a part-time staffer. If another one breaks next week, then it’ll be clear that the Politician Infidelity Variety Hour (an even better name than Election Year Infidelity Scandal) is the big hit of the summer. Good thing too, since we all need something to entertain us now that Lost is done.

UPDATE:
Haley has denied the allegations entirely. The Washington Post has published this quote from her:

“I have been 100 percent faithful to my husband throughout our 13 years of marriage,” Haley said in a statement released to a local television station. “This claim against me is categorically and totally false.”

She alleges a political motivation behind the “smear.” It will be interesting to see if the “network of operatives” that Folks mentioned in his original post now come forward with further evidence. If Folks is a supporter of Haley, as he claims, we can assume he would only come forward with his admission if proof of the affair was inevitable. If nothing else appears than it is possible that Folks himself was behind a deceitful attack on the representative. Only time will tell and we will publish new information as it becomes available.

Affair, Infidelity, Nikki Haley, Primaries, South Carolina, Will Folks

shootfromthehip

Well color me surprised.

Another Republican who can’t keep it in his pants while railing against those immoral Democrats.

Looks like Will has some explaining to do to his wife.

From his post:

“I do owe my wife, Katrina, an apology for failing to disclose certain things that took place prior to our marriage. I know that’s not the technical definition of infidelity, but it is a form of unfaithfulness that has broken the trust between us – a trust which must now be rebuilt. I also owe her an apology for the storm that my family has been facing for the past few weeks, and the storm we will no doubt continue to face in the weeks to come.”
apparently

Oh my. Yet another scandalous affair out in the light. Unfortunately, most people no longer care.
There have been so many, so fast that the soap opera quality of them all gives people like me a certain callousness.
shootfromthehip

Interestingly, she denies she ever hooked up with him.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/governors/nikki-haley-denies-affair-alle.html

One of these conservatives is lying. Hard to tell which one, because republicans are such world class liars……
Puter Boi

How come….all of these people are getting laid and I’m sitting here reading Mediaite???…huh???

I’M CUTE!!!
And I have a Mediaite ball cap too…..

Happy Hour can’t come to soon today…….
paulmdoro

Regardless of how one feels about E.J. Dionne, this is dead on:

Mark Souder’s downfall shows virtue knows no ideology

By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Monday, May 24, 2010

A fall from grace of the sort experienced recently by Indiana’s Mark Souder typically brings smiles to the faces of liberals weary of moralistic religious types who preach one thing and do another.

But I took no pleasure in Souder’s resignation from Congress last week after it was revealed that the conservative evangelical Republican had an affair with a part-time staffer. I always thought he was the real deal, both serious and thoughtful in his approach to religious and political questions. I disagreed with him on many things but not on everything.

I wrote about Souder for the first time in 1998 because he and Rep. Chaka Fattah, a liberal Democrat from Philadelphia, had pushed through legislation to help students from high-poverty schools go to college. I liked their forging a left-right alliance for a good cause at a moment when the nation was torn by the battle over Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Souder said at the time: “Christ is concerned about the needy and the hungry and the powerless and the hurting.” Good for him, I thought.

A few years later, I asked Souder to appear at an event with former New York governor Mario Cuomo where both reflected on the role of faith in their public lives. Their thoughts were later included in a book. “To ask me to check my Christian beliefs at the public door is to ask me to expel the Holy Spirit from my life when I serve as a congressman, and that I will not do,” Souder said. “Either I am a Christian or I am not.”

So I do hope that Souder finds a way to work out his redemption. But it is precisely because this story hits me personally that I want to shout as forcefully as I can to my conservative Christian friends: Enough!

Enough with dividing the world between moral, family-loving Christians and supposedly permissive, corrupt, family-destroying secularists.

Enough with pretending that personal virtue is connected with political creeds. Enough with condemning your adversaries, sometimes viciously, and then insisting upon understanding after the failures of someone on your own side become known to the world. And enough with claiming that support for gay rights and gay marriage is synonymous with opposition to family values and sexual responsibility.

It’s not the self-righteousness of religious conservatives that bothers me most. We liberals can be pretty self-righteous, too. It’s the refusal to acknowledge that the pressures endangering the family do not come from some dark secular leftist conspiracy but from cultural and economic forces that affect us all. People are encouraged to put all sorts of things (career advancement, wealth, fame, the accumulation of things, various forms of self-indulgence) ahead of being good parents and spouses. Our workplaces are not as family-friendly as they could be.

Why does it even have to be said that a devotion to family has nothing to do with ideology? In my very liberal Maryland neighborhood — 80 percent of my precinct voted for Barack Obama — parents crowd school meetings, flock to their children’s sporting events, help them with homework and teach them right from wrong based on values that I doubt differ all that much from those prevailing in more conservative environs. And while a lot of my neighbors are active in their religious congregations, the secular parents take their family responsibilities as seriously as the believers do.

And those of us who are liberal would insist that our support for the rights of gays and lesbians grows from our sense of what family values demand. How can being pro-family possibly mean holding in contempt our homosexual relatives, neighbors and friends? How much sense does it make to preach fidelity and commitment and then deny marriage to those whose sexual orientation is different from our own? Rights for gays and lesbians don’t wreck heterosexual families. Heterosexuals are doing a fine job of this on their own.

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” It’s a scriptural passage that no doubt appeals to Mark Souder. But it would be lovely if conservative Christians remembered Jesus’s words not only when needing a lifeline but also when they are tempted to give speeches or send out mailers excoriating their political foes as permissive anti-family libertines. How many more scandals will it take for people who call themselves Christian to rediscover the virtues of humility and solidarity?
Fox News: We proudly pander to Teabaggers

This not surprising but expected from family values conservatives.

P.S.
Peter, how did you get a Mediaite baseball cap?
http://www.storminsmorningjava.blogspot.com/ stormin1961

to all you family values republican bashers … we’ll do a better job of practicing what we preach when y’all start paying your taxes.
TfT

What a BS story; publishing lies like this without ever first conferring with the accused? Too much mediaite. And to think, ya’ll knew about John Edwards for a long time, but he was a dem, so you spiked the story until the national enquirer put you to shame. And now, you lefties who claim no one has a right to your private life, violate the privacy of republicans just because you can, despite truth or lies. Typical BS.
Jackie_Treehorn

TfT says:
May 24, 2010 at 5:44 pm
What a BS story; publishing lies like this without ever first conferring with the accused? Too much mediaite. And to think, ya’ll knew about John Edwards for a long time, but he was a dem, so you spiked the story until the national enquirer put you to shame. And now, you lefties who claim no one has a right to your private life, violate the privacy of republicans just because you can, despite truth or lies. Typical BS.

“Will Folks, the founding editor of the CONSERVATIVE blog FITSNews has written a post, this morning, alleging to have had affair with Rep. Nikki Haley,”

Now we know you righties are very, VERY uneducated. But a fifth grader could read and comprehend that sentence.

Damn leftist Conservative bloggers!!! You’ll rue the day!!!!!!
DeputyHeadmistress

On huge problem with this Mediaite story is that a significant change has been made. In my inbox this morning, here is how this story was framed:
“Political Blogger Admits Affair with SC Gubernatorial Candidate Nikki Haley
by Jon Bershad
Will Folks, the founding editor of the conservative blog FITSNews has written a post, this morning, admitting to an affair with Rep. Nikki Haley”

Using the word ‘admits’ instead of ‘alleges’ or ‘claims’ in the original story- when Jon hadn’t bothered to get Nikki’s side- brought Mediaite down to a level lower than a gossip paper.
Furthermore, Will Folks is conservative like Al Sharpton and Arlen Spector are liberal.
Sure, but personal agrandizement are far more important to all three than political principles of right or left.
Maybe Will is telling the truth, maybe not, but there’s no evidence yet but his own say-so, which is highly questionable.
TfT

Dan must be so proud as the site owner here. His columnists pushing this trash.
jrcmi

In fairness to Mediaite, the word “alleged” appears prominently in the headline. The last graf is a fair summation. It notes that “If Folks is a supporter of Haley, as he claims. . . ” With “Folks” like HIM as friends, who needs primary opponents? It’s not impossible Folks is trying to torpedo Haley on behalf of another candidate. Why didn’t he consult with her first? She appears to have been taken completely by surprise.

“there’s no evidence yet but his own say-so”

Indeed. PROVEN examples of right-wing hypocrisy already abound (Souder, most recently). Thoughtful readers will intuit that, unless and until this woman either admits to this alleged affair, she must receive the benefit of any doubt.

Why would Folks suddenly claim an alleged affair from “several years ago” on the eve of this woman’s primary? The timing is highly suspect.

Dionne’s column is typically insightful and relevant.
jrcmi

Thoughtful readers will intuit that, unless and until this woman admits to this alleged affair, she must receive the benefit of any doubt.