The sound of the scales falling from his eyes is the sound of bowling balls dropped down a well. From the Washington Post:
Scott’s romantic endeavors aren’t a scandal so much as they are a mystery. At 57, he’s never been married and rarely talks about girlfriends past or present. Late last year, as Scott was ramping up his run for president, I asked Jennifer DeCasper, his close friend and campaign manager, about the status of his dating life. “It’s nonexistent,” she said. Now, Scott was suggesting otherwise. And the timing of that revelation seemed a bit convenient. “He has staked so much on his personal story, character and faith,” said the operative, who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity because, well, that’s how people kick dirt around in this business. “He’s running as America’s pastor, so to speak, as he courts evangelicals in Iowa, and I think a lot of folks may wonder about his lack of a family.”
The casual way the reporter admits his accessorial conduct in what is clearly ratfcking is truly startling. (“That’s how people kick dirt around in this business“? What business is that, because it’s surely not journalism.) A long passage thereafter ensues in which the reporter asserts that he’s not dealing in gossip here.
I wasn’t interested in laundering innuendos for this Republican operative.
(Narrator: You already did.)
At the same time, the whole exchange left me intrigued about how voter interest
(or lack thereof)
in Scott’s love life
(or lack thereof)
might illuminate the politics of marriage, family and masculinity in today’s GOP.
However, that’s not the revelation that has descended on poor Tim Scott, who seems to be realizing that it’s all been a lie.
Scott said he had theories about why other campaigns might want to draw attention to his being single. It’s just a way to “sow seeds of doubt” about his campaign, he said, a way “to say that, ‘That guy isn’t one of us.’”
“It’s like a different form of discrimination or bias,” Scott said. “You can’t say I’m Black, because that would be terrible, so find something else that you can attack.”
And another bowling ball goes echoing down the well.
Yes, Senator. Your party is full of bigots and fools and angry, insecure white heterosexual goobers who, I assure you, if you begin to show a little momentum in the polls, will have no compunction about saying that you’re Black…and gay. If you make the current multiply-indicted Republican frontrunner nervous, do you think he’d hesitate for a second to draw attention to one or both of these things, whether or not that second is true? This, after all, was the guy who had Ted Cruz’s father eating beignets at Cafe du Monde with Lee Harvey Oswald. Your ostentatious splinter Protestantism will be neither sword nor shield.
As the interview came to a close, I half expected the door to the conference room to swing open, and for the mystery woman to waltz in for a dramatic reveal. Then again, Scott isn’t the reality TV guy in the race. “I can’t imagine dragging her onto the campaign trail unless I have the intention of marrying her,” he said. “I hope that happens, to be honest with you.” He paused. “I guess I should be careful about how I say that,” Scott said, with a sheepish grin. “Strike that comment.” He laughed. His relationship and campaign were both new. It’s hard to know, this early, if any of this is real.
What’s “real” got to do with it, anyway?
Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
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