The Other Brooks Brothers and Their Sister, Too. — “Suddenly-relevant”

First Posted — 2:34 p.m. Updated — 4:40 p.m.

Columbia, SC – After having his original sentencing date postponed, former state treasurer Thomas Ravenel appeared in federal court this afternoon and was sentenced to 10 months in prison and fined $250,000 (including $28,000 in restitution to the state for the General Assembly’s special election to replace him as requested by John Crangle and Common Cause) by U.S. District Judge Joseph Anderson after pleading guilty in September 2007 to “conspiracy to possess and distribute less than 500 grams of cocaine.”

Also appearing for his part in the investigation was Michael L. Miller who received a sentence of 10 months in prison and three years of supervised release. The sentence could possibly have resembled the reduced time his attorneys requested, but since he was arrested in November for assaulting an officer, Judge Anderson said that such leniency was unreasonable.

Pasquale Pellicoro, an Eye-Tallyun wine dealer who is the third man charged, fled the United States before being arraigned.

– The OBB

“It seems that today’s buzz-word in the world of politics today is ‘Change.’ I believe that what we really need is to reform the way government operates so that it is more responsive to our citizens’ needs and is more efficient in the way it operates. We need to be looking beyond this year or the next — what we need is a long range plan to improve the way government does business.” — Reform Caucus Blueprint for Reform.

Stirring. Wasn’t it?

Apparently the new “Reform Caucus” is dare I say a little different than the Fat and Ugly Caucus of days gone by. In fact, nobody knows anything about them except for speculation floating around.

The now defunct Sunny Places for Shady People blog said that the group would be made of Representative Bill Sandifer and Senators Joel Lourie, Ronnie Cromer, David Thomas, Gerald Malloy, Ray Cleary.

FITS News wrote that this will be a Rod Shealy production and posted the confidential memo to prove it. The Palmetto Scoop agreed. The Shot hasn’t touched this yet, so it will be interesting to read what they say.

Anyway, why does the legislature need another caucus — especially one with the job of doing what the legislature is supposed to do anyway?

Except for reforms designed to attack political speech (e.g. Reform 1) which should recruit “caucus” members from lawmakers with election year opposition, most of these shouldn’t be considered reforms. They should instead be filed under the headline “We are South Carolina legislators elected to make government more effective and efficient for the people we serve.”

That brings to mind another name for the new caucus … if Mr. Shealy and his friends are looking for suggestions, of course.

Personally, I like the “We Were Elected 20 Years Ago and Should have Already Done this Stuff” Caucus. That might be too long to fit on letterhead, though

– Wilson Charles