POST AND COURIER EDITORIAL
Rookie 1st District Congressman Tim Scott was described in a Sunday story by McClatchy Newspapers as “one of the fastest-rising stars in Washington.” Not bad for a former Stall High School running back raised by a single mom in North Charleston.
That McClatchy story charted how the former Charleston County chairman “skyrocketed from state legislator to House Republican freshman class leader who stood up to his party bosses in high-profile debt talks and is heading his party’s attack on federal economic bureaucrats.”
It pointed out that Rep. Scott, responding to the National Labor Relations Board’s overreaching legal complaint against Boeing for putting a Dreamliner plant here, co-wrote legislation that would curtail the agency’s powers. The bill passed the Republican House before being blocked by the Democratic Senate.
The congressman has also drawn national notice for “Tim’s Town Halls,” a series of forums he’s holding with Republican presidential candidates.
And the article quoted South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s apt assessment that the congressman helps the GOP counter its unfair image as “the party of angry white guys.”
Yet Rep. Scott remains admirably averse to playing the race card, explaining: “I’ve been black for 46 years, so it’s kind of hard for me to step out of my own skin and say what role it plays in the eyes of other people.”
It’s also evidently kind of hard for Rep. Scott to sound like an “angry” guy of any color. Despite his unapologetic links with the occasionally overwrought tea party, he’s consistently upbeat and gracious.
As for concerns expressed in a Sunday Post and Courier story about Rep. Scott’s politically tinged sermon early this month at Mount Pleasant’s Seacoast Church, he’s hardly the first member of a congregation, in or out of elective office, to mix religion and politics.
We were disappointed that Rep. Scott, along with all four other GOP House members from S.C., raised the risk of a federal default early last month by voting against the debt-ceiling compromise that Speaker John Boehner helped craft.
Still, the speaker showed up last week in Washington as the chief roaster at a birthday bash for Rep. Scott, who said: “I’d say that my relationship [with Rep. Boehner] is healthier than it has been, and it was pretty healthy before.”
And we’d say that “Mr. Scott goes to Washington” is a success story — so far.
The Chamber’s prestigious “Spirit of Enterprise” award is given annually to members of Congress based on rankings it gives for key business votes outlined in its yearly publication, How They Voted. This is the twenty-second year that the U.S. Chamber has formally honored the accomplishments of this select group of members of Congress. The Chamber’s designated “key votes” are recorded floor votes on issues established as priorities by the Chamber, on which the Chamber informs Congress of its position on prior to the vote. Senators and House members who support the Chamber’s position on at least 70% of these key votes receive the “Spirit of Enterprise” award. Read more.