From front-runner to Epstein files: The spiral of Nancy Mace - Kathleen Parker WaPo

COLUMBIA, S.C. — There’s nothing like a circus for entertainment, especially if you enjoy the blood sport of South Carolina politics. The Roman Colosseum had nothing on the state’s political games, which these days have become more dramatic thanks to the head-spinning theatrics of Rep. Nancy Mace, the erstwhile Republican front-runner in the governor’s race.

The jumbo surprise under the big top as the primary election approaches on Tuesday was President Donald Trump’s endorsement of the Other Woman running for governor — Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette. On the morning of May 29, the reliably fire-breathing Mace jumped on social media apparently to head off rumors that Trump was planning to commit his support to Evette.

(snip)

The president also appeared to endorse Gov. Henry McMaster’s son, lawyer Henry McMaster Jr., to be Evette’s lieutenant governor. The only hitch is that Evette hasn’t agreed to the younger McMaster as her running mate, though his inclusion on the ticket has long been talked about around the State House.

Trump’s endorsements look like a trade-off with McMaster, sort of like when Don Corleone loans money to a young man in distress with the ominous suggestion that someday he may call upon him for a favor. Don Trump helped McMaster by making then-Gov. Nikki Haley ambassador to the United Nations, which paved the way for McMaster to become governor; therefore, wouldn’t McMaster like to reconsider his statement that he wouldn’t call for a special session for legislators to push through Trump’s desired congressional redistricting map?

(snip)

Mace’s legendary public meltdowns include the time she berated airport police for failing to obey her orders. Then there are the more shocking moments: using the House floor to accuse her ex-fiancé and three other men of raping her and other women. (Her ex-fiancé denied the allegations.) Mace’s serial histrionics seem more apt to invite an exorcism than the governorship, which may explain her signature fashion accessory — dangling cross earrings the size of parakeets.

If Mace is, indeed, spiraling and needs help, as some of her former colleagues and social media followers have asserted, then we mustn’t be mean (anymore). South Carolinians have always had a soft spot for eccentrics or at least observed them benignly, as when a foppish yet frumpy fellow fills his pockets with ham biscuits from the Charleston Yacht Club buffet, as I once witnessed. They do not, however, elect their “interesting” aunts and uncles to public office.

https://archive.ph/lJDRn