The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Will Folks: Now His Sacred Honor Compels Him to Gay-Bait … Me?

Posted on | January 20, 2012 | 43 Comments

CHARLESTON, S.C.
Longtime readers will perhaps need no introduction to Will Folks, the South Carolina political gossip blogger who made himself an infamous laughingstock by claiming to have had an affair with Nikki Haley. The vile human stain whom I dubbed “Deuce Bigalow, Blogger Gigolo” is now supporting Ron Paul — go figure — and when I expressed suspicion about his “Elizabeth Reichert” exclusive, was provoked to a series of Twitter eruptions, including these:


Right: He misspells “please,” while calling me “ignorant.” As I long ago observed, “Will Folks is going to keep this up until his skull has an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with somebody’s tire iron.”

Because bad thing happen to bad people.

UPDATE: In a post at his site, Will Folks engages in his usual annoying distraction technique: Referring to himself in third person as “our founding editor” and “Sic Willie,” while pretending that there was nothing suspicious about either the “Elizabeth Reichert” flyer or his own astonishingly rapid acquisition of the complete text of the flyer.

Keep in mind that the Ron Paul people have been doing dirty tricks — including the use of anonymous flyers — since Iowa. Folks is an admitted supporter of Ron Paul, and this flyer was surreptitiously distributed on the windshields of cars at a pro-life event where the Paulistas were out in force.

So I come out to the parking lot, get the flyer, drive to a McDonald’s to file my American Spectator column and, while I’m at it, decide to Google this “Elizabeth Reichert” to see if such a person exists. And the only reference to her online as of 10 p.m. Wednesday was … Will Folks at FITS News, who had managed not only to transcribe the 388-word flyer, but also to write a 475-word “news” story about it, in which he said, “Allegations are flying among the rival 2012 camps, but at the moment a majority of fingers are being pointed at Perry’s campaign.”

BULLSHIT.

No fingers were “being pointed” at the time he wrote that, because the flyer hadn’t appeared on car windshields at the Greenville Hilton until barely an hour earlier. There had not been enough time for Folks to contact any sources (you’ll notice that no sources were even mentioned, much less named, in his “news” story). Folks lives in Columbia — an hour-and-a-half drive from Greenville — and yet was able to get hold of the text of this flyer and transcribe it in less time than it took me to drive to McDonald’s and log onto their free WiFi.

And to return to my original question: “Who Is Elizabeth Reichert?” Read the Will Folks story and you’ll see he refers to her as a “pro-life activist,” but we have no reason to suppose that she is such an “activist,” if she even exists. Prior to Folks’s reporting of this mysterious flyer, there was no online record of her, certainly not in connection with any sort of pro-life activism.

So: How did Folks get hold of the flyer? Was he in Greenville that night? Three presidential candidates — Santorum, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich — spoke in person at the pro-life forum, while Ron Paul appeared via satellite TV hookup. If Folks was in Greenville to cover that event, where are his reports of those candidates’ appearances? Did he decide that what the candidates said at the forum was less newsworthy than this flyer distributed in the parking lot of the Hilton?

You see what I mean by “suspicious”? One suspects that, unless Folks himself wrote this flyer, it was written by one of his fellow Ron Paul supporters, who informed him in advance and provided him with the text of the flyer by e-mail, so that all he had to do was to cut and paste it and hit the “publish” button the minute his fellow Paulista informed him that the flyer had, in fact, been distributed. And the “fingers pointing at  Perry” riff was just a lie to distract attention from the probable fact that it was Will Folks’s Paulista pals who were responsible for the flyer.

On his own site, Folks is trying to treat these suspicions as a joke, while on his Twitter accounts, he’s calling me every obscenity in his limited vocabulary: This is the behavior of a liar caught in a lie.

You hear me, Folks? You’re a liar, and a disgraceful coward, to boot.

Category: Fear and Loathing in South Carolina, South Carolina

Comments

43 Responses to “Will Folks: Now His Sacred Honor Compels Him to Gay-Bait … Me?”

  1. Anonymous
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:21 pm

    I guess Folks has never heard of Stacy Keach or Stacy David.  I bet both of them probably stomped the crap out of guys who called themselves Will. 

  2. Zilla of the Resistance
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:24 pm

    That Will Folks creep seems like quite the douche bag.

  3. newrouter
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:33 pm

    all the cool kidz are ronpaul bots this election baracky is so ’08

  4. Dustin
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:40 pm

    Will Folks still exists.  Kinda forgot.

  5. ThePaganTemple
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:45 pm

    What’s with all the Will Folks hate? He can’t help it he’s a stud.

  6. Mike G.
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:52 pm

    All it takes is one stupid son of a bitch to stereotype the rest of us South Carolinians’. Will Folks gives Manhood a bad name.

  7. richard mcenroe
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:55 pm

    To be fair, you turn a cute ankle… Still, Mr. Folks could benefit from some wall to wall counseling…

  8. Mary M.
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:56 pm

    Will Folks is scum, but then again all rabid Ron Paul supporters are. They are no different than the left.

  9. smitty
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:58 pm

    Stacy McCain, establishment? Really?

  10. William_Teach
    January 20th, 2012 @ 8:04 pm

    Good job, Will!

  11. Bob Belvedere
    January 20th, 2012 @ 8:08 pm

    The douchiest.

  12. Sven
    January 20th, 2012 @ 8:16 pm

    Fun fact: Erick Erickson tried to cash in on Folks’ Haleygate scam with a hoax of his own. The two of them are scum from the same bucket. Erickson is worse, in my opinion. He once called Justice Souter a child molester and beastiality practitioner. That’s just one of his many foul utterances. I cannot begin to understand why the media take him more seriously than Folks.

  13. Anonymous
    January 20th, 2012 @ 8:49 pm

    I suspected Paul was behind this from the start.  The Paulbots are unprincipled fanatical cretins.

  14. Anonymous
    January 20th, 2012 @ 8:58 pm

    Yeah, really. I’m glad I’d already swallowed my drink before reading that.

  15. Charles
    January 20th, 2012 @ 9:05 pm

    Let it go. Will Folks will cease to exist for all practical purposes when the SC polls close tomorrow evening. You could track him down and give him the ass kicking he undoubtedly deserves, but some crap once you it get on your shoes you just can’t get off.

  16. ThePaganTemple
    January 20th, 2012 @ 9:16 pm

    What? You mean most South Carolina men haven’t screwed Nikki Haley? Oh come on now.

  17. ThePaganTemple
    January 20th, 2012 @ 9:20 pm

    I thought there was something strange about that Souter. One time he was on television and my cat started rolling around moaning and writhing, and she wasn’t even in heat.

  18. Blue Hen
    January 20th, 2012 @ 9:23 pm

    Is this sarcasm? Or are you heaving around Folk’s filthy lie?

  19. Garym
    January 20th, 2012 @ 9:24 pm

    I noticed you said “establishment”, but ignorant and f**k you didn’t mention. Hmmmmmmm! ; )

  20. Mike G.
    January 20th, 2012 @ 9:35 pm

    This South Carolina Man didn’t. I don’t know about anyone else.

    I’m just sayin’ that Folks is no Southern Gentleman. He’s a scalawag of the worst kind.

  21. Adjoran
    January 20th, 2012 @ 10:12 pm

    Folks gives the worst kind of scalawag a bad name.

  22. Anonymous
    January 20th, 2012 @ 10:13 pm

    Didn’t Folks’ sacred honor compel him to admit he ended up boinking The Chicken during the Haley escapades? Or just choking it?

  23. Adjoran
    January 20th, 2012 @ 10:33 pm

    Folks is as low as they come without being a different species.  No one takes him seriously except his tiny little cult.  His work is mainly fabrications, so it would be surprising if the flyer were not one of his many hoaxes.

    I don’t believe Paul or even most of his supporters approve of this type of crap, though.  They are crazy but not evil.  There are some fringe elements he never really repudiated, however, Holocaust-deniers, 9/11 Truthers, white supremacists, Hitler apologists, and perverts of all sorts, who are naturally attracted to his libertine libertarianism because it provides a political cover for their crimes against decency and humanity.  Folks and his clique would fit right in with those dark extremities of the Paul fringe.

    I wouldn’t put anything past those people, and Folks himself lies with a practiced ease. (He wasn’t a bad press secretary, kept his perversions secret in those days, perhaps because of that talent).

    However, it seems to me that you were doing a good bit of finger-pointing at Perry in Iowa, too, for anti-Santorum fliers, or is my once-sharp memory not hitting on all eight?  And not just once, either:  it seems to me there were several accusations or broad hints against both the Perry and Romney campaigns, without the first shred of evidence.

    Not as blatantly deceptive as fabricating the fliers yourself, but being “not as bad as Will Folks” is hardly worth putting on the old curriculum vitae, is it?

  24. Anonymous
    January 20th, 2012 @ 11:19 pm

    There used to be a homicide defense in Texas law that might have  been written with Mr. Folks in mind….

  25. Anonymous
    January 20th, 2012 @ 11:19 pm

    Yeah, him and Andrew Sullivan….

  26. Datechguy's Blog » Blog Archive » Compare and contrast Lack of curiosity vs shoe leather reporting » Datechguy's Blog
    January 21st, 2012 @ 4:47 am

    […] reporting on concerning a false flyer and Will “hot stuff” Folks and a flyer targeted at Rick Santorum: this flyer was surreptitiously distributed on the windshields of cars at a pro-life event where […]

  27. ThePaganTemple
    January 21st, 2012 @ 7:37 am

    I’ll tell you what’s really ironic about this whole story, its a shame actually that it wasn’t more widely disseminated and even became a  topic of discussion on the news shows. I say that because if Santorum had handled it right, he could have actually used it as a weapon. He might be further up in the polls than he is now.

    Hell he might even win the primary. If this story keeps going, and growing, and he stays in the race (assuming he has the resources to be able to do so) he might want to give it some thought. Another thing that might help him is if he and his wife sat down for an interview. Or maybe even a one-on-one with his wife if she feels comfortable with that. As silly as it sounds, people like to get to know a potential First Lady.

    The same with Newt. People are going to want to get to know Callista as well, especially in light of the current stories, which incidentally seems to have helped Gingrich far more than they may have hurt him, at least so far, and why? Because he was prepared and knew how to deal with it succinctly, which goes to my point. This could humanize Santorum among people who might be inclined to look at him as someone who’s maybe a bit much of a rigid social conservative ideologue.

    At this stage it couldn’t hurt him. I’m not saying of course that he should help the story along, and of course he wants to protect his wife from unfair allegations, and unfortunate mistakes of the past for which she’s atoned. But, if the story mushrooms it can help him IF he handles it correctly.

  28. Anonymous
    January 21st, 2012 @ 7:52 am

    That was my favorite part of this, too.  They like to say that no matter how good you get, there’s always someone better.  Clearly, it works in the other direction, too.

  29. Anonymous
    January 21st, 2012 @ 8:00 am

    Stacy, did you get the “knows about Santorum” reference?   This guy is a double douche bag.

  30. A.B.O.
    January 21st, 2012 @ 9:24 am

    Maybe will could write a flier on three things:
    1) What major pieces of enacted legislation can  I look at that are the direct result of Ron Paul’s extended time in Congress.
    2) How much federal tax payer money has trickled down into Ron Paul’s congressional district while he has served in Congress, and what did that money go to?  (I would hate to hear that our troops can’t have AC units but a bicycle path was built).
    3) I would like to see Ron Paul’s complete military record – specifically where he was stationed…he just stated that  he spent time in Afghanistan, qualifying him to comment on combat in Afghanistan as a subject matter expert . I am intrigued and want to learn more about how a non-special ops doctor has so much information about the front-line mechanics  of war when he was basically  a REMF.

  31. A.B.O.
    January 21st, 2012 @ 9:38 am

    Oh I would really enjoy Will’s response to these last two  questions: How can I  trust Ron Paul’s judgement when knowing he met Borat in a hotel room? Are there any other instances of Ron Paul meeting men in a hotel room like that?

  32. Quartermaster
    January 21st, 2012 @ 10:23 am

    Indeed. That does scalawags a disservice.

  33. Quartermaster
    January 21st, 2012 @ 10:34 am

    Flight Surgeons (which is what Paul was) are “REMF” automatically. Nothing evil about that. Paul was also stationed stateside during his hitch. It has been said he was drafted, but AF doctors were not draftees. While I understand some Army Doctors were, I never met one when we were in Germany. Overwhelmingly Doctors went in because they could o their internship in the Fed dime and get paid much better for it, and the work was easier.

    I think Paul served 2 years active, then three in the Air National Guard. I came across that somewhere, but can’t remember where, and don’t know if it’s accurate.

    Some characters like to say Paul “rose to the rank of Captain,” but that’s silly as Doctors were given direct commissions at the rank of Captain upon entry (Lieutenant in the Navy).

  34. Quartermaster
    January 21st, 2012 @ 10:35 am

    I have wondered about RSM. Leaving a lovely wife behind to galavant all over the country spending time with men he names in the open. Looks pretty fishy to me.

  35. Geo
    January 21st, 2012 @ 10:37 am

    That would be a choke…..xxxxx eeeerr Gag actually, but it wasn’t his first time or last.

  36. R S McCain
    January 21st, 2012 @ 11:34 am

    Yes, I got that reference, which is what I meant in the headline  about his gay-baiting me. Just a cheap (and obviously unjustified) slur from a guy with little talent and zero integrity.

    Will Folks is a disgraced GOP consultant who is now engaged in a simulacrum of journalism which is remarkably successful, indicating what low standards of credibility are tolerated in South Carolina politics.

    Folks work might be compared to what Jesse Griffin tried to get away with in Alaska. The sensationalism, the blind-sourced gossip, the insinuating tone — this is a familar type of faux journalism practiced by irresponsible and incompetent people trying to get away with what is actually a pretense, a charade. And because Folks actually has sources and often gets genuine scoops, his essential dishonesty is tolerated.

    This incident with the flyer in Greenville captures perfectly what I mean in calling him a liar and a coward. Folks pretended to be shocked by the “dirty tricks” nature of the flyer and yet wrote his initial story in such a way as to (a) convince the unskeptical reader that “Elizabeth Reichert” is a legitimate “pro-life activist” and (b) point the finger of blame toward Rick Perry’s campaign.

    Circumstantial evidence suggests that, in fact, Folks was in all likelihood a willing accomplice to this dirty trick  and wrote about it with the purpose of publicizing the smear that he pretended to abhor. And when I raised suspicions about how Folks got this sleazy “exclusive,” he immediately began making defamatory personal attacks against me on Twitter. The one thing a liar can’t stand is to be exposed as a liar, you see, and my direct knowledge about the flyer — having been at the Greenville pro-life forum where it was surreptitiously distributed — enabled me to realize there was something suspicious about the speed with which Folks got that particular “scoop.”

    Whatever the actual facts behind this incident, Folks’s role in it was obviously not that of a mere reporter. Yet he concealed his involvement (whatever it was) from his readers with a pretense of being disgusted by the “dirty trick.” He is a selfish liar who cannot be trusted. He has proven himself unsuitable for a career in politics, and his fundamental dishonesty makes him even less suitable for a job in journalism.

    No prediction is safer than this: Eventually, Folks will finally tell one too many lies and will be destroyed by his own mendacity. People that bad seldom meet good ends.

  37. Datechguy's Blog » Blog Archive » Two thumbs up to Chuck Todd » Datechguy's Blog
    January 21st, 2012 @ 12:01 pm

    […] is taking a page from Robert Stacy McCain calling BS instead of playing along. Good for him and good for Mediaite for pushing […]

  38. Mike G.
    January 21st, 2012 @ 12:07 pm

    Will Folks is a disgraced GOP consultant who is now engaged in a
    simulacrum of journalism which is remarkably successful, indicating what
    low standards of credibility are tolerated in South Carolina politics.

    Doggonit Stacy, don’t paint all South Carolinians with such a broad brush. Maybe that’s true in “F@ck Up” Folk’s circle of friends, but it’s not particularly true for the rest of the state as far as I know. I’m just sayin’.

  39. Democrat Operative Arrested for Fraud in Iowa
    January 21st, 2012 @ 12:20 pm

    […] In related news, South Carolina is investigating fraudulent emails sent out by somebody in the guise of news releases, claiming that Newt Gingrich forced ex-wife Marianne to have an abortion after she conceived a child by Will Folks. […]

  40. Sven
    January 21st, 2012 @ 3:59 pm

    It turns out Will Folks had a Columbia Journalism Review writer shadowing him the day he blogged the Karen Santorum flyer (and when Stacy saw him doing an interview outside the statehouse).

    http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/a_day_in_the_life_of_south_car.php?page=1 

    This appears to be a really sanitized profile. I’ve looked at Folks’ timeline on Twitter, and he’s constantly making vulgar sexual jokes about Haley.

  41. South Carolina Primary Day: Before My Saturday Afternoon Nap in Charleston : The Other McCain
    January 21st, 2012 @ 4:09 pm

    […] Jan. 3 CaucusesJan. 21: Rick Santorum Crashes Blog Bash, Impresses Conservative New MediaJan. 20: Will Folks: Now His Sacred Honor Compels Him to Gay-Bait … Me?Jan. 20: Deadline Hell in South CarolinaJan. 19: Some Things Never ChangeJan. 19: Is There a Real […]

  42. Anonymous
    January 21st, 2012 @ 5:27 pm

    http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2012/01/circle-of-crap-i-am-tired-of-accepting.html  I am sick of a circle of accepting.  Can we just live in a society where it is okay with sufficient provocation for one grown person to punch another grown person of the same gender in the face?  

  43. Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Somewhere, There Is an Island … : The Other McCain
    January 22nd, 2012 @ 9:30 pm

    […] Jan. 3 CaucusesJan. 21: Rick Santorum Crashes Blog Bash, Impresses Conservative New MediaJan. 20: Will Folks: Now His Sacred Honor Compels Him to Gay-Bait … Me?Jan. 20: Deadline Hell in South CarolinaJan. 19: Some Things Never ChangeJan. 19: Is There a Real […]