By BRAD WARTHENEditorial Page Editor On a brilliant, warm February afternoon, I was holed up in a darkened booth in an Irish-themed pub talking local politics. Not exactly James Joyce’s “Ivy Day in the Committee Room,â€� but a reasonable Columbia facsimile.    Jack Van Loan was...

For once, I am ahead of the game. I have now interviewed ALL of the declared candidates for governor in 2010, and have written about them in my Sunday column. Of course, there's only one so far: Sen. Vincent Sheheen, Democrat from Camden. I don't know who will be the next candidate to declar...

T hought y'all might find these two press releases, both having to do with a bill to put the Employment Security Commission under the governor, edifying. First, we have one from Speaker Bobby Harrell , who manages to damn the governor's performance as an economic developer while faintly prai...