The Nikki Haley Story: Some Lies Don't Tell So Well

Well if you have been following the story in the South Carolina Governor's race, you know that the front-running Republican Nikki Haley faces a run-off primary on June 22. And people are still talking about allegations from two players in the South Carolina Republican Party that they had affairs with her.

Here is Will Folks, the blogger with a story to tell. And what a vague story it is: "Several years ago, prior to my marriage, I had an inappropriate physical relationship with Nikki." Which could just mean that he tried grab her in some inappropriate way (if you were to even credit his story that much).

Here is Larry Marchant, and his story is as fishy as the pink tie he wore to the TV interview for his 15 minutes of infamy: "I had an inappropriate physical relationship with Nikki Haley. What happened was, one time, one of those things. ... I spent the night with Ms. Haley, and we had sexual relations. We had sex."

Now we know South Carolina is a randy place, but we didn't know that phrase "inappropriate physical relationship" was in such common use down there.

And here is Nikki Haley. She is an attractive woman, even at age 38. And she helped build her mother's upscale clothing firm into a multi-million dollar company.

And I think it is pretty clear from the pictures above and below, based on our long cultural experience of what it means to be a beautiful, wealthy woman, that Nikki Haley did not have any sort of affairs with either of these two men.

Nikki Haley has been married to Michael Haley for nearly 14 years, and they have two young children. Michael is an employee with the U.S. Army and an officer in the South Carolina Army National Guard.

But women in politics seem to be fair game for all sorts of personal aspersions that would get one punched in the face or laughed out of town if aimed at a man.