Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011

Haley inauguration brings new start

TODAY, THE nation will be watching the inauguration of Nikki Haley because she’s the first Indian-American woman to become a governor, only the second Indian-American and the first female governor of the state that has the hardest time of any electing women. Some will watch because she’s seen as a rising star of the national Republican Party. Some will watch because of all the intrigue from her campaign. Some simply because she’s an attractive woman.

None of that matters in South Carolina. What matters in South Carolina is that we get a new start, which we desperately need.

We could fill this page with a litany of the problems facing our state — some new, as the result of the recession, some that have lingered for years or decades. Few will be solved without the cooperation of the governor and the Legislature; that has been lacking for eight years. Many will require bold, courageous leadership that looks past the next election to a future after today’s leaders are a vague memory; that has been lacking for longer than most people can recall.

Will Nikki Haley provide either? We long have worried that she might not. But inaugurations are about promise and hopes, not doubts and fears. Since her election, Ms. Haley has shown some promising signs. She has made some outstanding appointments, most notably retired Family Court Judge Bill Byars to lead the troubled Corrections Department after the amazing work he did turning around the Department of Juvenile Justice.

She has demonstrated a deft hand on prickly policy issues, for instance with her non-threatening announcement that she had instructed the new directors of Juvenile Justice, Corrections and Probation — agencies she already controls — to work together on a plan for merging their departments.

Most significantly, she has reached out to legislators, who will determine how much she accomplishes, meeting publicly and privately with them, declining opportunities to take offense at what some might see as slaps, and making it clear that she wants to work with them in the way governors traditionally have, rather than against them.

Some of Ms. Haley’s supporters say she shouldn’t work with the Legislature, and in fact have implied that she might quickly lose favor if she does, because it’s politically corrupt; his refusal to do so endeared outgoing Gov. Mark Sanford to some people. Anyone who feels that way obviously does not care about the future of our state.

We have tremendous problems that will not be solved by doing nothing. The good things that Ms. Haley promised will not be accomplished if she does not work with the Legislature. (Neither will the bad things, but that’s no reason for those who dislike her to obstruct the good.) No, you don’t compromise principle, but neither do you pick fights.

Legislative leaders, many of whom would have preferred a different governor, so far seem to be receptive to her overtures. They need to continue. They need to give her the benefit of the doubt, to find ways to work together to make our state what we all want it to be: a good, safe place to live and raise a family, where our children can find good careers and want to make a life, where businesses want to locate and expand. There are legitimate differences of opinion about how we get there, but we never will reach our destination unless our political leaders — and indeed, all of us — focus on the goal, rather than figuring out how to make the governor or the House or the Senate or Republicans or Democrats or any other “enemies” look bad.

Today, we have an opportunity to start over with that perspective. Let us not squander it.

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