Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009

Bob Bestler | What I miss about politics

Looking at the current state of Horry County politics, I'm starting to think I retired too soon.

Two Myrtle Beach mayoral candidates are arrested. One later drops out of the race. The other - Bea Catalano - faces charges of driving under the influence.

The mayor of Atlantic Beach spends a night in jail and also faces a DUI charge.

The chairman of the Horry County Council drives around on a suspended license one day, then is stopped for speeding another day.

Up in my old hometown of North Myrtle Beach, the mayor runs for re-election, but her husband and son receive all the publicity - none of it good.

And then there's the Horry County school board guy charged with embezzlement and the Conway PTO chairman accused of threatening university students with a gun.

Gosh, I miss that stuff. For a columnist, these people are gifts that keep on giving.

You can contrast their shenanigans with the situation down here in Mayberry,er, I mean McClellanville, where things are so quiet we actually canceled our Nov. 3 election.

The village has a mayor and four council members running unopposed. So why bother? Just costs money and, worse, takes away from our fishing and our golf and our lawn duties.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Rut Leland has been mayor more than 30 years. Why change now? Besides, who would vote against him? Not me.

I'm a newcomer, but just a few weeks ago, when my water pump went out, I happened to run into Rut, who lives down the street.

I made a passing mention of my water problem and said I was fixing to call a plumber.

"Oh, yeah, that's right, you're from the city," he said. "Come on, I'll show you what to do. I've got three water pumps."

We went over to my house and in about 10 seconds the mayor had the pump purring.

I wonder if Mark McBride would do that?

Safire fanfare

A Surfside Beach caller said that as they watched the news about William Safire's death, his 30-year-old daughter asked who Safire was.

"He was a famous columnist," he replied.

"You mean like Bob Bestler?" she said.

"I guess you could say that."

Yeah, except for the money and the celebrity and the influence and all the books.