S.C. Rep. David Mack: Tea Party an extreme third party

CHARLESTON - S.C. House Rep. David Mack, III, (D-Charleston County) spoke to the West Ashley Democrats during the group's monthly meeting Tuesday.

He told the group it, and the political left in general, has a lot of work to do to convince South Carolina voters to back Democrats for elective offices locally and statewide.

"South Carolina is confused," Mack said. "Poor South Carolina is a red state, it just doesn't make any sense."

Mack covered several topics in the half-hour or so that he spoke, including the debt ceiling, noting it has been raised more than 70 times since 1962 when it was instituted to control spending; the Tea Party, which he said is driving the Republican party to the extreme right; the S.C. voter identification bill, which he said resulted from "too many black, brown and poor people voting" in the 2008 election, not any voter fraud which he also said was nonexistent in the state; and the poor record of the Democratic Party in getting its message out to voters.