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Next entry: Act in haste, repent at leisure Previous entry: Where Bad Meets Stupid

SC GOP official flunks sobriety test; invokes novel ‘Palin Excuse’

Wow; what a menace on the road. Paul Lindemann, a Republican Palmetto State Republican councilman racking up his third DUI arrest, shows you what “impairment” means.

As a Columbia patrol officer prepares to deliver a field sobriety test on the side of a busy downtown street, Lindemann asks if there is any way he can “just go on back to Fort Mill,” where he lives.

“No, there is not,” the officer replies.

The video, obtained by The Herald through a Freedom of Information Act request, shows Lindemann, 29, correctly reciting the alphabet until he gets to the letter W. At that point, he returns to H and then skips to other letters.

Lindemann is up for re-election, and in a moment of GOP bravado, tries to coast the Palin celebrity popularity wave with this mind-blower:

Asked about his re-election prospects, Lindemann said his bid for a second term has been helped by Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Her nomination has come under scrutiny after the revelation that her unwed 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant, and allegations that she improperly tried to have her former brother-in-law fired from his state job.

People have started to recognize that everybody who’s running for political office is as human as those sitting back home,” Lindemann said.

Well, this human doesn’t want to be anywhere near you when you’re behind the wheel.

Watch the video of the inebriated Lindemann below the fold, who was later caught driving with a suspended license.
Via Raw Story, The Charlotte Observer’s video:

He has even more trouble counting backwards from 32 to 18, stammering, “32-31-32-30—31-32-31-32-33-33—31-32-30-29—19-18-17-16-18—20-21-22.”

He is then arrested.

A month following his arrest, Lindemann was seen driving to a City Council meeting, even though his license had been suspended.  He offered the reporter who approached him a flurry of conflicting explanations for why he was allowed to drive, all of them apparently false.

The man is in need of serious help; holding public office should be the last thing on his agenda.

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Posted by Pam Spaulding on 08:31 AM • (17) Comments

“People have started to recognize that everybody who’s running for political office is as human as those sitting back home,” Lindemann said.

One more time for Roman Hruska!

(google “carswell supreme court Hruska”)

Comment #1: Ms Kate  on  09/23  at  08:41 AM

I don’t know what the law is in South Carolina, but if I were defending this guy in Michigan, I’d tell him he’s likely going to prison (not jail), and that his worries about reelection were rather moot.

Comment #2: rea  on  09/23  at  09:13 AM

Call me crazy, but I tend to hold those in public office to a higher standard than the people sitting back home, especially if they are going to be involved with making and enforcing laws.  But that’s just me.

Comment #3: speedbudget  on  09/23  at  09:15 AM

He won’t have gone The Full Palin until he defies attending an inquiry claiming it’s a partisan witchhunt and then manages to evade a courtroom with the assistance of local Republicans.

That’s the new definition of law and order…

Comment #4: MikeEss  on  09/23  at  09:28 AM

Lindemann said his bid for a second term has been helped by Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

...... did she have the officer who arrested him fired or something?

Comment #5: August J. Pollak  on  09/23  at  09:54 AM

Just back the fuck off the man, willya?

He was in a hurry to go get somebody’s teenage daughter pregnant (“the Palin Ripple”) and the cop was interfering with that effort to have more love and children in the world.

Comment #6: seeker6079  on  09/23  at  09:59 AM

I saw something about this dude last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann... I think he ranked as “Worser” on the Worst Persons in the World list.

If this toolshed actually gets re-elected, his constituents probably deserve whatever happens to them.

Comment #7: DTG in STL  on  09/23  at  10:00 AM

until he gets to the letter W. At that point, he returns to H

Freud slipping on the vino veritas:  W - W stands for Walker - wait no - should be Herbert Walker - better go to H.

Comment #8: apm  on  09/23  at  10:32 AM

GOP: the party of personal responsibility.

Comment #9: ummeli  on  09/23  at  10:53 AM

Although I admit he looks like the kind of guy you’d like to kick back and have a beer with.  Or share a keg.

Comment #10: ummeli  on  09/23  at  10:54 AM

Speedbudget-I’m right there with you. This crap about politicians being ‘regular ordinary people’ is just that-crap. Sure, they’re regular ordinary people, but they can hold the lives of a lot of people in their hand. Maybe not this particular guy, but I’d rather our elected officials have the knowledge, skills, training, and common sense required than ‘be a guy I’d drink a beer with’.

Comment #11: ohsohappy  on  09/23  at  11:00 AM

I just listened to the video while working on something else.  Man, listen to that slurring.  I know that slurring, I’ve been that slurring.  It’s the “I’m drunk, but I honestly believe myself to be sober, and am annoyed that my tongue is fumbling this so badly.”

Comment #12: seeker6079  on  09/23  at  11:22 AM

I feel his pain. I, too, have a mind-numbing moment of existential befuddlement when I get to the letter “W.”

Comment #13: Matt  on  09/23  at  11:33 AM

I’d rather our elected officials have the knowledge, skills, training, and common sense required than ‘be a guy I’d drink a beer with’.

Or seven, or twelve ...

Comment #14: Ms Kate  on  09/23  at  12:30 PM

Ms Kate: What a blast from the past! Hruska, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Mediocrity and Banal Affairs.

As for this guy, I don’t think a DUI is necessarily a deal-breaker, but three of them? Yikes. He does need help.

Comment #15: Bitter Scribe  on  09/23  at  12:44 PM

DUI is, I believe, the official State Misdemeanor of South Carolina. So he’s right, to some extent, to suggest that the voters will understand.

Comment #16: pseudonymous in nc  on  09/23  at  04:55 PM

That’s not a barely over the limit “drunk”. That’s a should have had his keys taken by the bartender or host drunk. And a single one of those is enough to be a deal-breaker.

Comment #17: Samantha Vimes  on  09/24  at  01:13 AM
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