As South Carolina and the nation mourned the nine victims of the tragic shooting at a Charleston church on Wednesday night, particular attention was paid to the victim who was also pastor of the historic black church: the Rev. Clementa Pinckney.
Along with being a third generation minister and pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Rev. Pinckney, 41, was also state Sen. Pinckney, an accomplished politician who had served 18 years in the South Carolina Legislature.
With his preacher's cadence and a voice that was likened to that of singer Barry White, Pinckney was considered one of the Democratic Party's brightest stars in a state Senate in which Republicans rule by a majority of 28 seats to 17.
But one fact about "Clem" Pinckney that was little noted in the national press was how the liberal Democrat from the Charleston area worked closely with Republicans.
"He was always reaching out to the other side of the aisle, and when it came to his political opposites, he had the heart of Jesus," former Republican Gov. David Beasley told Newsmax on Thursday, shortly before a memorial for the victims.
Beasley's opinion was echoed by Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., whose 1st District was the site of the shooting and who befriended Pinckney while serving as governor of the Palmetto State from 2003 to 2011. Pointing out how Pinckney, a Democrat, reached out and listened to some of the most conservative Republicans, Sanford told us: "He was someone of amazing grace."
Several Republicans who spoke to Newsmax recalled how Pinckney, in the wake of the shooting by North Charleston police earlier this year of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, became a vigorous advocate of body cameras for police officers and sought support from conservative Republicans in the state Senate.
Among the Republicans Pinckney worked closely with were fellow Sens. John Courson, who got his political start working with the late GOP National Chairman Lee Atwater in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, and Katrina Shealy, who was elected to the Senate with the support of conservative then-Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., in 2012 and ousted a more centrist Republican.
"I liked Sen. Pinckney very much and he was very supportive of my nomination to be a member of the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission," said Mike Campbell, son of the late Republican Gov. Carroll Campbell and a top South Carolina operative in Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign.
A spokesman for State Attorney General and conservative Republican Alan Wilson told Newsmax that Pinckney "was very helpful to our office last year on legislation to support Israel and combat nuclear proliferation in Iran that became the Iran Divestment Bill."
Former Republican Lt. Gov. Yancey McGill, who served with Pinckney in the Senate, may have put it most succinctly about his late friend: "Where others saw opposition, he saw opportunity."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax.
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