Source: Sen. Lee Bright's Facebook page.

Rep. Michele Bachmann announced Tuesday that her presidential campaign chairman in South Carolina, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired, is state Sen. Lee Bright, who has made comments about secession and introduced a bill to study whether the state should start printing its own currency.

“Michele Bachmann is the candidate who doesn’t just give lip service to conservative principles but actively lives them out every day,” Bright said in a statement. “She is the conservative who has been consistent in her record and her rhetoric.”

Bright introduced his bill to study the creation of a new South Carolina currency earlier this session. The resolution argues that the right to print currency can flow from the state’s constitutional police powers.

“[M]any widely recognized experts predict the inevitable destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency through hyperinflation in the foreseeable future,” the resolution reads. ”[I]n the event of hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System, for which the state is not prepared, the state’s governmental finances and private economy will be thrown into chaos, with gravely detrimental effects upon the lives, health, and property of South Carolina’s citizens, and with consequences fatal to the preservation of good order throughout the state.”

If passed, the legislation would appoint a subcommittee to come up with a plan for an alternative currency.

“South Carolina can avoid or at least mitigate many of the economic, social, and political shocks to be expected to arise from hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System only through the timely adoption of an alternative sound currency that the state’s government and citizens may employ without delay in the event of the destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency,” according to the resolution.

It was last year that Bright played a major role in helping to pass a non-binding, but contentious, affirmation of South Carolina’s sovereignty under the U.S. Constitution.

“If at first you don’t secede, try again,” Bright joked to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal after the sovereignty bill’s passage. ”I think all of our rights are under assault, but assault on the 9th and 10th amendments is the most egregious.”

Bachmann’s backing for the greenback comes barely a day after she demonstrated a loose grip on how the legislative and executive branches of government derive their authority from the U.S. Constitution during her questioning of Geithner at a House committee Tuesday.

One line of Bachmann’s interrogation concerned signals that China and other countries want an alternative to the U.S. dollar as the money most countries use for their reserves. As Bachmann observers far and wide are remarking, changing the United States’ currency isn’t on the table.

Yet concern that the dollar could disappear appears to have inspired Bachmann’s initiative, which has so far attracted 29 Congressional co-sponsors.

John Dugan (Photo: Harry Connolly)

… [C]urrent market disruptions have clouded the accomplishments that CRA has generated, many of which we recognized last year during its 30th anniversary. There are even some who suggest that CRA is responsible for the binge of irresponsible subprime lending that ignited the credit crisis we now face. Let me squarely respond to this suggestion: I categorically disagree. While not perfect, CRA has made a positive contribution to community revitalization across the country and has generally encouraged sound community development lending, investment, and service initiatives by regulated banking organizations. CRA is not the culprit behind the subprime mortgage lending abuses, or the broader credit quality issues in the marketplace. Indeed, the lenders most prominently associated with subprime mortgage lending abuses and high rates of foreclosure are lenders not subject to CRA.

Dugan, a 2005 Bush appointee, also served the Department of Treasury under the first President Bush, and was Republican general counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. His remarks (full transcript) came during the Economic Community Partners annual meeting in Baltimore.