I don’t understand how this happens, but it happens a lot. A candidate for office grandstands on an issue, daring the news media to check it. Reporters do, and they discover that the pol was lying. It’s ridiculous. The most infamous example was ex-Sen. Gary Hart, once a hot Presidential contender. Rumors had circulated that he had multiple sexual affairs (the rumors were true) and he responded to them by telling reporters, “Follow me around! I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’d be very bored.” So they did follow him around, discovered Donna Rice in his arms after a cruise on a yacht called “Monkey Business”[Ha-ha!] and that was the end for Gary Hart. “Why would a man who’s running for the presidency of the United States challenge a reporter to follow him to see if he was an adulterer, when he was an adulterer?” writer Gail Sheehy asked. “He had to get caught.”

The current episode involves Nikki Haley, the anointed favorite of the “We’ve got to find someone other than Donald Trump!” Republicans. It isn’t as amusing as Gary Hart’s scandal, but just as annoying. Her campaign has made an issue of her frugal and responsible ways with other people’s money, like donors and taxpayers. “As an accountant, Nikki Haley understands the importance of sticking to a budget,” Haley’s campaign told Fox News. “That’s what our campaign did, making smart decisions about staff size, TV spending and travel. The proof is in the pudding: This is now a two-person race with Nikki rising, Trump dropping and DeSantis fading fast after lighting $150 million on fire.” In emails to supporters and would-be supporters, the same theme has been echoed repeatedly. “We run a tight ship at Team Haley. Supporters like you contribute your hard-earned money to elect Nikki, and we make sure to spend that money wisely,” one email said.  “When Nikki and the team travel to New Hampshire and Iowa, they’re flying on a lot of Spirit and JetBlue flights. When they stay in hotels, they’re not staying in luxury suites, they’re staying at a lot of Residence Inns,” it added.

Another Haley campaign message email stated that the campaign wasn’t “out there renting private planes like some campaigns. You’re flying a lot of Spirit and JetBlue.” That one went on, “We’re getting you out to New Hampshire, Iowa, and wherever else you need to go with the most affordable option we can find. And when you all land, you’re driving the rest of the staff around in a rental car. You’re not staying in luxury suites. You’re staying at affordable hotels.”

Haley made the same point in her debate with DeSantis. “He (DeSantis) spent more on private planes than commercial. I flew commercial. I stayed in Residence Inns. We went and saved our money,” Haley said. “We made sure we spent it right because you have to understand it’s not your money. It’s other people’s money. And you have to know how to handle it.”

So, naturally, the New York Post checked Haley’s third-quarter disbursements filing with the Federal Election Commission , and sure enough, while the Haley campaigns did often stay in Residence Inns, it also used four- and five-star hotels, like The Breakers (above), a luxury hotel in Palm Beach, Florida (I’ve stayed there, and it’s niiiiice), the Wave Resort in Long Branch, New Jersey, the Fairmont Hotel in Texas, as well as Omnis , J.W. Marriotts and repeat stays at the Hotel Fort Des Moines, probably the most expensive hotel in Iowa.

It’s so stupid. We already know, or should, that Haley plays games with language and often isn’t saying quite what she seems to be saying (or denies that she said what she said later), but this kind of thing hints of a political death wish. Haley’s brand is built on the image that she’s smart.

But Gary Hart was supposed to be smart too.