When tax lawyer Archie Parnell came within 3 percentage points of winning a special House election in South Carolina's 5th congressional district last year, Democrats entertained serious hopes of picking up the seat in November, in a rematch of Parnell against Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.). Then last month, reporters obtained Parnell's 1974 divorce records and discovered that he had assaulted his ex-wife and threatened her with a metal bar.